from her.
Sky stumbled back against her Rover.
Zack’s expression filled her vision.
Total and complete fury.
Her heart seemed to stop for a moment. She couldn’t breathe and her body froze.
Zack had hold of one of Wade’s shoulders. “Stay away from my woman, you son of a bitch.”
He slammed his fist into Wade’s jaw.
Wade lurched back a couple of steps, surprise, then rage on his features.
Zack was already driving his fist toward Wade’s cheekbone, but Wade blocked it. At the same time Wade punched Zack in his solar plexus.
Zack didn’t even seem to notice. He hit Wade with an uppercut while blocking Wade’s next swing.
For a moment Sky couldn’t move. Horror tore through her at the sight of the two men fighting. Blood poured from Zack’s nose, and Wade’s split lip bled. Their hats were on the ground and they went after each other with punch after punch.
Sky came to her senses, her body no longer frozen, her heart now beating frantically, as she screamed, “Stop!”
Neither man seemed to hear her or they chose not to listen as she screamed so loud her throat hurt, “You bastards, stop!”
Tears came out of nowhere. They rolled down her cheeks as she cried at them again and again to stop fighting.
Sky did the only thing she could think of. Despite the pain in her ankle, she pushed herself away from the Rover, dropping her purse at the same time.
She hobbled over to the two men and thrust herself between them just as they each were reaching back to take a punch at the other.
“Fuck you. Fuck you both.” The tear tracks on Sky’s face were cold in the night as she looked from one man to the other as they lowered their fists. “I don’t want to ever see either one of you again.”
Silence fell and all she heard was the rough sound of their breathing and the fury at the two men in her head.
Her skin chilled as she turned away. She didn’t look at them as she hobbled to her Rover, scooped up her purse, and gritted her teeth from pain as she climbed inside her vehicle.
“Sky—,” Zack started, as Wade said, “Skylar—”
She slammed the Rover’s door, locking their voices out. More tears flowed down her cheeks and she felt like she was going to throw up. She started the SUV and the tires spun in the gravel as she tore out of the parking lot.
Zack’s muscles remained wound up like a loaded spring as he watched the red of the Rover’s taillights fade. Larson stood a few feet away, his body stiff as he gazed in the same direction. So much adrenaline was pumping through Zack that he barely felt any pain from the blows Larson had landed.
Anger at Larson punched Zack’s chest as hard as the man’s fists had.
What the fuck is the matter with you, Hunter? Zack clenched his jaws as he wiped blood from his upper lip with the back of his hand. He rubbed his knuckles onto his Wranglers, smearing the blood on the denim. You haven’t changed a goddamned bit. You’re still the same lousy son of a bitch who couldn’t control himself ten years ago. You don’t deserve Sky. And she doesn’t want anything to do with you.
Larson swung his gaze to meet Zack’s. “I told you to stay away from Skylar.” Even as his split lip was starting to swell and his face was already bruising, Larson took a step toward Zack. “Don’t you go near her.”
Zack clenched his fists at his sides, almost shaking from the desire to land another punch.
Instead, he met Larson’s gaze for one long moment before he scooped up his hat off the ground, turned, and walked toward his personal vehicle, a Silverado.
“I’ll tear you up if you even get close to her,” Larson shouted behind Zack.
It was all he could do to keep walking.
As he saw Sky’s horrified gaze in his mind, Zack’s gut tied into so many knots he didn’t think they’d ever unravel. It was the same way she’d looked at him the first time she saw him after he beat his stepfather.
You really fucked up, Hunter.
Chapter 10
Sunday
1802-1870 Alexandre Dumas