Page 109 of Bits and Pieces

“Don’t wait for me. Get to her,” I insist, waddling after him.

Along with the yelling clear before we reach the door, I detect the sound of the school’s alarm. The kids are locked down. The Copper family’s stand today will land them in jail.

Silas throws open the door and shoves his way inside, knocking over Neal’s big, blonde sister Tammy to make room for me.

“What the fuck is this?” he hollers like an insane person.

As the room goes silent, I dodge bodies until I reach the office’s security door. Blair hears Silas’s voice and appears from a back room, crying and cradling her arm. Seeing me, she immediately hurries in my direction. I try to tell her to stop and stay safe until Silas scares off the crazies.

Her eyes get wide right before someone shoves me hard into the door. I cradle my belly as I land on my knees. Slamming my face into the glass, I cry out.

Blair screams for me. The Copper family—ten strong from the rough redneck boys to Grandma Jackie with her stupid flowered hat—erupt with cussing and clapping. Nothing says “winning” like knocking a pregnant woman to the ground.

An inhuman yell shakes the room, filling me with fear.What the fuck is happening now?

Silas sends Chris Copper crashing into the front door. The family shuts up for all of five seconds to adjust to the new situation.

Seeming bigger now, Silas breathes like an enraged animal. The Coppers stare at him with the crazy eyes of people used to browbeating their way to success. If Silas is a majestic lion, these fuckers are the grungy hyenas waiting to gang up on their prey.

Neal’s always-drunk brother throws a punch, which lands in the center of Silas’s large hand. Chuck’s pained holler sets off the room. The Copper family lunges at Silas, moving as a horde.

Crouching slightly, he rushes at them. His massive shoulders barrel into the crowd, toppling them backward. Silas moves with no finesse. He isn’t a tornado, picking targets to demolish and sparing others. He’s like a hurricane, destroying everything in his path.

Jakob’s large body ends up falling back on his wife’s smaller one. Silas keeps moving forward, throwing punches at anything that moves.

He hits big and butch Tammy in the face.

Knocks thick-necked Kevin through the glass door.

When tatted redhead Sandra tries to spray him with mace, his elbow sends her head back and her ass to the ground. I see the pepper spray skitter away.

Realizing they’re losing, a pissed Jakob and Chris double-team Silas. My entire body flinches at the sound of their fists meeting his jaw. I beg for his club to show up to help him fight this enemy.

After staggering back and wiping blood from his mouth, Silas hollers again. His body language shifts, and I realize he was holding back before. A part of him didn’t want to kill anyone in front of Blair and me. I’m not so sure that’s the case anymore.

He lunges at Jakob, punching the man repeatedly in the upper body. Chris grabs for Silas who slides out of his reach, only long enough to grab the smaller man by the face. I hear Neal’s younger brother screaming as Silas shoves his fingers into the man’s eye sockets while slamming his head against the wall.

“Gun!” screams one of the office women and points at Grandma Jackie.

Silas shoves Chris at his mother. A startled Grandma Jackie fires, and the bullet tears into the ceiling after ripping through her son’s gut. Chris topples on top of Grandma Jackie, trapping her and the weapon on the ground.

Breathing heavily like a beast barely in control of himself, Silas slowly spins around, eyeing every one of them. No one in their right mind would challenge him. Of course, the Copper family have never been accused of sanity or intelligence.

“You baby-raping motherfucker!” Stacy yells as her father struggles to breathe. “You sick Satan-worshipping motorcycle gangster!”

Her bullshit sets off any still-mobile Coppers. As Silas runs at Chuck, Kevin, Darry, and Tammy, I look away. My gaze focuses on Blair on the other side of the glass door. She can’t take her eyes off Silas. I struggle with how her life already revolves around violence. I became jaded to it myself. Only the suffering of those I love mattered.

As my stomach tightens and the first contraction hits, I force my gaze back on Silas. Seeing past his intimidating shell, I think of him in the shower with me this morning. He’s so excited about the baby. When he thought about meeting her, I doubt he ever imagined a day like this one.

Silas grabs one crazy idiot after another and slams their heads into the wall before tossing them out of the office. Grandma Jackie topples ass up on top of the Copper pile.

With their yelling muffled, I can finally hear the police sirens. There’s also the unmistakable sound of approaching motorcycles. I suspect the club will arrive before the police.

Breathing hard and still enraged, Silas takes a moment to really see me. “Are you okay?” he asks once kneeling next to me.

Unable to speak, I stare at him in awe. Silas was a force of nature, unaffected by their attacks. Yet, now, he looks shattered with worry.

“My water broke,” I say when he notices my shorts are wet.

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