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But Cole doesn’t even let me get that far. He sneers at Boyd and raises his voice.
“You know what, Boyd? You’re fired. You’re no longer a Bennett Agency client.”
Boyd rises to his feet, his eyes narrowing.
“You can’t fire me. I’m Boyd Jackson!”
Cole grabs my arm, steps in front of me, and backs me toward the door. “You have been a pain in the ass every single day since I signed you,” he tells Boyd. “I was willing to deal with it until you acted like some asshole caveman in front of my assistant. Here’s a tip. You don’t hit on people that are just here to do their jobs, Boyd. And representing you? It isn’t worth the hassle.”
Boyd uses his immense physical heft to swing a fist at Cole’s face just as Cole is turning his attention to me. Boyd cold cocks him, hitting him squarely in the right eye. The sound of Boyd’s fist connecting with Cole’s face is a sickening smack.
Cole is totally unprepared for the blow. He sways, his hands coming up in a defensive posture.
“What the fuck, Boyd?” he practically screams.
Boyd swaggers forward, bottom teeth bared, ready to fight. “You can’t fire me, you fucking city-slicker piece of shit!”
For a second, I’m afraid that Cole is going to try to hit Boyd. I grab at the back of Cole’s coat.
“Cole, please!”
Cole doesn’t look at me, but he doesn’t move forward, either. Boyd hisses and lunges toward us. Cole pushes me out the door just as Boyd roars and rushes him. There is a scuffle and a few thumps as fists are thrown. I cringe and run toward the car, trying to think of who I can call.
Lucy? Rex? The police?
“Asshole!” Boyd hollers.
Cole ducks out of the double-wide and bolts for the car. I climb in and open his door, my heart pounding. Cole scrambles inside just as I hear the last thing that you want to hear while fleeing a redneck’s property: the sound of a racking shotgun.
Cole floors the car just as Boyd shoots, the pellets spraying the back window and shattering it.
Cole whips into reverse and we jolt down the dirt lane. I scramble for my seatbelt and can’t control my runaway heartbeat.
But Cole?
Cole is grinning.
He turns the car around and throws it in gear, racing away from Boyd’s house.
My heart is pounding. Cole just told me how he can’t afford to lose any more clients. Then Cole dumped Boyd because he was an asshole to me.
I swallow. I feel vindicated, but also a little bit scared of Cole. Seeing him blow up like that was a totally new, and frankly scary, experience.
In the back of my mind though, I must admit that it was also titillating.
Cole stood up for me… But what did it mean?
And more importantly, what do I want it to mean?
14
Cole
Stepping outside the La Villa Coralle onto the patio, I squint into the bright sunlight. It’s a rare sunny winter day and my family is taking full advantage. They all move like ants swarming the beach below, all dutiful and industrious. Call our family anything you want, but you can’t call us lazy.
I bend down to pick up a piece of driftwood and wince as the blood pounds in my face. Bringing my hand up, I gently touch the edges of my monstrous black eye. Two days later and it still looks absolutely terrible.
And the questions I’ve gotten from my family are so incredulous as to be almost funny.
