Page 76 of Indigo

WITHIN TWO MINUTESof Jagger guiding Pax from the pub, Mum bursts through the door in her bright green flannelette pyjamas, her hair tied in a messy bun and under-eye patches still perfectly in place.

She looks at me as the door swings closed behind her, and I know the moment she sees the red mark on my cheek.

Her entire body vibrates with fury. “You,” she hisses, pointing her finger at Michael, who’s now on his hands and knees, attempting to get himself off the ground.

She runs at him, faster than I’ve ever seen the woman move in her life, pure murder in her eyes.

I gasp as she lunges for the bat Pax threw to the floor earlier. She picks it up, points at Michael and draws it back, ready to swing.

Luckily, Matt sees her coming and reacts just in time, picking her straight off the floor, kicking and screaming, trying to get to Michael. He says something to her I can’t quite hear, and she visibly calms in his hold.

He releases her a moment later. She drops the bat, and with one last withering stare in Michael’s direction, she b-lines straight for me.

“Indie-girl,” she says, hands outreached. Grabbing my face and turning it to inspect the damage, she winces and softly runs her thumb across my cheek. “I’ll kill him,” she whispers.

Before I can say anything in response, Gerry, the only cop in town, saunters into the room, his thumbs hooked into the belt loops of his police uniform, sending everyone quiet again.

Mum turns and squares her shoulders, activating Mumma Bear mode.

Gerry looks down at Michael as he attempts to stand on shaky legs, no compassion or curiosity written on his face. Josh or someone else that has Pax’s best interests at heart must have tipped him off.

He looks straight at me, his eyes roaming over my cheek before asking, “You alright, love?” I nod, and he does the same back. “Right, so what happened?” he asks, looking around at the occupants of the pub.

“He attacked me,” Michael sputters, wiping the blood from his nose with his sleeve before pointing at the door, somehow recovering a hell of a lot quicker from the beating he received than I thought he would.

Alcohol does funny things to people, I guess. Maybe he’s just in shock, and can’t quite feel the damage that’s been done to him yet.

“Who?” Gerry asks, swinging his gaze toward the door.

“He fell,” Matt, Callum, Drew and Ana all say in complete unison.

Gerry looks over at Josh, and he nods. “Fell. Broke my table too.”

“Yeah, the dickhead fell,” someone else yells from the back of the bar, pulling all of our attention in that direction.

“Yeah, he fucking slipped and took the table out with him. Look at the blood he’s spread everywhere just from hitting his damn nose,” Reed, a guy I went to school with, says from his bar stool.

“Fucking out of towners,” someone else I can’t pinpoint sneers.

Soon enough, everyone is singing the same tune, and Michael gawks at them, spitting and sputtering that they’re lying, that he was attacked, unprovoked, and that he wants Pax arrested.

My heart just about stops beating in my chest while I wait for Gerry’s response.

He shrugs, looks around the room and says, “Well, from what I’m hearing, the only person saying Pax, a man who isn’t even present, hit you, is you. All these witnesses say that you’re a clumsy city boy who found his way into Josh here’s pub, tripped over your shiny shoes and fell on your face. Embarrassing, I’m sure, but certainly not a crime. However, the alcohol I can smell on your breath from here makes me wonder. You drive while under the influence, son?”

“What? No,” Michael chokes out, pressing his lips into a firm line.

“Well then, I suggest you find your way to the doctor’s surgery around the corner to get those cuts checked out and then head on home, boy.”

And just like that, he steps over the broken bits of wood from the destroyed bar table, dodges the pool of blood on the floor, and walks up to the bar. “Beer, Josh,” he says, tapping the bar twice and then looking over his shoulder to shoot me a wink.

I’ve never been so grateful for slightly corrupt, loyal to their own country cops in my life.

Michael turns his furious gaze to me and steps forward. Mum does the same, blocking my body with hers.

I have no doubt she could throw down the same way Pax did if need be, but I don’t need her to fight this battle for me.

I’m not afraid. Not anymore.

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