Offside

“I bet you do.” She turned her gaze from my arm and met my eyes again. “I don't like it, Thomas. You can't just lash out and threaten people when you get mad.”

“I don't,” I said. Even as the words left my mouth, I knew it wasn't really true. “I mean…not every time.”

“Most of the time,” she amended. I could tell by the tone in her voice she wasn't going to back down any more than that.

“Sometimes I have to,” I said.

“Why?”

“I'm not going to let anyone talk shit about you,” I told her. “I said I'd protect you, and I will.”

“That doesn't mean beating people up and shoving them into lockers.”

“He learned to keep his mouth shut, didn't he?”

“That is not the point.”

“Yeah,” I corrected, “it is. That was the goal—to shut Clint's ass up, and it did. He knows better now, and so does everyone else. What did you expect me to do, tell him to ‘please stop’ and expect that to work?”

“That doesn't mean you have to get violent!”

“What else am I supposed to do?”

“Well, what did you do to Crystal? You didn't hit her, did you?”

“Um…no.” I looked away again. I really didn't want to go there. After I didn't say anything else, Nicole prompted me to elaborate. “I just…took care of it another way.”

“Did you threaten her?”

I shrugged again since I was getting so good at it.

“How?” she pushed.

“You really don't want to know,” I informed her.

“You are only making my point, you know.”

“What is your point?” I asked.

“I don't want you to hit people anymore,” she said, “or threaten them.”

She took another deep breath and dropped her eyes back to her fingers where the fiddled with my shirt sleeve.

“It reminds me of…of…” She didn’t finish the sentence.

“Him?” I whispered.

Nicole nodded.

I looked at her eyes and tried to figure out just exactly what I was supposed to do. I told her I would protect her, and I wasn't going to back down—not from that. I wasn't going to put up with anyone giving her any kind of grief for anything. Not Clint, not Crystal, not anyone.

But I didn't want to remind her of that guy in Minneapolis, either. I definitely did not want that, but what else could I do to make sure she was safe? What could I do to keep her happy here?

“I said I'd make everything okay for you,” I reminded her. “How else am I supposed to do that?”

“You already do,” she said softly.

Now I was really confused.