Page 58 of Rolling Thunder

“Then go,” she whispered, shaking the twitch chain in his face, which elicited a satisfying involuntary flinch.

She meant business, and he knew it.

He nodded, embarrassingly frantic.

She jerked her head, indicating that he should make a run for it.

Defeated, Trent scrambled out of the bed and back toward the driver’s seat of the car.

He made only a few shaky steps toward the car door when, to everyone’s shock, another voice interrupted.

“Freeze! Police!”

Officer Nicole Desmond stepped into the hallway of the barn, gun drawn.

Trent drew himself up to a halt and automatically began to raise his quivering hands.

“You’re not going anywhere! Trent Becker, you’re under arrest for violating the restraining order that I myself submitted to keep you away from Kayla Daniels.”

Nicole advanced slowly, watching him. “Now, turn and place your hands on the hood of the car.”

He immediately did as he was told.

Kayla watched with shocked satisfaction. She’d never seen Trent obediently respond to a woman. That he was going to be put in handcuffs by one was a delightful bonus.

Officer Nicole shoved him forward by the collar, kicking his feet apart and roughly cuffing one hand at a time behind Trent’s back. Holding them securely, Nicole looked over at Kayla. “He do that to your face?”

Kayla reached up and gingerly touched the side of her face, which stung. It was swollen and raw from hitting the ground. She nodded slightly.

“You’ll also be charged with assault and battery, Trent,” Nicole added.

“Charge her with assault! Look at my face!” Trent shrieked, turning half toward them, welts atop fresh bruises clearly visible on his face.

“Face forward, asshole,” Nicole barked, shoving him again. By the sound of her voice, Nicole had a personal vendetta against guys like Trent. Trent snapped to attention.

Inspecting Trent, Nicole could see the fresh little handprint welts forming on top of his already swollen and blackening bruises.

“Looks to me like you got bitch-slapped by some rabid little monkey. Maybe I’ll report it to Animal Control, but I don’t think it’s a police matter. Let’s go. My patrol vehicle’s out front.”

Kayla had acted in self-defense. Nicole had been near enough to witness that. Evan had stood aside and waited it out. When Trent was vulnerable and Evan could have delivered a terrible beatdown, he hadn’t done it.

Officer Nicole yanked Trent by the cuffs, spinning him off-balance from the front of his car with a satisfying jerk, and gruffly shoved him forward to get him moving.

Kayla stood in the hallway for a few moments, trembling with adrenaline, watching Trent being taken away. Finally, she could turn and look at Evan.

“That was the coolest fucking thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Remind me to never piss you off.”

The misplaced laughter was back, hurting her scream-sore throat a little. It was a good pain.

Officer Nicole Desmond had looked forward to arresting Trent. She was confident in the case. He was going to go down hard for it, and Kayla deserved to be safe.

Nicole wasn’t stupid. She knew Kayla had only come to the cops to protect her man, because he would be duty-bound to end this guy, and would probably go back to prison for it.

She hadn’t counted on arresting Trent in the shape he’d been in. Somebody had obviously taught him a lesson before Kayla had so satisfyingly whipped him with a horse crop, and she didn’t have to be a genius to know who had done it.

She stopped her patrol car at the front gate to let herself out, but she was blocked by an incoming motorcycle. A stranger swung off and met her at the gate. He had a swagger that identified him as a man who knew women fell at his feet and knew he was a force to be reckoned with.

Well, this was a curveball.

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