There was a choice to be made by me, and I instinctively chose.
Fight.
“I’ll even pay your light bill for her! What’s that, a hundred bucks? I’ll throw in a fifty if she sucks my dic?—”
I took off, hauling ass like a possessed man toward the piece of shit in front of me. I heard the faint sound of Isla’s loud gasp muffled in the background as I charged him. Ramming my shoulder into his chest, I forcefully slammed his back into the tree beside us.
The dipshit’s hands instantly flew to my vicious hold, trying to pry me off, but I didn’t give him a chance. I went full force, yanking him away from the tree, only to slam his body back into it. Gripping his hair, I spun him around so his back was to my front and smashed his face into the willow instead.
I didn’t pay any mind to the blood dripping off his face as he stumbled to remain upright. Using his momentum, my fist connected with his jaw before he even saw it coming. His head snapped back, taking half his body with it. I was over to the piece of shit in one stride, grabbing his shirt and punching him in the face repeatedly.
I delivered blow after blow to his stomach, his ribs, his chest, and back up to his face. Hearing hasty cracks in my fist’s wake.
I let the asshole go, and he fell to the ground, covered in blood and whimpering in pain.
“Get up!” I angrily ordered, kicking him in the ribs. He recoiled, feeling more of the agony I was spitefully delivering. “Get the fuck up!”
Out of nowhere, Isla grabbed a hold of my shirt from behind me, but it didn’t stop me in the least. I heard it rip in her grasp as I continued my assault on Justin’s face and body, hitting him until my knuckles felt raw and aching.
I felt her hands on my shoulders, desperately trying to pull me off him. When I didn’t, she used my own momentum and forcefully spun around, snapping me back to reality by the frightened expression on her face. She rapidly made me realize what the hell I’d just done.
She fell to her knees on the grass beside Justin, trying to tend to his knocked-out body. I halted her attempt, clutching onto her wrists and roughly yanking her to her feet. I turned her to face me instead.
No one was around us, and I was surprised we didn’t gain a crowd. She didn’t back down, using all her strength to shove me away.
I stepped toward her. “Isla?—”
She pushed me again and again and again, the words on the tip of her tongue, her wrath was right there for me to touch, to feel. I could see her struggling to form her words, battling to get them out.
So I did what I did best—I baited her.
“What? Huh?” I folded my arms over my chest. “What do you have to say? You never have anything to say!”
She shoved me harder, her eyes brimming with tears as she started to slam her fists into my chest. I let her take her aggression out on me. Her adrenaline was pumping through her veins at full force, blowing through the woods. She was in fight-or-flight mode because of me, and I hated that I dragged her there right beside me.
This didn’t go as planned. I shouldn’t have brought her here. That was my first mistake. This became something it wasn’t intended to be.
I allowed her to shriek.
To hit me.
To do whatever the hell she needed to calm her ass down and come back to me.
I took every blow to my bruised ego and my tattered soul until finally, I got what I wanted all along.
She screamed, “Is this who you are?! Is this what you do?!”
Her voice was smooth like silk, but it still sliced me open like daggers on my skin. Her words hit me as hard as my fists had laid Justin out.
She fervently shook her head, scowling, “Do you even know who you are?”
“Yeah,” I firmly argued. “I’m the guy who just beat his ass for fucking talking to you that way.”
She stumbled back, winded.
All the fight in her was gone as if she had only just realized why I kicked his ass. Her lips trembled as she backed away from me, slaying my heart a little more.
Fear was evident on her face.