Authors: Alison Jordan
"As I was saying, I don't want you doing anything, we'll get your things in a few boxes are for your personal effects, books and knick knacks and all that girly shit, don't bring any of those fucked up clothes over here or I'll start a bonfire in the back yard with that shit."
"But I didn't really bring anything else to wear and ..."
He opened his wallet and threw a black card at me.
"So go shopping."
"Wha..."
"Go shopping for what you need."
"But it has your name on it, I don't think they'll let me use it."
"Take carol or Elena with you, trust me those two would know what to do."
"But I can't just take..."
"Had that conversation already babe, not going there again."
He continued getting ready for work totally ignoring my angst.
Well, a part of me was excited at the thought of shopping, and then as is the norm when dealing with Colton, there is that other part that's not one hundred percent comfortable doing these things so early in our relationship.
Colton of course didn't even let me get the words out of my mouth.
"In fact I think you should call one of them to go with you, have some fun, I'll be gone longer today than the last couple days so that'll be good, but nothing strenuous."
I guess I'm going shopping.
"Call me if you need me okay Angel!"
"Okay."
"And listen, buy whatever you want, none of that bullshit, I know you don't get this yet, but I'm going to take care of you from now on, that means your food, your clothes, your shelter, that's on me, all that other odds and ends girlie shit you can take care of if you want to, but I can cover that too if you want."
Color me crazy but is this guy for real, like seriously, who does these things, not anyone I know or have ever heard of.
Jared's my friend, he's a good guy, but I know for a fact that he doesn't treat any of his girlfriends this way.
I would ask my mom but our conversation two days ago hadn't left much room for such questions.
I understood that she was afraid for me, that she will always be worried after what had happened, but she had really gone off.
It's almost as if she was mad that I had fallen for someone, I thought telling her about my coming out of my shell with Colton's help would make her happy, but instead she seemed offended somehow.
When she'd questioned the rashness of our relationship and I'd started crying because she just wasn't hearing my side, Colton had taken the phone and told her rather forcefully that no one was allowed to make me cry or feel bad not even her. Then he'd hung up.
She'd sent me a text a few hours later with just one word.
"Wow".
My thoughts exactly.
I haven't seen anyone in the last couple days but my phone have been almost glued to my ear, I've heard from his mother, my father, Carol and Jared, somehow I think Colton told everyone no visitors for the next few days.
I wondered what excuse he gave them for that but didn't ask.
After he finally left I called Carol up to make plans for our day of shopping, of course she was excited, it's like in her blood.
Having been cooped up for so long it was great to get out and about and carol was full of ideas and suggestions, especially after she realized that I had Colton's card.
Halfway through I'd had enough, not because I was tired or anything but because I'd already bought too much.
When I complained about the thousands of dollars we'd already spent and believe it or not we'd only bought undergarments as yet, she'd whipped out her phone and called Colton, passing the phone to me after squealing on me.
"Babe seriously, I got shit to do here, buy the shit, if you don't then I'll have to and I've got shit lined up for the next few weeks so help me out alright."
Oh my word!
He just hung up after that, my panties were shot.
Of course Carol was grinning and hopping up and down and off we went.
"Well if it isn't Colton's flavor of the month."
Damn, that thing sure got around.
"Jennifer that's uncalled for..."
"No no Carol, let it speak.
I hate this bitch, I kid you not, just the sight of her makes me want to taste blood, not because she'd once shared Colton's bed, (though she'd never physically been in his according to him), but because I could sense that she didn't want to move on, to let go, and after tasting of the fruit so to speak, I could certainly understand why, but she wasn't his ex-wife or the mother of his child or anything like that.
She was just one of a long line of nothing special so she had no jurisdiction and if she thought I was too young or too stupid to know that, then she was sadly mistaken.
She sneered at me from head to toe until her eyes caught sight of my anklet.
That's a Simon piece where did you get that?"
Before I could answer or not Carol intervened.
"Jennifer just leave us alone, where Kat got her jewelry is none of your business." She tried going around the annoying twit to no avail.
Once again I spoke over her.
"It's cool Carol, actually Colton bought me this, as he put it, it's to show the world I belong to him, you should see the other jewelry he got me to go with it,... oops, YOU can't, it's private, oh well."
She hissed at me as her face grew increasingly redder.
Carol made a move to come between us but she was too late, Jennifer's hand connected with the side of my head before I could block the blow.
The last person to put hands on me were those boys, I felt the fear begin to creep in, felt the need to run and hide away somewhere, but stronger and more persistent than that was Colton's voice during our sparring matches.
I heard him in my head strengthening my resolve, telling me I was worth fighting for, pushing at the fear that threatened to overcome me, and lastly I heard him tell me to own my shit, to fight for what's mine.
Instead of the fear there was now anger, anger at all those who thought it was okay to prey on the weak.
Before that whole incident I would never have let anyone get away with slapping me like that, maybe Colton was right, maybe it was time to take the power back, and what better way than to wipe the floor with this smarmy bitch.
I knew I was going to be okay when I started laughing, which only seemed to enrage her even more.
"You know, it doesn't matter what you do or say here, at the end of the day I'm still going to be Colton's girl and you're not. As a matter of fact before I forget, Carol I might need you to come help me pack up for my move into your brother's penthouse. I understand you've never been inside Jennifer, it's gorgeous."
Then I took some liberties with the truth.
"Colton even said I could redecorate anyway I want to but it's already perfect so..."
I shrugged as though it was no big deal, no he hadn't said that but I'm sure if I asked he'd let me, and knowing that, I felt even more empowered.
This little speech had the desired effect as the delusional nut job actually went for my throat.
This time I was ready though and blocked her hands with one of mine while using the thumb of the other to jab her jugular.
She dropped to her knees like a dead weight, clutching her throat, fighting for the breath.
The din that had surrounded me was suddenly broken as I heard laughter and applause around us.
Of course, it's a mall, it would be full of teenagers with their cell phones at the ready, I had no doubt this would be on YouTube in the next hour or so.
Apparently I didn't hit her hard enough because she was climbing to her feet again. Damn.
I guess since it was my first time doing it I'd pulled back a little, Colton had warned me about that.
As much as I would enjoy kicking her snooty ass I didn't necessarily want to end up a feature on YouTube.
Meanwhile Carol was on the phone trying to call someone, a crowd was gathering and the bitch was back on her feet with blood in her eyes.
"You fucking little bitch, how dare you?"
"Jennifer you need to stop, people are staring and taking pictures for heavens' sake."
"Shut up Carol, do you think I'd let this little nobody get the best of me, I know all about you, yeah, I had a look into your past, why don't we tell these nice people here how you and your friend lured those poor boys and then cried rape you little..."
I'm not sure she got any other words out, all I know is my ears began to ring and my blood was up.
My first swing drew blood but that didn't stop me, I just kept going, if she could or could not fight I couldn't tell you, all I know is nothing connected to me but I was wailing the hell out of her.
I beat her for me and Donna and the hell we went through, I beat her for having the nerve to want to sink her filthy hooks into my man. I'm not sure how long we were at it, it didn't seem that long at all but the next thing I knew there were running feet coming towards us and mall security was trying to pull me off of her.
"Get your fucking hands off her asshole."
"Oh shit." I looked at carol questioningly, how the hell had Colton made it here so fast, there's no way.
Greenville is at least an hour away, whatever, Colton was pulling me out of the guard's hands while most of his crew surrounded us and Carol.
Jennifer was screeching about having me arrested along with some other very imaginative threats, the kids were yelling that she'd started the whole thing and they had the proof.
"Call your security chief and tell him get his ass down here now." Colton ordered the guy who'd been about to haul me off.
He wasted no time getting on the horn to his boss. He said a few words to whoever it was before turning back to Colton.
"Your name sir?"
"Lyon."
I didn't miss the look of apprehension that crossed the guard's face at that.
There was a whole lot going on thanks in part to Jennifer's vociferous outbursts and calls for action.
Carol looked like she was about to deck her one and I just wanted to be done.
"Did you hurt yourself Angel?"
Colton pushed the hair back from my temple where she'd clocked me the first time.
There wasn't any swelling or anything that I could tell but it was apparent that there was some kind of bruising since he kissed the spot before hugging me close.
I took a chance and looked up at his face to gather how angry he was at me, but his venom was directed elsewhere.
The look he was directing at Jennifer was almost lethal, I actually shivered when his eyes moved to mine.
The raw intent I saw there before he hid it behind the softer look of concern he gave me was scary as hell.
"Mr. Lyon the boss said to come on up."
"Let's go."
Without waiting for an answer, he turned with me under his arm and Carol and his crew followed behind as we headed to the control room.
Jennifer of course yelled all the way there.
In the office the head of security greeted Colton like they were old friends, the way Colton acted and played it down made me a little suspicious but I couldn't quite put my finger on why that should be.
The crew refused to wait outside so we all squeezed into the room with the monitors.
"Okay, so I'm going to run the tape back so we can see what we're dealing with here."
He hit some buttons and we watched as just one of the screens went back while the others remained on current time.
On the screen we watched Jennifer's approach, you couldn't hear what was being said but the look on her face said it all.
Then there was me looking all smug and dare I say, smarmy myself.
Her slap came next and the head of security stopped the tape.
"As you can see, it clearly shows that you threw the first punch." He directed this to the still yelling Jennifer who had yet to shut up.
"Obviously you doctored it, everybody knows the Lyons own this mall and everything in it including you, so you'd say anything..."
"I'm willing to bet that those twenty or so cell phones down on that floor will tell the same story, what do you want to bet, now the question is, Miss?"
He turned to me.
"Sloan, Katarina Sloan."
"Miss Sloan, the question is, do you want to press charges?"
I looked to Colton for guidance but all I got was a squeeze and an 'it's your call babe' to which Jennifer huffed like a racehorse coming down the stretch.
What the hell was her problem anyway?
"No,no charges, just as long as Miss. Rossetti understands that if she comes near me again she'd get more of the same."
Don't ask what possessed me to do it, but I raised my fist and shook it at her, which made the guys laugh and Colton kiss my knuckles with a grin.
"We done here Dimitri?"
"We're done."
Colton left my side and walked over to Jennifer, my heart constricted painfully in my chest.
It's weird, although I knew there wasn't anything in the least bit romantic about his approach, I still hated it.
I didn't want him anywhere near her.
His words were loud enough for all of us to hear though he didn't raise his voice.
I know one thing, if I'd been on the receiving end of that I'd leave the state first chance I got.
"I warned you yeah! Told you what would happen if you touched her, you chose to ignore my warning, now you can reap the whirlwind.
The fact that Kat kicked your sorry ass does not in anyway negate what's coming your way,so not only did you suffer the humiliation of an ass whipping in front of witnesses, now I'm going to make you suffer even more.
You should've known better than to fuck with me and mine."
"Colton..." She reached for his arm but he evaded her touch even as I moved towards him to block her move.
I couldn't bear for her to touch him, in that moment I realized he was mine as much as I was his.
All those things he'd been saying to me, worked both ways, I owned him as much as he owned me, heart and soul.
The thought made me almost delirious and I forgot myself for a moment, threw myself into his arms and ignoring the slight pain from my sudden movements, laid one on him.