Page 119 of Hot for the Jerk

Shivering by the time I reached the last rung, gloved hands came over the side and helped me climb onboard.

“Orca Bound 1, this is San Juan Princess.We have the mother.You are safe to return to port.”

“Roger, San Juan Princess.”

Ignoring the wind and the way it cut through my drenched layers of clothing, my skin and muscle, only to drive straight into my bones, I didn’t even bother to shed the life ring before I started running through the rows of cars.

“He’s over here, ma’am,” said a ferry worker, forcing me to change direction and follow her.

The sick, undeniable sound of fist colliding with flesh broke through the whistling wind, and I rounded the corner just in time to see Jagger take a very hard punch to the face from Ozais.My brother had Jagger by the jacket collar and reared his fist back to land another punch.

“Need to … mind your own … business,” Ozais said, his deep, sinister voice a trigger for me, and making me flinch.“This is afamilymatter, and you … ain’t … family.”With each pause in his speech, he landed another blow to Jagger’s face.Blood sprayed from Jagger’s nose.

Why wasn’t anybody stopping this?

“Mom!”Marco screamed.

Spots clouded my vision and my knees grew weak when I took in the scene on the bow of the ferry.Soloman had my son in his arms, and a knife to his throat as they stood on the wrong side of the single strand of thick chain strung across the opening to keep vehicles from rolling into the sea.

Ferry workers, paralyzed with fear and unable to help because of how close Soloman had my son to the edge of the boat, not to mention the knife at his throat, only called to my brother-in-law, pleading with him to let Marco go.

“She did this!”Soloman hollered over the wind and waves, drenched from the rain.“She killed my brother.I have no son.I have no one.She did this!This is mybrother’sson.He belongs with me!”

“It’s not the child’s fault!”one person yelled back.“Let him go!”

More people screamed for the maniac to let Marco go.

With his thinning hair plastered to his face from the rain, Soloman shook his head and pressed the knife blade harder against my son’s throat until a sliver of crimson emerged on the thin, pale skin of my child’s neck.“Come any closer and I’ll jump—with the boy.”

That crippling, incapacitating sense of helplessness took hold of me again, bringing me back to when Ozais would smack me around and my parents would do nothing to stop him.Then when Josiah would treat me like a servant, a maid, and a whore, emotionally and psychologically abusing me until Ialmostbelieved him.

My brother landed another hard punch, this time into Jagger’s stomach, drawing my attention away from Marco and Soloman.Jagger doubled over with a pained groan.One of his eyes was swollen completely shut.

“You think … you … can … take … me?”Ozais asked with malicious amusement.“I … will … kill … you.”He delivered a hard uppercut to Jagger’s jaw, sending him flying across the hood of a sedan.

Tears streamed down Marco’s terrified face as he begged me for help.To dosomething.

“Marco?”Jagger said, blood soaking his beard and mustache as he scrambled to his feet and approached Ozais again.Ozais swung out right away, but Jagger ducked just in time, managing to land one of his own, this time to Ozais’s left kidney.My brother went down to his knees.“Remember your lesson on climbing?”

Marco’s eyes went wide, then landed on mine before quickly darting to the bow of the kayak that was on the roof rack of the car right at the front.

“Can you jump?”Jagger asked, kicking Ozais in the other kidney, now that my brother was down.

“I’ll try,” Marco said, determination on his face.

Jagger made eye contact with me.“High beams,” he managed to get out, just before being swept off his feet by my brother, kicking him sideways in his bad knee.

Everyone on board probably heard thecrunchas Jagger crumpled to the ground with a gut-wrenching cry.He curled up into a ball, hugging his knee to his abdomen.

I ran to the vehicle with the kayak on top.“High beams!Now!”I said, knocking on the driver’s side window.

The man nodded, and flicked on his high beams, which seemed to be enough to blind Soloman, that he lifted one arm up to shield his eyes.More vehicles followed suit until my brother-in-law was cast into an almost heavenly glow.But it gave my kid the break he needed and Marco was able to duck away.He hopped over the chain, and rather than risk going anywhere near Ozais, he kicked his foot into the grill of the Subaru, and propelled himself up enough to grab onto the bow of the kayak.Wrapping his arms and legs around it like a baby koala, he flipped himself around until he was on top and scooted back.

Soloman had nowhere to go, but Ozais seemed to find his second wind, and managed to climb on top of Jagger, pinning him to the ground.He sat on his chest, landing blow after blow into his face, smiling like the demonic, soulless bastard that he was.“I … told you … I was … going … to … kill … you.”Grinning through the blood all over his teeth, joy filled my brother’s eyes as he did his best to snuff out the life of the man I loved.

“Do something, Mom,” Marco said, still on the kayak.

More crunching of fists meeting face competed with the roar of the wind and waves.

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