He’s out of his mind. Totally crazy.
Her arm bent further, pushing her to the floor. Adrenaline surged through her system as she watched for an opportunity to fight back. His weight fell on her back, trapping one arm beneath her and squeezing the air from her lungs.
With her arms pinned, she could only flail about, the clunky boot on her foot impeding her efforts. Then his weight shifted. He flipped her over and trapped both arms over her head, sending stabbing agony to her shoulders. Her legs were still trapped, but her mouth and lungs were free.
One deep breath later, she screamed for all she was worth and prayed Laurie would call nine-one-one. When his hand clamped over her mouth, she opened her jaw as wide as possible. A finger slipped inside, and she bit, hard. He answered with a shriek of pain, his wild eyes growing even wider. Something that felt like a chunk of lead impacted the side of her head and, for a second, she saw stars.
All at once, his weight lifted, and he gave a yelp of surprise. His body tumbled sideways to the floor. In his place stood Branson, chest heaving, expression dark with fury.
“Mommy! Mommy!” Ellie bounded over and fell to her knees beside Stephanie, tears streaking her face.
Steph scooted and crawled, backing as far as possible away from Jeff, who was already climbing to his feet, his cheeks red, veins pulsing on the side of his face.
Hopefully, Jeff would take one look at Bran, with his formidable height and bulging muscles, and decide to make a run for it.
“What’s wrong? Afraid to fight someone your own size?” Bran jeered. “One of those guys who beats up on women because he’s too chicken to fight a real man?”
“Bran. No.” He was taunting an insane man. He could get himself killed.
As she backed against the wall, Steph maneuvered onto her feet, a difficult task with her air cast in place. She whispered in Ellie’s ear and sent her running for help.
“Are you the guy who’s been sleeping with my slutty wife?” Jeff gave a harsh laugh as he marched up to Branson, giving
him the once over. “Believe me, she’s not worth fighting over.”
“Maybe I disagree.”
Bran stood like a target, a sitting duck, hands at his side. Stephanie didn’t know what to do. If Jeff beat him up, it would be her fault.
Relaxed and smiling, Jeff shook his index finger at Stephanie. “I’ll come back to you in a minute, babe.”
In a blink, Jeff’s head snapped backwards, and his body teetered, tilting to the rear. Then, Branson sent a side kick to his belly, and he folded, landing with a thud.
Bran rubbed the knuckles on his right hand. “No, you won’t.”
Steph tiptoed closer to Jeff’s unmoving body, wary that he might jump up at any minute, brandishing a knife or a gun, as in every action movie she’d ever seen. From a distance of ten feet, she could see his chest rise and fall and decided she’d come far enough.
“I can’t believe you knocked him out. He’s alive, though.” She fanned herself with her hand, pushing her sleeves up to her elbows. “I was so scared when he got close to you. I thought he might kill you. Why did you taunt him like that?”
“Thanks for the ego boost. Thought, after all this time, you wouldn’t expect so little from me, just because I’m blind.” His eyebrows knitted together, and his jaw flexed. “If you really want to know, taunting makes an opponent talk. It’s a lot easier to hit my target while he’s speaking, especially if I’m aiming for his chin.”
“Oh. Right. Uhmm… makes sense.” The complete awkwardness of the entire situation settled in. Other than sending a single text asking for “space,” she’d ignored Branson’s attempts at communication. In an effort to avoid him at all costs, she’d located a short-term, low-rent sublease in Monee, a suburb of Chicago, where the three of them could stay until she made arrangements to go to New York. That was assuming everything worked out with Finn, whom she hadn’t yet contacted.
Now she felt like a complete heel, even though she’d pushed him away for his own good. She didn’t even know if he’d come down with the stomach virus. The last two nights, she’d laid awake with nothing but Branson on her mind. When morning came she would crawl out of bed, splash water on her face, and struggle through the day, explaining away her bloodshot eyes and dark circles as a cold. From the way Laurie reacted, pressing her lips together and watching her with a sympathetic gaze, Steph assumed she wasn’t buying the excuse.
As if I didn’t owe Branson enough already, he went and saved my life, or at least saved me from a horrible experience. I have to say something.
“Thanks for… coming to my rescue. Thought I could handle him, but he’s never been like that before. Maybe he was on something.”
His expression softened. “Stephanie, I—”
“Dang-it!” Laurie galloped into the room, past Stephanie and Bran, until she reached Jeff’s crumpled form. “I missed it.”
Chapter 22
Branson’s fingers had scanned the same line at least ten times. He still couldn’t make his brain concentrate on what he was reading. How could he get any work done, knowing Stephanie was moving out of the estate today? Even worse, he was scheduled to meet with Carina later that afternoon, and he wasn’t ready. She’d lied about the Parker-Aston stocks and slipped drugs into his drink, which certainly justified breaking off the marriage. Bran was convinced Carina was somehow involved in a plot with his father, though he hadn’t found any evidence to support his theory.
He jumped when his cell phone rang.