Hurry Up And Wait (Owens Protective Services #24)

1. Isla

1

ISLA

“That was a shit movie,” Shawn grumbled, grabbing my arm as we left the theater. “We’d have been better off seeing one of your rom-coms.”

I rolled my eyes and ignored the anger in his voice. What happened to my loving husband? Oh yeah. He fled the moment he made detective. I tried and tried to make things work between us, but he was so damn grouchy all the time, and I was fucking sick of it. I just wanted things to end.

But this wasn’t the time or place to make that happen.

“It’s not the end of the world.”

He snorted. “Yeah, because you don’t work the hours I do. You work from home and set your own schedule. It doesn’t fucking matter if you waste time.”

There was no point in arguing with him. Shawn had become so jaded over the last several years. Nothing I did was good enough for him, and it didn’t help that I made more money than him “sitting at home on my ass” as he liked to call it. I started my own graphic design company and built it from the ground up. At first, Shawn was proud of me for that. He used to brag to his friends about how amazing it was that I did so well .

And then his friends found out that I was earning twice as much money as Shawn, and that’s when it all went to shit. His friends teased him relentlessly, and the longer it went on, the greater the resentment grew. I was no longer someone he was proud of, but the butt of every joke to make himself feel better.

“Can we not do this tonight?” I sighed.

“Not do this?” he snapped, stopping in his tracks. He grabbed my arm and shoved me up against a brick wall, his eyes gleaming with hatred. He never used to be like this, but then, I shouldn’t be surprised that our relationship went south. I was generally a happy person, and I thought he was also, when we first married. As I stared at him now, I wondered if I ever truly knew my husband.

“You know, the argument part. Can we just go home and forget about this?”

He huffed out a sadistic laugh. “That’s all life is to you, right? Just forget about it and move on.”

“Well, yeah,” I snapped. “Not everything is a Greek tragedy. A bad movie is just a bad movie. There’s no point in getting this upset over it.”

He ground his teeth, his eyes filling with more hate than I’d ever seen before. He just couldn’t stand the fact that I was a happy person. It grated on him and twisted him into a person I never knew. And with every year that passed, the Shawn I married slipped away and was replaced by this incredibly arrogant, insanely jealous, and hateful man.

“You used to like to argue with me.”

“That was when I could actually win an argument,” I countered.

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“It means…it means I’m done, Shawn.” I sighed in resignation. This was not when I wanted to drop this particular bombshell on him, but I couldn’t take another night of this. “You’ve changed so much, and the man I married is no longer here. I’ve tried to work it out with you, but you just can’t let go of this insane rage. I’m done.”

His grip on my arms grew tighter as he stared at me. The anger in his eyes amplified to a new level, but I wasn’t scared. I knew how to take care of myself, and I wasn’t afraid of what he could do to me. Yes, he was a trained cop, but I never let anyone walk all over me .

“You’re done,” he spat. “No. You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to walk away from the marriage we’ve built!”

“What marriage?” I countered. “You hate me. I can see it in your eyes every night when you come home. You never have a single nice thing to say about me. In fact, the last time we actually got along was about three years ago. And I’m done trying.”

He shook me hard, making my head bounce off the wall. I squeezed my eyes closed and refused to let anger take over. That wouldn’t help anything.

“You’re done? Just like that?” he spat. “I don’t think so.”

I felt a brush of wind over my cheek, but the hit I expected never landed. I peeled my eyes open just as he was wrenched away from me and tossed on the ground. I stared with wide eyes as a man in a charcoal suit loomed over him, staring down at him with fury.

“You want to try that on someone your own size?” the man hissed.

“You have no idea who you’re fucking with!” Shawn shouted, jumping to his feet.

The man in the suit sighed. “You should have just stayed on the fucking ground and saved me the trouble of putting you back there.”

Shawn swung out, attempting to strike the man, but he quickly sidestepped him and waited for the next hit. I was torn between wanting Shawn to get his ass beaten and intervening. After all, Shawn was still my husband, even if I had just stated that I wanted a divorce.

Shawn lunged for the man again, but didn’t even make contact with his jacket before the man tossed him aside in a puddle. I winced, knowing Shawn would want me to clean that out before it stained his clothes. He was so useless.

But Shawn didn’t stop. He kept going after the man, taking hit after hit and refusing to back down. I almost felt bad for him, aside from the fact that he’d just slammed my head into a brick wall. And frankly, he had it coming. I was surprised no one on the police force put him in his place yet. Then again, they were all his buddies.

With one final hit, Shawn sprawled out on the ground, still breathing, but clearly defeated. Part of me wanted to go to him. Years of marriage demanded that I take care of my husband. Yet, I couldn’t make my feet move. I was done with him and his anger issues. And this man stood up for me, defended me when Shawn was out of control. Going to him now would be counterproductive to what this man just did for me.

The stranger straightened, fixing his suit as he turned to me. I inhaled sharply at the deep blue eyes that stared back at me. By all accounts, this man was devastatingly handsome. His slicked-back black hair fit his tailored suit to a T. And the scruff along his jaw made him somehow look even more dangerous with a devil-may-care attitude.

Tongue-tied, I stared at the man, trying to figure out what to say. Thank you seemed inadequate somehow. But neither did I need to gush over him. If he hadn’t shown up, I would have handled Shawn myself, though maybe not as well as this man.

I opened my mouth to thank him, but he didn’t give me the chance, walking away into the darkness of the alley. Shawn groaned on the ground, rolling over and wincing in pain. I strode forward, tearing the ring from my finger as I bent down to him.

“I want a divorce.” I dropped the ring with a heavy clang on the ground and walked away. It was time to start my life over, and that wouldn’t include men who were too insecure to handle a woman who could stand on her own two feet.

My heels clicked on the pavement as I strode into the night, feeling lighter than I had in the past three years. Who knew going to the movies could have such strong ramifications?