Whatever his sister had said on the other line of the phone had caused a switch to flip in his brain. With his inner turmoil momentarily forgotten, and fury coming off him in waves, he threw his head back and roared, sounding genuinely feral, as he stormed off in the direction of the carpark, demanding my car keys.
“Joe, just hold up a second, will you?” I called out, struggling to keep up with his feet and his mood swings. “Talk to me, will you?”
“She was attacked,” he roared over his shoulder. “My sister was mother-fucking attacked, Molloy.” His voice louder with every word that tore from his lips. “Again!”
My heart plummeted into my ass. “No.”
“Keys,” he demanded when we reached my car, holding his hand out. “She needs me to come get her.”
“You’re not driving to Tommen in your condition,” I flat out told him. “Put that notion out of your head.”
“Fine, then you drive,” he conceded, stalking around to the passenger side of the car. “I don’t care how I get there as long as I get there.”
“Okay, but—”
“Please, Molloy,” he choked out. “We can talk on the way. Just drive, baby. Drive!”
Knowing this was a terrible idea but unwilling to leave Shannon at Tommen after being attacked, I unlocked the car and climbed into the driver’s seat. “Promise me, Joe.” Cranking the engine, I chugged out of my parking spot, slipping gears before finding my groove. “Promise me that you’ll ask questions first.”
“What’s to ask?” he spat, knees bopping restlessly, as he gnawed on his knuckles anxiously. “My sister was attacked. I’m going to make it right.”
Jesus.
“Just keep the head,” I instructed, pulling onto the main road in the direction of Tommen College. “No fighting, Joe.”
“Yeah, fuck that.”
“No,” I argued, “No, not fuck that. You need to not go in there all guns blazing, baby.”
“My sister phones me up hysterical, saying someone attacked her at school, after all the shit she’s been through this year, and you expect me not to retaliate?” he demanded and then shook his head in blatant frustration. “It’s not happening, Molloy. It’s not fucking happening, ya hear? I’m done with this shit. I’m through with letting people stomp all over my siblings.”
Meaning his father.
He wasn’t thinking logically.
This was more about his father than anything else.
He was looking for redemption for something he didn’t need to feel guilt for.
“Joey, this isn’t the same thing,” I tried to placate. “What happened to Shannon in the kitchen that day—”
“I couldn’t stop it,” he filled in for me. “But I can stop this, Molloy, and I will.”
“I don’t want to go,” I blurted out, slowing the car when the gates of Tommen College came into view. “This is a bad idea.”
“Molloy! Drive the car.”
“No.” Shaking my head, I flicked on my indicator and pulled onto the side of the road before killing the engine. “I’m not taking you. Not while you’re this worked up. You need to calm down and breathe, Joe.”
“Fine.” Releasing a furious growl, he unfastened his seatbelt and flung the door open. “I’ll walk the rest of the way.”
“No, wait!” I tried to call after him, but it was too late. He was already sprinting at full speed in the direction of his sister’s prestigious private school.
“Shit,” I hissed, slamming my hand on the steering wheel. “Goddammit to hell, Joey Lynch!”
Cranking the engine of my old faithful, I attempted to pull back onto the road, but of course I ended up tailing a tractor and slurry tank moving along with all the speed of a sedated turtle.
Fuck my life.
By the time I reached the school, there was a huge crowd forming in the nearby carpark. It didn’t take a genius to know why the crowd had formed, or why they were chanting fight, fight, fight like a bunch of deranged lunatics.
To spare Joey a conversation he wasn’t ready for with his sister, I pulled on one of his hoodies from the back seat, before shoving the door open and springing out – not an easy feat with a belly that was growing rounder by the day.
“Joey!” I called out, pushing through the large crowd that had built up around…yep, around my boyfriend.
He was lunging for Johnny Kavanagh.
But being held back by Gibsie Gibberson?
Fuck my life.
“What are you doing, Joe?” Pushing past a particularly boisterous bunch of teenage boys, I moved straight for him. “I thought we said no fighting?”
Slaps had clearly been thrown. The blood trickling from Johnny’s busted lip was proof of that pudding.
Breathless, I hurried to reach him before all hell broke loose again. Stepping between two testosterone fueled alpha males clearly wasn’t my brightest idea, but I couldn’t leave him alone in the lion’s den.
We were ride or die.
“Joe!” Pushing Shannon’s boyfriend aside, I stepped in front of mine and grabbed his face, forcing him to focus on me. “Ask questions first, remember?”
Wild, fevered eyes glared back at me for the briefest of moments before recognition flickered in him and he stopped thrashing against Gibsie’s hold. Gibsie, to his credit, wasn’t trying to hurt Joey or hold him down while his buddy gave him a beating, he was truly trying to diffuse the situation.
A lot like I was.
“I forgot,” Joey replied as his wild eyes flicked from me to Johnny before returning and settling on my face.
That’s it, I mentally coaxed, not taking my eyes off his, just breathe, baby.
Clearly noting Joey’s withdrawal, Gibsie released him and took a few steps backwards, offering me a knowing wink as he went.
If he only knew.
If Joe only knew how much that boy had helped us.
“What the hell is happening?” Johnny demanded, dragging my attention back to present, as he wiped a trickle of blood from his lip.
“You tell me,” Gibsie muttered under his breath. “I’ve a headache coming on from the sheer height of confusion.”
“Shannon called me,” Joey was quick to answer, as anger emanated from him in waves. “Someone in this stuck-up school did something to her!”
“Did something to her? What?” Johnny stared blankly. “I was just with her at lunch.” He looked around, clearly confused. “What did they do to her?” He looked around wildly, clearly willing any of his friends to give him the answer. “What the fuck is going on?”
Gibsie opened his mouth to reply, but Hughie quickly covered his mouth with his hand. “This is the part where you shush, lad.”
“When I find out which one of you privileged pricks hurt my sister, I’ll do time for ye!” That was Joey, who was literally thrumming with tension.
“What’s going on here?” a man I presumed was a teacher at Tommen demanded. However, the speed in which the crowd around us quickly scattered led me to believe that this man was higher up the rank than a regular teacher.
“Fuck,” I heard tell his friend as they ran off. “It’s the principal.”