The Jealousy Game novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Coat

Casper's POV

His fist caught me high on the cheekbone, on the same side where Lena had slapped me.

I saw white.

I did not go down, because I had spent six years lifting hulls off cradles, and my legs knew how to take a load.

"Stand still," Brett said, through his teeth.

He hit me again, in the ribs, and the air left me.

Somebody screamed.

I kept my hands open at my sides.

I had thought about this for fourteen months, in the dark, in the car outside Maddie's cottage.

I had thought about what I would do if I ever got my hands on him.

Now he was in front of me with his tie pulled loose and spit on his chin, and it turned out that I did not want to.

I wanted him to hit me.

I had earned it, thirty-one times over.

"Come on," Brett said. "Do something. Defend yourself."

"No."

"You coward."

"Yes."

That stopped him for half a second, and his fist hung in the air.

Then Dean hit him from the side.

It was a soccer coach's tackle, low and clean, and they both went down on the grass between the chairs with Brett's white rose crushed under his shoulder.

Dean got a knee on his back and an arm up behind it.

"Don't," Dean said, panting. "Don't move, man. I swear to God."

A man from the lodge came and sat on Brett's legs without being asked.

A second one took out his phone and held it up.

I stood there with blood in my mouth.

I touched my cheek, and my fingers came away wet.

Across the aisle, Lena had not moved.

She stood by the stage in the blue dress with the whistle hanging from her hand.

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