The Ruckus

He glared at her for several long seconds, his nostrils flaring with each quick, shallow breath he took. Finally, thankfully, he turned and stomped out the door without another word.

Micah placed a hand on my shoulder, and Axel gave me a reassuring touch on the small of my back. “What are we going to do now?” I asked my mom. I nodded toward Randy without actually looking in his direction. “What will we do with him? You can’t watch him by yourself.”

She smirked. “Does it look like he’s going anywhere? Your uncle has that poor man tied up like a rodeo calf. I’m perfectly capable of keeping an eye on him until the sheriff gets here.”

“You’re sure?” Micah asked, fixing Randy with a dark look. “Because I won’t mind beating the hell out of him if he even looks like he’s going to cause any trouble.”

“Ditto,” Axel nodded. “We owe him a few good hits, as far as I’m concerned.”

Mom waved them off. “Y’all go back to bed. Don’t worry about me—and you sure don’t have to worry about this guy. Everything is under control.”

I considered asking again, to be sure, but Mom’s insistence convinced me otherwise. Instead, I took Axel and Micah by their hands and led them back down the hallway to my bedroom. “Thanks, Mom,” I called over my shoulder. “Love you.”

“Love you, too, sweetie. It’s good to have you back.”

I had to smile. Because yeah, even though it was only temporary, it was good to be back home.

“We should go back out and check on her in a little while,” Micah said once we were back inside my room. “Not that I don’t think she can handle herself or anything, but—”

“She can definitely handle herself,” I laughed. “You’ve never seen my mom when she’s truly pissed off yet.”

“I don’t know,” Axel smirked. “She seemed pretty pissed at your uncle a few minutes ago.”

“Nope.” I shook my head. “That was only the tip of the iceberg. I honestly feel sorry for Randy if he decides to try anything stupid. She’ll be able to shoot him and claim self-defense a lot easier than my uncle would have.”

“You have a point there,” Micah said. “Still, it won’t hurt to peek out there every so often.”

I liked that he was worried about my mom. And I didn’t blame him. Randy had already shown that he could be dangerous and ruthless—potentially deadly if given a chance.

We had to make sure he didn’t get any more chances.

The three of us moved to my bed, sprawling across the entire mattress with me in between the two of them, just the way I liked it.

“Has your uncle always acted like that?” Axel asked quietly. “Toward you and your mom, I mean. Always so...”

“So shitty?” I finished for him. “He used to be worse, believe it or not.”

“I can believe it,” Micah said quietly. “You can just tell from looking at him that he has a lot of pent-up anger.”

“Pent-up anger doesn’t even begin to describe how awful he is,” I sighed, lying back and staring up at the ceiling as I remembered all the nights I’d done the very same thing in the very same bed. “I used to lay right here and cry myself to sleep,” I said. “I promised myself so many times that I would get away from this place the first chance I got, and that’s exactly what I did.”

“Was he ever...” Axel swallowed hard. “Physically violent?”

Both of their hands were still entwined in mine, and I felt both of them tense up at the same time.

“Fuck,” Micah exhaled. “Please tell me he wasn’t.”

“He would spank me,” I said. “Hard. And he would yell at me all the time—telling me how worthless I was and how I’d never make it on my own without him and my mom to help me out all the time. It was a lot.”

“Jesus,” Axel muttered. “I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not. Not after how he acted tonight.”

“And the way he acted when he drove up on us in the rain before,” Micah added. “I’m not surprised, either.”

I was pretty sure everyone in town could have agreed that my uncle was an asshole, but it was more complicated than that. His bad behavior and worse attitude hadn’t only affected my relationship with him.

“The thing I regret about leaving home like I did,” I continued, “is that I let my hard feelings about my uncle damage my relationship with my mom. I won’t ever get back the time that I could have spent with her over the past few years, but I will do better in the future. I’m going to spend more time here in Covington.”

“That’s good news,” Micah said, leaning over to kiss the side of my forehead.

“Does that mean you’ll be spending more time with us, too?” Axel asked. “Not to be greedy; I know your mom comes first. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see you as much as possible.”