Free The Mistress, Part Two by Lexie Ray Page B

window, cutting her knees and hands as she went. She didn’t have time for her injuries. Despite having been cut, ankle twisted, hands burning – she didn’t have time to stop.
    She had to get to Lucas. She ran through her pain until she rounded the corner and saw the large boy, still holding Lucas’s hair, smashing his fist against his face repeatedly. Even from her distance she could see that same horrendous look plastered on the boy’s face – now even more evident than before.
    “STOP!” she bellowed with everything she had. The boys all snapped their heads to her direction before scurrying off, the larger of the boys – the one attacking Lucas – shortly following. He had dropped Lucas to the ground, and he just lay there – unmoving. She ran to him. His face was down – directly into the dirt – and when she finally turned him over to look at him, what she saw terrified her. He was beaten, bloody, and completely battered.
    She watched his eyes flutter open slightly, and they glistened with tears. He was conscious, thank God – but he looked at her, pain evident in his eyes. It was only for a moment, though. As one more tear fell down his face and to his ear, he pulled himself from his daze and forced himself up with his wobbly arms.
    She had to admire his strength. He was a boy of only twelve and had more guts and drive than most men had. He pushed himself the rest of the way up with a grunt and made his way to his feet. His movement was staggering, and he crumbled over holding his stomach. She could only imagine what happened to him when she couldn’t see, when she hadn’t been watching over him. And then she was terrified; what would happen to Lucas if she wasn’t around?

Chapter 6
                  As Marissa absorbed herself in the mound of paperwork that lay in treacherous mounds across her desk, she heard the shrill voice of her sister questioning someone. She asked “What happened?” and because of the volume of the question – loud and shrill – Marissa’s curiosity sparked slightly. She wondered who she was talking to. She could tell it must have been serious if she heard it through her closed office door.
                  She put her papers aside and threw her highlighter onto the surface of her desk. She wanted to know what the matter was. Call it nosiness, call it curiosity – call it what you will, but this was her place of business – her establishment – and she was going to investigate. She only hoped Joseph wasn’t hurt.
                  Poking her head out of her office door, she saw no one around. There was no one in the kitchen. Could she have been in the shop area? How was she that loud? Just as she was about to call for her sister, she saw her come through the door, her face white as all the papers she had been staring at all day – and her expression was serious.
                  “You may want to come out here...” she said, before turning back around and going back through the swinging door.
                  What the fuck? Marissa didn’t know, but worry washed over her suddenly before she went out to see what happened. Flinging open the swinging door, her breath caught and her stomach whirled. There they were – standing before her. Lucas and Haley.
    “What the hell happened?” Marissa screamed. “Why the hell aren’t you with your dad?”
                  Lucas had been bloodied and bruised. He stood there, beneath Haley’s wing – protected as a baby bird by its mother, yet he held a face of stone. His jaw clenched and he looked straight ahead like a soldier, well-postured and tough. Haley squeezed his shoulder as if to prompt him to tell the story once again.
    “I told Dad I was taking the bus home. I do it all the time, and he saw me off at the bus stop,” he replied. “I had to transfer, and I ended up running into some kids from school.”
                  “Is it the same