Page 176 of Saving the Halfback

I brought the bat back and threw it into the mirror over and over until I started going through drywall. From outside, Pops barked constantly. Not stopping. Never stopping.

I was the cause of this whole mess.

I hadn’t heard the door open, but I heard Nolan curse before he grabbed the bat, ripping it from my hands and tossing it across the room. “Bailey, stop!” He wrapped his arms around me, lifting me out of the glass and setting me on the window seat. I don’t know what he saw in me, but one glance into my eyes had him pressing his lips together in a hard line.

Nolan looked down at my feet and sighed. They were covered in blood, my bedroom floor smeared with blood and glass.

“Do you have a first aid kit?” he asked.

“What does it matter?”

Nolan shook his head. “Bailey, we will find her. She’s going to be unharmed, untouched.”

“And if she’s not?”

He cupped my cheek. “He picked the wrong family. We’re not going to stop, ever.”

I took a deep breath. “The first aid kit is in the bathroom under the sink.”

I leaned my head against the window, watching Pops pace around the fence line, barking again.

Nolan returned with the kit and a broom and dustpan. He sat down on the bench and took my foot into his lap. “That dog barks a lot,” he said as he got the tweezers out and began pulling shards out of my skin.

“He’s a guardian dog,” I said, trying to justify it. It was true, though. Guardian dogs were normally raised from early on, lived in the barn with livestock, or outside patrolling the grounds against any predators. They took their jobs seriously. They knewtheir land inside and out, knew the sounds, smells, everything. They knew when something wasn’t right.

Nolan took the other foot and began removing the shards, but I wasn’t paying attention. I was watching Pop’s behavior. Pacing the fence line, stopping as he faced the field and began barking again before returning to pacing. Now and then, he would pause, ears perked forward at something across the field, before he’d start barking again.

Nolan wiped my feet with a damp cloth and wrapped them up. “I’m going outside,” I said when Nolan started sweeping.

“Just—wait for me,” he said, trying to hurry.

“I’ll be quick. I’ll stay on the porch. I just need a breather.”

Nolan nodded. “I’ll be right there.”

Ignoring the stinging in my feet, I hurried down the stairs. I quickly slipped my shoes on, not stopping to wait on the porch. Instead, I went straight to Pops.

Pops hadn’t budged, his ears pointed forward, his eyes skimming the horizon. “Hey, big guy.” I reached out, giving his head a little scratch. He ducked his head into my hand for a moment before pulling away and looking back across the field. He gave a little growl before a deep, low woof.

Running to the fence, I climbed up, cupping my eyes, as if I could see better, but it was impossible. It was too far…yet close enough.

I got down just as Pops started barking like mad, taking off into the field faster than I thought possible for an old dog. That’s all I needed to know. My first instinct was to run to the garage, where the ATVs were parked, but I knew Nolan would hear and stop me. I was done being told to sit and stay.

Turning the other way, I sprinted to the barn. I didn’t take time to think as I ran into the tack room and grabbed my saddle and Titan’s bridle.

He pushed me up against this door, sticking his tongue down my throat, and promised me this was love.

I shoved the stall door open, and Titan raised his head, taking one look at me, and held still.Let’s do this, he was saying. I tossed the blanket onto his back.

Ed covered his hand over mine, ignoring the way it dwarfed mine. Ignoring how his hands were bigger, older than mine, meant to protect me.Instead, he used them to break me.

I thought of Gracie. Of the freckles that speckled her cheeks. Of the innocence that shone in her eyes. I couldn’t allow him to hurt her. I reached under Titan’s belly, pulling the cinch tight.

He gripped my hips as he ground himself into me. He told me my heart was beating fast because I was excited.He lied. It was fear.

I pushed through for Gracie. I had to do this for her. I grabbed the bridle, and Titan was all too keen to lower his head, letting me slip it on with ease.

He grabbed my breasts while I held the leather straps in my hands, frozen in place, not sure what to do. Mature women like this, he would say. So, I swallowed my protest despite the pain, because he’d always told me I was mature.

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