Cold State Line

Rage like I had never felt before coursed through my body. I couldn't believe that someone would hurt a woman. To me, rape was a worse sin than murder. If I could, I would find every rapist and sexual assualter, I would castrate them. So seeing a woman I was developing feelings for hurt and scared made me want to go kill someone.

"Who did this, Haylee?"

"Clay," she said it so softly I wasn't actually sure I'd heard it.

My fists balled. I was totally going to kill him, but first I needed to take care of Haylee. I cleaned off her blood and put some cold water on her bruise, handing her a glass of water to take a pain killer. She was in a haze, unable to see anything but her pain.

"Haylee," I said, trying not to touch her. "Do you want me to kick his ass?"

That snapped her out of her stupor. Her eyes blazed and she stared me in the eyes. I could see everything behind those eyes. Haylee was upset but more than that, she was pissed as fuck. It was like a fire was set under her ass, and a fury unlike anything I'd ever seen burst out of her.

"Yes, I do." The tears stopped. "Just don't get arrested."

A smirk crossed my face. "Don't worry, babe. Please stay here?"

Haylee nodded and laid down on my bed. She curled into one of my pillows and sighed. Haylee was exhausted. I left her and headed down the hall, letting my original anger and fury bubble out of my body.

Knocking on Clay's tour, I thought about how Haylee had appeared to me earlier. Every untoward feeling I had for Clay came out. The longer I stood waiting for him, the angrier I got. Finally, the door opened and I barged inside, slamming it behind me.

Clay raised an eyebrow at me but his face quickly transformed to shock. I think he could sense the anger in me. It was probably written all over my face. I wanted to kill him like I'd never wanted to do before.

"Something wrong, Marcus?" He tried to go for nonchalant, but I wasn't having any of his bullshit.

"Did you hit Haylee?" I tried to say it calmly, but it was like another person possessed me. I was growling like I did on Waking the Fallen.

"That's between me and Haylee."

I lost it. Any ounce of control I had left. My fist was in his stomach before I could even think. Clay huffed but shot up. I forgot he rode bulls and was in just as good as shape as me. He punched me in the face, and I let go.

Tackling him, I pinned Clay down and started throwing punches like I was Ralphie in A Christmas Story. Blood spurted out of his nose, but I didn't stop. There was a piece of me that genuinely thought I was going to kill him

Clay's arms were up, trying to protect his face. I had broken his nose, for sure. As I started to pound on his ribs, the door opened and several arms grabbed me, pulling me off the little prick.

"What the fuck, Matthew?" Papa Gates voice hit my brain, and all the fight I had left in me drained out. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"He hit Haylee." That was all they needed to hear. Papa Gates, Brian, and Jimmy grabbed Clay and pulled him out of the room. Gates Senior was even less of a fan of woman abuse than I was. He would not take it, not in his house.

"You need to calm down before you do anything else," Johnny said. I can't believe the gnome was the voice of reason. "Brian is gonna call the police and get an EMT here. You fucked him up, Matt."

"He hit Haylee." It was like my brain was on repeat. I still wanted to hurt Clay. "He hit my girl."

Notes

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