Page 69 of A Forgotten Mistake

“Hey, Davey. Hey, Cole,” I say.

“What’s this I hear that you’re taking my fucking son out of school?” he growls.

I hesitate. “What? No, he had to do a shadow career day. The school signed off on it with our boss. Your signature was on the paper.”

“I didn’t fucking know he’d be out with some fucking queers. Who knows what you did with him,” Davey accuses, the smell of alcohol wafting closer to me.

Lovely. Such a lovely end to my day. “I would like you to get off my property. If you have an issue, I would love to sit down with you to talk this over at the school or at the station, but we’re not fighting about this in the middle of my yard, thank you.”

Davey’s clearly not done as he rushes forward and grabs the front of my shirt. I put my hands up, not wanting to engage. “You need to stay the fuck out of my son’s life, you fucking hear me? And if you don’t get the fuck out of my son’s life, I’m going to?—”

“Dad, stop!” Cole says as he rushes forward to grab his father’s hand. His dad slams his elbow into Cole’s face, knocking him back hard enough that he drops down on his ass.

Rage burns deep inside of me that he could literally hurt his child like that and not bat an eye. But at least I finally have proof and will do everything I can to get Cole away from this monster, no matter how hard Cole tries to fight me on it. “You do not hit him, do you understand me?” I snap. “You get your hand off me before I arrest you for being on my property and hitting your child.”

“You don’t fucking tell me what to do,” he retorts before punching me in the face.

I’d been too distracted by Cole bleeding to even see the hit coming, so he gets me right in the face, startling me. I reach up to get him off me, but before I can, he’s torn away from me.

I hadn’t evenheardLiam until he was driving Davey off me. I assume he’s going to bark at him to get his hands up, but Liam does no such thing as he slams his fist right into Davey’s face.

“You fucking parasite, you think you can touch what is mine and get away with it? You feast on preying on people you can abuse, don’t you?” Liam snarls as he slams his fist into Davey’s face again.

Davey throws a punch, but Liam catches it and uses Davey’s momentum to throw him to the ground hard enough that I hear the air whoosh out of him. Liam follows him down and Davey tries to twist to get free, but Liam smashes his face against the ground, pinning him there as he punches him again. I see blood spray out with each hit and realize that I need to stop thisnow.

“Liam, come on, that’s enough. I’m okay,” I assure him, but Liam won’t even look at me. It’s like something primal has consumed him as he whales on Davey.

“You fucking asshole, I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!” Davey yells, but he can’t get free of Liam’s grip. He can’t even twist away when Liam has him pinned down, has him completely vulnerable. Liam’s going to tear him apart if I don’t stop him, and I’m afraid that I don’t know how to make him stop. His rage seems uncontrollable.

“Liam!” I yell as I grab him, but I can’t even budge him. I know Liam’s strong, but he’s always been so gentle with me that I had no idea how fucking strong he is. His body frame doesn’t make him appear like he’d be hard to control, but tearing him back is proving futile when all he can fixate on is the man screaming slurs and cursing at us.

I hook Liam under the arms, trying to yank him off or find a way to knock him off balance, but he’s fucking solid. He knows what he’s doing. This is a man who’s done this more than once.

I grab him around the neck and pull back. “Liam, if you don’t fucking stop, I’m leaving you. I’m done!” I shout, and even though I know it’s a lie, even though I know this isn’t enough to drive me away, I know it’s something that will bother Liam when everything else I’ve done hasn’t.

Liam hesitates, fist lifted, and I hook my arm over it and jerk him back, throwing him off the man and sliding between them. Liam growls something indiscernible, but he’s respecting me claiming the space between them when it’s clear he doesn’t have to.

I look down at Davey whose face is covered in red; every breath he takes, blood bubbles out from his mouth and nose. And then over at Cole who is sitting on the ground with wide eyes.

“I-I called the police,” someone says, and I turn to see an elderly neighbor standing safely in her yard.

I find myself nodding, but I don’t know why. None of this is good. None of this is fucking good at all. I’m afraid to look at Liam because I don’t even know what expression to wear. Do I tell him it’s okay, the guy is an asshole? Do I tell him that he should have arrested him instead of beating him until his face looked like that?

Liam’s always so calculating, so precise, but this was animalistic.

The police arrive before I can even piece together what I want to say or do. I feel like I’m choking on blood from my nose but really, I’m choking on what the fuck to do with this situation.

When Officer Hernandez gets out, he’s surprised to see the two of us. Not only was he imprisoned with me when Tobias had taken us, but he’s also facing Liam, the man who saved his life,who’s now hovering near my neighbor who is bleeding all over my fucking yard.

“Detectives?” he asks in confusion. “What happened?”

I have to make this all work and quickly. “T-This is my neighbor Davey White. He came over… evidently irritated that his son Cole had shadowed me at work. And when I asked if we could speak about this at the school or station, he grabbed me. His son reached out to help and he maliciously elbowed Cole in the face before punching me in the face. L-Liam drove him off me to keep him from hurting any of us further,” I say, stopping there.

Davey lets out a cruel laugh as blood bubbles out. “That fucking cocksucker tried to kill me.”

“I asked you to get off my property and you refused and proceeded to assault me,” I snap. “I insist that CPS looks into the care that his son is receiving. I called them previously and I’m aware the school has also called them.”

“You don’t fucking worry about my son!” he snarls.

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