Page 40 of Always Salty

I allowed this for several long seconds until her man started to realize what was happening.

When he began to crawl toward me, I said, “You’ll say that this was a random accident and you don’t know who did it. You’d just walked your friend to her car and got shot. You don’t tell them why or how. You don’t tell them anything about the girl that I saved. In the meantime, I don’t fuck your life up so spectacularly that you won’t know how to live.”

There was silence as Dorie kept struggling.

When I’d finally proven my point, I let her go, allowing her to drop to the ground. She hit hard since her knees were in the air, her ass hitting concrete with a crack.

“What the fuck!” Dorie cried out, lunging for me.

I lifted my boot, placing it square on her chest, and pushed her back down to the ground.

“Let’s get something clear,” I asserted. “You’re not stronger than a man. There are only a few very specific women in this world that are, and whatever stunt you pulled tonight to prove that you were one of them backfired. Learn from your mistakes and stop making your boyfriend worry about you because you’re a dumbass.”

With that, I left, not looking back.

The sirens got closer, and I passed a cop that was hauling ass toward the two idiots before I got to my truck.

Getting inside, I glanced over at Keely and saw her still withdrawn into herself.

So I did the smart thing and took her to my place.

Yep, definitely the smart thing.

Not only do I dance like nobody is watching, but I also drink like I don’t work in the morning.

—Text from Keely to Cutter

KEELY

I was lost in my own thoughts, concentrating on what I was going to do when I got home, when two arms wrapped around me.

I tried to struggle at first, but I knew it was no use.

The conversation that I’d had with Dorie literally a couple of hours ago sprang to my mind as I continued to struggle and failed.

“I’m just as strong as a man,” Dorie argued with her boyfriend, Michel.

Michel looked at her like she was crazy. “Baby, you’re not. You lift. You’re five-foot-nine, and you’re a hundred and seventy-five pounds. But you’re not stronger than me.”

“I am stronger than you,” she disagreed. “Walking home by myself, I can definitely protect myself.”

“Want to bet?” Michel asked her.

I rolled my eyes.

This was a constant fight with them.

Dorie felt like she was a badass and could protect herself if push came to shove.

Michel, however, didn’t feel that Dorie was capable of doing anything, let alone protecting herself.

I’d tried, and failed, to add in my two cents with Dorie.

She was dangerous, but not against other people, against herself.

She always walked home from the sleep center, which was in the middle of Dallas. We had homeless camping on every underpass within a ten-mile radius. We had criminals and gangs around every corner. And she had absolutely no care in the world.

She thought that she would be safe, no matter what, and she fought with Michel all the time about it, who just wanted to protect her and keep her safe.

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