Free Disgruntled by Shelley Wall Page A

tea.
“You’re bleeding, Reva.” He noticed the drip trailing off the
scratches on her arm. “You must have aggravated the tree
scratches.”
He moved toward her to get a look. Reva lifted her arm and
peered at the flesh.
“It’s nothing. I’ll wrap it up.” She swiped the blood with her
finger.
Todd wrapped his fingers around her forearm and lifted it.
He leaned in to get a better view of the damage. Her pulse
spiked but she didn’t pull away.
“I shouldn’t have let you carry all this. I’m sorry,” he said.
“What the …” A booming voice said from the gate. Reva’s
brother Tim glanced over the fence posts, taking in Todd’s
hand, Reva’s scratches, the words, and – the blood. “No
way!” Tim bellowed as he slammed the gate open and
barreled through with Ben on his heels.
“You son of a bitch,” Ben added.
Todd dropped Reva’s arm as the two pit-bulls charged him,
their faces filled with anger.
“It’s not like that guys!” Reva stepped between them to stop
her brothers’ attack but they pushed her aside. “He was just
helping me.”
“I see that. Helping you get cut up and pushed around
again.” Tim shoved Todd against the brick and levered a
forearm against his throat, pinching off his breath.
Todd had no way to defend himself against both men.
Doing so would have escalated the issue further. He simply
held up his hands and faced the palms toward them. He said
nothing.
“You think it’s okay to take advantage of women, smartass?”
Ben’s voice was low and threatening behind Tim’s mass. He
reached in and grabbed a handful of Todd’s hair. “Think
again. She’s been through that already and there’s no way—”
Reva screamed and lunged onto Tim’s back, tightening her
arms around his neck and forcing him to release Todd. She
pushed the fingers of one hand into his hair, pulling hard
while she threaded the other hand over his eyes and blinded
him. “He didn’t touch me guys! He. Didn’t. Touch. Me. It’s
just a scratch.”
“Sure. You’ve said that before,” Tim growled.
With Tim occupied, Ben stepped in and took over by
landing a solid punch to Todd’s face. Damn. Todd leaned
down cupping a hand over his right eye, which very likely
had started swelling. He couldn’t open it. He held out a hand
to try to wield off the next movement, which ended up a
good swift kick to the shin. He felt lucky – it had been aimed
at the groin. His fast reaction readjusted the target.
“Ouch! Jesus, this is not happening.” Todd groaned and fell
to the ground to rub his shin.
“Stop it!” Reva shouted. “Stop it! He’s done nothing . Nothing ,
you hear me? He helped me carry these rocks back here and
I opened up the scabs on my scratch. A scratch which was
inflicted while climbing a tree.”
“Sure, sis,” Ben said. “I haven’t seen you climb a tree since
you were eleven. That didn’t come from a damn tree and
stop covering for him. His type doesn’t deserve it.”
“I’m not covering for him, and if you so much as lay another
hand on him, Ben, I will…I will send all this crap to the
junkyard and tell your sweetie you haven’t sold a single
piece. Do you hear me?”
Todd had no clue what that meant but he assumed Ben had
been passing off his artwork as more successful than hoped.
Probably for his family’s benefit. Or his. Who knew?
“And Tim, I’ll tell Mom about your trip to Dayton last
spring. I’m sure she’d find that real interesting. Almost as
interesting as the grandkid they don’t know about!” Oh my God. It’s the Kardashians – in a Latin sort of way. Ben released Todd and switched his snarl to Tim. “What
grandkid?”
“Oh shit,” Reva muttered and removed a hand from Tim’s
head to clamp it over her mouth. Tim shrugged her off his
back and gave her a snarl that Todd thought might actually
wither a weaker person. Not Reva.
“Yeah, oh shit. Thanks, sis. I appreciate you airing my dirty
laundry. Any other bombshells you want to drop on us?”
Ben