“You should be ashamed of yourself.” Rachel made no effort to hide her disgust, attempting to go around him again.
“What the fuck do you mean by that?” Jared took her arm, propelling her away from the door to the side of the restaurant.
Unwisely, she didn’t back down. “I mean, you know you can’t have kids, but you haven’t told Cheryl, letting her take the blame. Does it make you feel like a big man, Jared, keeping her pinned under your thumb?”
Her rash outburst brought out the ugliness inside of the overbearing man. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Yes, I do. You made sure you couldn’t get any of the women you fool around with pregnant, so don’t act innocent, Jared.”
A sharp smack to her face had her almost falling down. The only reason she didn’t was because Jared kept a firm grip on her arm, holding her in place as his hand went back to strike her again. Her face already numb after the initial burst of pain, Rachel braced herself for another strike, but then found herself thrust back against the restaurant wall as a body knocked Jared away from her, throwing him to the ground.
Rachel watched as Cash punched Jared repeatedly in the face. When his friend would have tried to help, Stud held him back. Wisely, the man took a good look at Stud and quit trying to intervene.
“Cash, stop! That’s enough!” Rachel reached down, grasping Cash’s t-shirt and tugging him away, aware he was releasing Jared only because he was finished.
“Go on home, Rachel,” Cash said, getting to his feet.
“I’m going to press charges!” Jared whined from the ground, holding his bleeding nose.
“No, you’re not, unless you want me to press charges against you. You hit me first!” Rachel yelled down at him. “Get up and go on home, Jared, before I call my brothers and you leave here in an ambulance.”
After Jared managed to get to his feet, he and his buddy took off to their car.
“Are you okay?” Cash asked, staring at her cheek.
“Yes.”
“Gotta go, Cash.”
“Thanks, Stud,” Rachel said before he could leave.
He gave her a nod. “Later.”
Rachel began walking to her car, which she had left across the street at the church.
“I don’t get a thanks?” Cash asked mockingly, falling in step beside her.
“Thanks,” Rachel said ungratefully as she came to a stop beside her car, staring at it in dismay.
“I guess the restaurant wasn’t Jared’s first stop.”
All four tires of her older than dirt car had been slit. The tires would cost more than the car was worth.
“Dammit.” Rachel reached inside her purse for her phone.
“Come on. I’ll give you a ride home.” Cash took her arm, leading her back across the street to the diner’s parking lot.
“I’ll call my brothers. One of them will come and get me.” She didn’t get inside his truck when he opened the door.
“If you call them, then they will go after Jared. You can calm them down if you’re home when you tell them.”
He was right, but it would be just as bad for them to see her getting out of Cash’s truck.
“Get in, Rachel.”
“I still think I should—”
Cash lifted her up, placing her on the bench seat in his truck, then slammed the door closed, effectively cutting off her protests. Sliding into the truck, he turned the motor on.
“I can have you home before you make up your mind.”#p#分页标题#e#
Rachel sat back against the seat, closing her mouth.
“So, why was Jared so pissed off at you?”
Rachel turned sideways in her seat to stare at his profile. “I can’t tell you. It’s private.”
“It quit being private when he assaulted you in public.”
Rachel kind of agreed, but she was ultimately respecting Cheryl’s privacy, not Jared’s.
“I still have to respect his privacy.”
Cash threw her a quick glance. “If you can’t keep your brothers from going after Jared, it could get messy. Jared has a large family, too. Someone could get hurt.” His warning didn’t fall on deaf ears. She was well aware of the consequences if her brothers stormed off after Jared.
“I think that’s going to happen, regardless.” Rachel thought of Cheryl. She didn’t think it would be fair not to tell her what she had discovered about her cheating husband.
“How often do you volunteer at the church store?” The abrupt change of subject threw her off-guard.
“Three days a week.”
“That’s a lot of time to volunteer.”
“I enjoy it.” Rachel shrugged.