Smash!
Beep! Beep! Beep!
He jumped to his feet, sending the empty beer bottles clattering to the ground all around him. He ran out the door barefoot. His body pulsed with adrenaline. Every nerve was on edge. He was ready for a fight. He was going to catch his tormentor once and for all.
He yanked the door open and ran across the fresh snow, not even registering the cold as his eyes focused on the hooded figure wielding a wooden bat. Not my truck again! The perp swung, smashing his other headlight as Bently increased his speed and tackled him with full force to the ground.
“Oomf!”
“You sick fucker! I got you, you piece of shit!” Bently wrestled the bat free, as the person underneath him staggered to suck in a pained breath. Rage coated his insides. This was the one who’d broken his windshield before. The same asshole who killed a pig and left the message written in blood. The same one who had been following him and Belle. Why?
“Get off me!” the young man yelled.
“Not a chance in hell.” Bently ground the perp’s head into the asphalt and pushed his arms behind his back until he groaned in pain. Broken glass glittered in the moonlight all around them.
“What I want to know, is WHY?” Bently ripped off the back of his hood and froze. Shock shivered through his body as he looked into the familiar face. Horror filled him as his stomach tipped and convulsed. No.
“It was you? All along, you’re the one who’s been following me? You left that message and killed the pig? You attacked me outside the bar?” His grip tightened as he yanked TJ up. Blood dripped down his face from the cut and embedded glass below his right eye. Neighbors’ lights flicked on as his car alarm continued to beep.
“No!” TJ shook his head. “None of that was me.”
“Why would you do this? I thought we were friends, TJ,” Bently said in disbelief.
“I thought we were too. But you just used me to get to Belle,” TJ grit out as he took a swing at Bently’s face.
Bently evaded the maneuver and locked TJ’s hands behind his back. “No, I didn’t. That wasn’t . . .” He struggled to find the words.
The fury emanating off TJ reminded him a lot of himself. This boy was fighting to protect the only woman who had ever cared about him. He couldn’t fault a kid for doing what Bently had promised to do before he’d fucked it all up.
“You’re worse than the asshole who used her, kept her like a fucking slave in exchange for me to have a roof over my head and food in my belly. At least he was honest about what he wanted from her,” TJ spat.
He staggered backwards, the earth tilting. Violence slammed into him, filling his rigid muscles with bloodlust. He wanted to kill the fucker who had done that to Belle. But wasn’t he just as bad? He’d promised to be there for her and then he’d left her after she’d shared her vulnerability.
“Let’s go,” Bently grated.
“You going to read me my rights now, Sheriff?” TJ asked, chin up, the young man ready to face the repercussions for avenging his sister.
“No, we’re going to take you to the hospital and get you stitched up,” Bently said.
TJ’s eyes widened.
“Despite what you believe, I never tried to use you to get to her.”
He’d also never intended to put her in danger.
Chapter 37
Bently
Bently leaned against the wall in the corner of the emergency room as Doctor Burton put the last stitch under TJ’s eye.
The curtain yanked open as Belle ran into the room, halting as soon as her eyes focused on her brother.
Bently’s heart squeezed as the ache he’d grown accustomed to since she’d been out of his life became overwhelming. The air was ripped from his lungs merely by her presence.
Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. Her face was a mixture of fear and shock. She covered her mouth with her hand as she stepped closer to her brother.
“TJ?” Her voice was like a plea. Like she was asking him to tell her this was all a dream.
“I’ll give you a few minutes,” Doctor Burton said, before glancing to Bently and leaving the room.
“What happened? Where are you hurt?” Belle asked, holding her brother’s face in her hands, inspecting him.
Regret flitted through TJ’s features before he looked at Bently. Belle stiffened and turned, her eyes meeting his for the first time.
Her mouth opened and closed like a fish as realization flashed in her gaze. “You did this?”
He remained silent. His mind reeled with a thousand things he wanted to say to her, but none of them were set free.
She lifted a trembling hand to her chest as she staggered back, putting herself between him and TJ. She was looking at him like he was a monster, like he had done this on purpose. He was paralyzed with regret. A lifetime of paying penance, of punishing himself for not being enough weighed on him. Say something!
“Why?” she croaked.
“I busted up his truck,” TJ confessed.
Belle’s head snapped to her brother. Her shoulders rose as her eyes narrowed. “You did what?”
TJ looked down ashamedly.
“I raised you better than this, Thomas Nigel Jones! You . . .” She staggered back, her words stuck as she crumpled to the floor.
Bently stepped forward, reaching towards her, his instincts overriding his fear. The need to comfort, to take some of her burden, drawing his lead feet towards her. His fingers grazed her shoulder as she flinched away from him. Her eyes were a mixture of betrayal, confusion, and fury.
“Don’t touch me,” she growled like a wounded animal.
He held up his hands and backed away. He’d thought the pain when he told her to leave had been the worst thing he’d ever seen, but
