a reason to live(36)

“He’s doing penance,” I mumbled.

“Penance?”

“Working for whoever needs help without being paid. It’s kinda like those who think you can get into heaven by doing good deeds. He must think if he lives his life in a selfless manner, then he might be forgiven.”

“Does that ever work?”

“It’s a short-term bandage. Eventually, he’ll crash.”

“Well, what can we do to help?” she rushed out, her love for her friend clear on her face.

“All you can do is support him. Listen when he wants to talk. Until he’s ready to make a change, he won’t move forward.”

Mia slumped back on the bench and sighed. “Now I’m depressed,” she stated, looking back at Shane and Max. “I think it’s time for a distraction. Ready for the Ferris Wheel?”

Turning, I looked back at the slow-turning wheel and nodded. As we stood to make our way to stand in line, I heard a child cry out. Turning my head to the left, I caught a large man bent at the waist with his hand wrapped tightly around a boy’s arm, the other hand buried in his hair, tugging his head back.

Few things in this life cause me to react quickly. I’m usually guarded and weigh my options, but seeing the frightened look on the child’s face and the rough hold the man had on him, I reacted immediately.

One moment I was twenty feet away, the next I was grabbing his arm, pulling him off the child while Mia shouted behind me. The man was drunk and he stumbled as I shoved him back. His glassy eyes met mine when he recovered, and he leered. Then he swung at my head as the boy took off. I ducked easily. Five years in self-defense classes taught me how to react quickly. When he righted himself and started to swing again, I landed a heel to his instep followed by a knee to the groin. He went down on one knee, grunting as he went, but it didn’t take him all the way down like I thought it would. His head shot up and he leveled me with a scowl. He looked furious. So much so, I tried to take a step back out of his reach, but I wasn’t fast enough. He lunged, taking me to the ground, and then cocked his fist. He weighed a ton, and I wasn’t able to dislodge him, so I closed my eyes and turned my head, waiting for the blow that never came.

He was airborne and on his back before I could take another breath. When I opened my eyes and turned my head, I found Shane standing over the man, ready to throw a punch.

“Shane, don’t!” I shouted.

Chester moved in quickly and restrained the drunk man while Max grabbed Shane’s arm to hold him back. Shane scowled at him, then turned around and looked at me, shrugging off Max’s hand as he reached out to help me up. Once I stood, he scanned my body from head to toe and then leveled his scowl at me and seethed, “I should put you over my knee. Jesus, woman, what did you think would happen when you took on a drunk man?”

“I didn’t think that far out, Shane,” I admitted. “I just knew I couldn’t stand by and let him hurt that boy.”

Max and Mia walked up before Shane could continue, and he bit his bottom lip while he glared.

“Nice knee to the groin,” Mia said. “I have the knee part down, but the foot to his instep coupled with the knee was a thing of beauty. Could you teach me?”

Max turned and looked at his wife with a look that said Mia was nuts, then he grumbled, “You don’t need to know how to take down a two-hundred-pound man.”

“True, but I might want to take down an arrogant husband.”

Mia smiled innocently at Max.

Max’s eyes shot to me and they narrowed, then he turned to Shane and crossed his arms.

“Don’t say a word,” Shane ordered at Max.

“I got nothin’ to say that I haven’t said already . . . Except, misery loves company.”

Misery loves company?

Ignoring Max, Shane leaned down and grabbed my bag, mumbling, “Five-foot-nothin’, weighs nothin’, but she charges in like an invading army.”

“I was trying to save a boy from abuse,” I sighed, snatching my bag from him.

“Look around you, babe, there are hundreds of men here you could have asked for help,” he snapped between clenched teeth, his arm sweeping the entirety of the carnival.

“That may be true, but I learned a long time ago not to depend on men for anything. Every one of them has let me down.”

Shane’s head jerked back as if he’d been hit, and the fire in his eyes burned brighter. “I’m not like other men,” he hissed.

My mouth snapped shut because he was right. He wasn’t like the other men in my life. “I know you aren’t,” I whispered contritely.

His fire banked to a low simmer at my apology. “You should have asked for my help instead of going off half-cocked. You could have been hurt or worse.”