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The other fella went sprawlin’ back onto the ground in a heap, and Asher pounced upon him, pinnin’ him to the ground!
I ran towards them, without regard for the fact that I was wearin’ my camisole and shorts,
without a bra on. But I was pushed on by adrenaline.
What was going on?
Asher gave the guy another slug across the face with his massive fist, and the fella beneath him gave lil’ more than a groan of defeated pain from the blow. Whoever it was couldn’t withstand the brutal assault of my new hired hand.
“Don’t fuckin’ move one goddamn inch, you hear me?!” Asher yelled at him, brandishin’ his fist to intimidate the fella into submission, so he’d not push his luck with any further attacks.
“What’s goin’ on?!” I said in a panic, but then I remembered my flashlight and turned it upon the fella beneath Asher, only to see an all-too-familiar face.
Marcus. Nose and lips bloodied, but it was Marcus, dressed in some puffed up leather jacket that added a lot of bulk to his figure.
Oh no.
“Marcus!” I screeched, dropping the flashlight to the ground as I ran over to him. “What in blazes are you doing around here, creeping around like a... a creeper?” Wasn’t exactly my finest wordplay, but I was in a panic!
I was livid at him, but I was scared too, scared at why he was here and what he was planning to do.
Marcus groaned, his face bloody and battered as he lay beneath Asher. He lifted a hand to wipe at his face, while Asher kept the other arm pinned.
“Get off’a me,” he groaned. “Get off’a me!” He yelled again, but Asher first wrenched something from his hand before getting up off him.
“What’s that?” I asked, but even with the undirected light from the flashlight I could see it was crowbar that Marcus had been holding.
“What were you planning on doing, Marcus?” I shouted, and I could hear some of the animals in the barn beginning to stir from the ruckus.
I walked over to Asher, glowering down at the pummelled man. I’d have felt bad for him if I couldn’t see exactly where this was going. He was going to try to do something and then blame it on Asher, then he’d tell me that he was right about the stranger all along.
“I was comin’ to check on you!” Marcus protested as he pushed himself up. “There was no tellin’ what this hoodlum would be up to in the middle of the night!” He said, brushin’ himself off and glarin’ at Asher, as if he were in the wrong.
But for his part, Asher stood quietly by, holdin’ the crowbar out of reach.
“He was sleeping. That’s what he was doin’ in the middle of the night! And you woke ma up and everythin’, I had to put her back to bed and you know how disoriented she gets! Asher ain’t gonna do a thing here, he’s just a guy needin’ a job and a place to lay his head like any man.”
I was breathin’ hard, my heart racing. I could barely hold myself back.
“That’s what you think, Shelby!” he said in accusation as he began to walk off, wiping his bloodied face with the back of his hand. “You best be watchin’ out, you don’t know what he’ll do!”
“He’ll do his job!” I screamed at the back of his head, my hands tremblin’ from anger and frustration. I’d never seen Marcus so worked up about something before, and it scared me a little. What lengths would he go through to keep Asher off the farm?
And rememberin’ what Asher’d said about the cops and not wanting them involved... What if Marcus did call Hank?
Asher and me watched Marcus stalk off in the dark, off towards where his truck must’ve been parked along the road away from the farmhouse. Until finally he was far enough away we could talk with some privacy, and he turned to look at me.
“I didn’t break his jaw or nothin’, didn’t hit him near hard enough for that. He’ll be fine,” he remarked, looking down to the crowbar in his hand, twisting it around before giving it a toss onto the dirt by the shed.
“I’m so sorry about that, Asher,” I said with a resigned sigh, as I went over to pick up the discarded flashlight. “He never shoulda done that, I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
“He’s got a thing for you,” he said so casually, brushin’ off his low-hung jeans as he looked around the place, doin’ some final check of the area. “I know he’s your cousin, but he does. Whether he knows it or not,” Asher stated, matter-of-factly like.
I stared at Asher, aghast, though it wasn’t like I could even see him so good in the dim light of the moon and the stars and the flashlight.
What?
Part of me didn’t believe him and was going to protest but then there was that deep, hidden part of me that I’d always ignored. The way we got into tickle fights for too long and how every summer we always went swimming and he’d cling onto me. It was all games, but then with Asher’s words, it wasn’t.
