It could mean only one thing. His lips rounded as he exhaled. “You’re a lesbian.”
He never saw the fist that knocked him flat.
4
“Fuck me! You broke my nose.” He moaned.
Anika didn’t feel bad about it at all, even as she couldn’t believe she’d landed it.
She didn’t apologize.
As Dominick lay on the ground blinking, his nose bleeding, she stood over him and snapped, “I don’t like you because you’re an arrogant ass. And for your information, I like men. Nice men. Not jerks who think they’re God’s gift to women.”
With that, she stepped over him and got into her car. She began driving away, only to pass him, walking diagonally across the lot with his hand still held over his nose. She turned onto the road and kept seeing him, moving on foot, bleeding.
Fuck.
Fuck a duck.
Fuck!
She turned around and pulled up beside him before rolling down the window. “You going to be okay?”
“Eventually.”
Not usually a violent person, and very Canadian, she couldn’t help but say, “I’m sorry I broke your nose.”
“No, you’re not.” To her surprise, the statement emerged thickly but not angrily. Dominick’s wry expression met hers as he ducked to peer inside the car.
“Okay, I’m not sorry. You asked for it. Seriously, who the fuck calls someone a lesbian just because she’s not interested?”
“An asshole. I’m sorry. Guess I lost my manners while in the bush.” He still had a liquid rattle to his words.
“Where’s your car? Can you drive?”
“No car. I was jogging.”
“I’ll drive you to the hospital.”
He snorted and winced. “No hospital. But I would take a ride home.”
“Where do you live?”
As he named the road, her brows lifted. He lived more than ten kilometers from the store. “That seems like a long jog,” she stated as she sped up to make a light.
“Not really. I usually run farther.”
“Every day?”
“Whenever I can since I came home. Mom says I’ve got too much energy from boredom.”
“Must be nice to have the time,” she muttered.
He heard. “I’m not used to it. In the military, when I wasn’t prepping for an exercise, I was on a mission or being debriefed. My days had structure.”
“And you liked that?” She wrinkled her nose. She’d hate to have someone telling her what to do.
“It’s easy to follow orders.”
“I’m sure wherever you end up working, you’ll have plenty to keep you happy.” She couldn’t have said why she was being nice. He didn’t deserve it.
He was a veteran.
Dammit. She didn’t want to cut him any slack, but she did have to recognize that he’d been living a vastly different life than she had for a while now. A rougher existence. But that didn’t mean she’d give him a free pass.
“Guess now that my career is over, I need to figure out my next job.” Said flatly.
“Do you want one?” she asked. “I mean, I kind of assumed.” Perhaps he couldn’t work. She didn’t know if he’d left the service for medical reasons. She’d hate to think that he was just lazy and wanted to live off the government’s tit.
“Of course, I want to work!” he burst out. “But I have no skills outside the military. I feel so fucking useless. And now I sound like a pussy for admitting it. Jesus. Why can’t I stop running my mouth around you?” He looked out the side window as she turned onto the road for his house.
“Have you talked to someone about how you’ve been feeling since you retired?”
“I do not want a head shrink,” he growled, the vowels low and rumbly.
“Well, excuse me,” she said with exaggerated annoyance. “Didn’t realize it was so fucking shameful.” She’d seen one for a while after the divorce until she discovered CBD oil. Bye-bye stress.
“It’s just…a shrink can’t fix what’s wrong with me because it’s not only in my head.”
“Are you injured?” she asked.
“Not exactly. There’s something wrong inside, and they can’t find it.”
“Don’t give up,” she advised as she turned into a driveway that led to a farm of all places. The massive gravel lane was a few hundred yards long and opened into a massive space in front of a white plank farmhouse, the kind that had been built onto over the years and had odd angles to it, along with a wraparound porch.
As she pulled up, Dominick muttered, “Thanks.”
“I hope you get your shit together,” she offered.
“Me, too.” He offered her a wry grin, the first she’d seen from him, and the transformation hit her in the gut.
“Do you need any help getting inside?” she asked as he pulled on the handle to open the door.
He laughed. “No. I’m emasculated enough imagining the mockery my brothers will throw my way when they find out you decked me.”
“You’re not going to lie and say it was that gang?”
“Family doesn’t lie to one another. And they also never let you live shit down.” With a long-suffering sigh, Dominick got out of the car. Someone leaning against a post pushed away and drawled, “What the fuck happened to you?”
“She did.” Dominick pointed right at her.
“You got decked by a girl?” The laughter proved boisterous enough that it drew an older woman outside. She clutched a cane as she emerged onto the porch.
“Dommy! What happened to your face?”
“It’s okay, Mom. Just being taught some manners.”
“By who?” his mom huffed.
Time to leave. Only he’d yet to close the passenger-side door. Anika leaned over to grab the armrest but lacked the arm length to reach.
“Hey. Mind closing the door?” Anika whisper-shouted to him.
Before he could move, his mom yelled, “Have you said thank you for the ride home?”
Dominick’s gaze met hers, flaring for a second before his eyelids partially lowered. “Thanks for the ride.”
“Invite them in.”
“I don’t think Anika wants to stay.”
“You haven’t even asked.”
The argument made her think of a horror movie.
I’m that stupid girl.
Only in that second did it occur to her that she might have made a mistake coming to his place. She’d thought only of doing the right thing. Yet she’d taken a rude and angry ex-soldier alone in her car to a remote location.
She should have texted someone. Taken a picture of him. Something. What if his family were cannibals?
“Mom, she doesn’t want to stay. Who do you think hit me?”
Dominick slammed the door shut, and she let out a breath as she sat up and put her foot on the brake. She shifted and went to hit the gas, only to notice a young woman standing in front of the car, her purple hair cut in a short shag. She glared at Anika, arms crossed over her chest. Obviously, not letting her leave.
Finally, recovering her wits, Anika pulled out her phone and did a direct picture posted to social media, tagging her location. If she disappeared, they’d know where to start looking.