When I look back from the door, he backhands me across the face, knocking my head to the side, and fuck, it stings. But I recover, glaring up at him, not even feeling the sting that much.

“You motherfucker!” I scream before I kick him hard in the gut.

He goes back a few steps, his dark eyes flaring, and I make a run for it. My towel has fallen and I’m naked, but I need to go.

But he gets me by my breasts, his nails biting into them, making me scream as he brings me back into his hard cock. I try to shake him free, but he isn’t budging, his lips by my ear as he laughs in such a disgusting and menacing way.

Just as the door opens.

And Jayden steps in.

Surely I’m imagining what I am seeing right now.

But I’m pretty sure McCarthy is holding my girlfriend by her boobs.

And she’s naked.

And so is he.

But her mouth is bleeding and her eyes are full of fear.

So that means one thing.

McCarthy is about to die.

I yank her by her arm behind me, and she goes with a yelp. I smash my fist into McCarthy’s face before he can even sputter any kind of fucking lie to me. His head whips back, and when it comes forward again, I do it again and again and one last time before he falls onto the ground, his hand going up and trying to stop me. By then I’m kicking him in his gut. I hear Baylor yelling something, I feel her trying to stop me, but no, this dude is going to die. I go to reach for him to beat his ass some more—the rage is all-consuming—but then someone is pulling me back who is not Baylor. When Coach throws me up against the wall, he shakes me hard.

“That’s enough, I said!”

I’m breathing hard, my hand is aching, but all I can think about is Baylor. I look over at her and she’s holding herself, tears streaming down her face as she shakes. I’m not sure if she’s cold or in shock, but I go to her, looking her over. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, he just hit me; he didn’t rape me. He only tried.”

“Lying bitch!” McCarthy yells, and I look back at him.

He’s still alive?

“Someone better start explaining, right now!” Coach yells before throwing a towel to Baylor. Looking her over, I see that she has red marks all over her, her mouth is bleeding, causing anger to burn my body. I help her cover up with the towel I find on the floor before I wrap my arms around her, but she squirms out of them, shaking her head. “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not,” I say, taking her back in my arms. When she starts to sob into my chest, I kiss her forehead as McCarthy starts spitting nothing but lies.

“He came in here and whooped my ass for nothing!”

“I highly doubt that,” Coach says, looking back at us and raising an eyebrow.

“No, she put the moves on me, and he got mad because she’s been fucking him too,” McCarthy yells, wiping the blood from his nose. “She wanted it.”

“You’re a fucking liar! He tried to rape me!” she yells back, her body trembling against mine. “I came in here to shower, and when I was washing my hair, he came in and wouldn’t leave. I asked him to leave then told him, and he wouldn’t. When he said he could touch me and no one would know, I tried to leave and he grabbed on to me. He backhanded me, and I punched him in the mouth and kicked him in the gut. Dad, I’m not lying!” she says, probably because McCarthy is calling her a liar left and right.

“Coach, I came to the locker room to suit up to do some laps, and I heard a scream. I walked in, and she has blood coming from her mouth and he had her by her boobs. I didn’t think; I acted. I won’t apologize for whooping his ass. You don’t touch a woman like that.”

Coach looks back at McCarthy and he stands stone-faced, his eyes wide as he shakes his head. “I didn’t touch her. She came at me.”

“I would never,” she sneers from my arms.

“Why were you in here?” Coach asks. “I’m pretty sure the captain has enforced the rule to wait till she is done. And if you didn’t know she was in here, then when you saw her, you should have left.”

McCarthy doesn’t answer him, just shrugs. “I’m tired of her getting special treatment,” he says, acid in his voice.

“She doesn’t get special treatment, asshole,” I snap. “We respect her.”

I still haven’t caught my breath as I watch Coach look around, his breathing labored too. Pausing, he looks back up. “Why’s her caddy on the floor like that if she came on to you and y’all were fooling around? Why would she be carrying it?”

McCarthy swallows visibility and then shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“Because I dropped it when I was trying to get away and he grabbed ahold of me,” she answers quietly. “Dad, I’m not lying.”

“I know you’re not, Baylor,” he says sternly before looking back at her. “Go put some clothes on and wait for me in my office.”

I let her go and she starts for the door, but when I turn to go with her, he says, “Not you, Sinclair. I need you to make sure I can walk McCarthy to campus security without killing him myself.”

“Yes, sir,” I say as Baylor walks out of the room. Crossing my arms, I kinda hope he lets me whoop his ass some more. But instead, he looks at him and says, “I don’t do liars; I hate them. And most of all, I don’t have men on my team who try to take advantage of girls.”

“But she’s—”

“You’re off my team, you are out of my house, and you have twenty seconds to get dressed before I drag you to campus police naked.”

When he doesn’t say anything, I take that as admitting guilt as he grabs his towel and gets dressed. Coach doesn’t say anything to me or him as campus police come and take our statements. They then interview Baylor, take pictures, and it kills me to hear her replay the story. But she is just so damn strong and proud. Any other girl would be shaky, scared out of her mind. But Baylor… She’s the strongest girl I know. Nothing fazes her, and by God, I love her for that.

By the time everything is said and done, McCarthy is arrested for assault and battery and then attempted rape. As they handcuff him and put him in the back of their car, I hope he knows he isn’t welcome back here. As soon as the guys get word of this, McCarthy will be on everyone’s hit list.