Page 226 of The Path to Loving Him
But I don’t.
I pick him up again, the pathetic man that he is, and I reach back, wanting to hear his skull crack when two strong arms pull me away and hold me back as the man falls to the ground.
“Let me the fuck go,” I yell as I attempt to get free, my eyes lasered in on the man whose face is bleeding.
“Stop,” Wyatt says into my ear. “Fucking stop. You’re scaring her.”
That makes me pause. I’m about to ask who I’m scaring when out of the corner of my eye, I see Mac, clinging to Aubree, tears flowing down her cheeks . . . fucking shaking.
Oh fuck.
Realization sets in.
She saw that.
She saw all of that.
She saw what I saw as a child, an angry man using his fists rather than his words.
“Mac,” I say, moving forward, but she hides away from me, using Aubree’s legs to block her.
Immediately, a lump grows in my throat, but I don’t have much time to think about it as the man who’s kneeling on the floor, holding his bleeding face says, “I’m pressing charges.”
“The fuck you are,” Bennett says, stepping up. He pulls Gabby into his side.
“Aubree, get Mac out of here,” Wyatt says, still holding on to me.
I watch as Aubree lifts Mac into her arms, her cotton candy now on the ground, and they walk away. It’s a scene that splits me in half. This was supposed to be fun for her, but she’s leaving, crying, and unable to even look me in the eyes.
“What’s going on here?” a policeman says, stepping up to the circle around us.
“He attacked me,” the man says.
I know I should defend myself.
I know I should say I was protecting my girl, but all I can think about is Mac and the fear in her eyes when she looked at me. I’m devastated.Icaused that fear.
The same fucking fear that my sisters felt.
The same fear I had to live with day in and day out.
“Ryland, did you attack him?” When I look up and see that it’s Earl, the sheriff, talking to me, I just nod. “Dammit, Ryland,” he says, moving behind me.
“Hold on,” Gabby says, stepping up to Earl. “He didn’t attack him for no reason. He was saving me. That’s my ex-boyfriend, and he stalked me.” My eyes flash to the man on the ground.
That’s Nathan?
That’s fucking Nathan?
“I don’t know what Nathan would have done if Ryland wasn’t there to help me.”
Earl glances over at Nathan. “Is that true? Did you touch her without her consent?”
“Yes,” Gabby says while Nathan says no.
I just stand there, defeated.
Depleted.
