a gunning engine and screeching tires stopping just short of ramming the back end of Amanda’s car hadn’t yanked him out of his lust-fueled daze.
“I knew you were seeing someone!” Tina shouted as she jumped out of her SUV. “I knew it. Did you fool around with your little whore in front of Julie?”
Jacob instinctively shifted Amanda behind his back to shield her from Tina’s wrath. He could feel Amanda trembling as she clung to his shirt with both hands.
“Hi, Aunt Mander!” Julie called from inside the car.
Tina stopped in her tracks, her furious gaze shifting from Jacob’s face to the car parked in the driveway. Her jaw dropped, and for a minute Jacob was certain her head would explode as her face turned from a shocking red to a violent purple.
“You’re sleeping with my sister?” Tina blurted. “My sister?”
“It’s none of your business,” Jacob said calmly. His belly was churning itself into a massive knot of anxiety, and he was pretty sure Amanda was going to shake herself to pieces if she didn’t stop trembling so hard behind him, but what he did with Amanda wasn’t Tina’s business. He refused to deny what was going on between the two of them just to make Tina happy.
Tina’s arm shot out, her fingers bent into vicious claws. Jacob threw up an arm in defense, but Tina didn’t grab him. She went after Amanda.
“How could you?” Tina screeched, yanking Amanda out from behind Jacob.
“Ow!” Amanda protested, throwing off Tina’s hold before Jacob could intervene. “Calm down.”
“I’m not going to calm down,” Tina yelled. “I’m going to fucking kill you.”
Amanda stepped back to avoid an incoming blow. Jacob didn’t understand why Tina was attacking Amanda and not him. He tried to catch Tina’s flailing arms to prevent her from hurting someone.
“Will you stop?” Jacob said, grabbing Tina’s left wrist in an iron grip. He trapped her right arm against her side as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. She struggled against him, lifted one leg, pressed her foot against the door of Amanda’s car and shoved. Jacob had to take a couple of steps to regain his balance, but he didn’t release her. “Have you lost your mind?”
“How can you do this to me?” Tina railed at Amanda, who’d taken a defensive stance with her back against her car, her arms in front of her body and her hands clenched into loose fists. “You know I still love him!”
Jacob was so stunned, his grip went slack. Tina immediately launched herself toward Amanda.
“If you hit me, I will hit you back,” Amanda warned as she slid sideways around the hood of the car. She obviously didn’t want to fight, but Jacob was glad she didn’t plan to take a beating lying down.
“And what do you mean you still love him?” Amanda yelled. “You hate his guts. You just don’t want me to have him. You never want me to have anyone.”
Tina shook her head, her silky blond hair dancing around her shoulders. “I only hate him because I still love him so much. I don’t want to love him. But you, you can’t have him! I’ll kill you before I’ll let you.”
“Do I have a say in this?” Jacob asked, wondering if he still had water in his ears from swimming and was hearing everything entirely wrong. Tina loved him? She had a strange way of showing it.
“You know you’re with her because you still want me,” Tina said, taking another swing at Amanda, who proved to be quite good at dodging blows. Jacob wondered if the sisters had turned to physical violence in the past. “Why be with a poor substitute when you can have the real thing?”
“Actually, I have no desire to be with you at all, Tina,” Jacob said. “I’ve been trying to get Amanda to tell you we were involved, but she was afraid you’d freak out, so we decided to keep it a secret.”
“I told you she’d freak out. She hates to lose to me more than anything,” Amanda said and then she narrowed her eyes at her sister. “But you lost, Tina. Jacob is mine now.”
Amanda wasn’t quite quick enough to avoid Tina when she launched herself over the hood of the car and tackled her to the ground.
“You, bitch,” Tina snarled, battering any inch of Amanda she could connect with.
Jacob grabbed Tina around the waist and tried to pull her kicking, punching, screaming body off Amanda, but Tina grabbed handfuls of Amanda’s hair and refused to let go. Gritting her teeth, Amanda slapped Tina across the face, sending her head flying back to connect hard with Jacob’s shoulder. If anything, Amanda’s slap pissed off Tina even more. She yanked Amanda’s hair so hard, Jacob feared she’d rip it all out.
“Let me go!” Amanda kicked at her sister, but couldn’t reach her without scalping herself.
“Stop this,” Jacob demanded, squeezing Tina’s wrists until she cried out and the strength went out of her grip. Free at last, Amanda scrambled to her feet.
The sisters glared at each other like a pair of wolverines. Jacob was sure they’d tear into each other again if he released Tina’s wrists.
“You should go,” he said to Amanda. There was no way he’d be able to calm Tina down as long as Amanda was there.
“What about Julie?” Amanda asked.
Now that the two women had stopped screaming, Jacob could hear Julie wailing inside the SUV. He turned and peered in at her through the windshield. Julie’s face was streaked red, her eyes were overflowing with tears, and she wasn’t simply crying, she was sobbing. This was not something a child should witness. Hell, this wasn’t something he should witness. He’d known Tina would be upset, but the woman was practically insane with irrationality. She couldn’t take care of a defenseless child in her current state of mind.
“Take her with you,” Jacob said to Amanda, who nodded and rushed for the back door of the SUV.
“If you fucking touch her,” Tina railed, “I’ll have you arrested for kidnapping.”
“And I’ll have you arrested for assault,” Amanda shot back before opening the car door.
“Why are you fighting?” Julie shrieked. “Why are you fighting with my mommy?”
“Shh, it’s okay Julie Bean,” Amanda said. “I’m going to take you to see Grandma.”
“I want my daddy!” Her piercing scream was like an ice pick to Jacob’s heart.
“I’ll see you soon, princess,” he said as Amanda lifted her out of the car. “Go with Aunt Mander. I need to talk to your mom.”
“I’m not talking to you, you fucking imbecile,” Tina said. “You’d better let me go.”
“I’ll let you go when you calm down.”
“I’m not going to calm down, you piece of shit. I said let me go!” Tina wrenched her wrist from his grasp and immediately started swinging her free fist. He backed away, but not before catching a sharp blow to the temple. The enormous diamond on her finger scraped his flesh as she pulled back to hit him again. The open wound stung as blood welled to the surface and trickled down his face. Jacob struggled to keep his grip on Tina’s other wrist while fending off her attack with his free hand. She was a lot stronger than she looked, he decided as he tried to contain her fury without knocking her out.
“Daddy!” Julie screamed as Amanda tried to get her struggling body into her car. “You’re bleeding. Daddy!”
With his attention diverted, Tina landed another sharp blow to his collarbone before he finally caught her hand.
“Stop this,” he said. “You’re upsetting Julie. What do you think hitting me will accomplish?”
“I want to hurt you as much as you’ve hurt me,” Tina growled, yanking on her arm.
“I’ve never hit you,” Jacob said. “Never.”
“God, you’re stupid.”