Page 19 of Harrison Hyde and the Runaway Bride

“He put his hands on you?” her father asked.

“I barely touched her! I barely touched you before your nerd boyfriend came at me like a maniac.” Billy Bob was scared. Finally. He was looking from Lash to Maria again, and then to Harry, who had come in behind her.

“Tell him,” Billy Bob shouted at Harry. “You were there.”

Her father looked at Harry.

Harry answered with calm, precise recall. “He came at me, she stepped in front of me. He grabbed her, jerked her around and she hit the table. She probably has a bruise on her ribcage. Right side. I shoved him back away from her, and then he decked me.”

Maria frowned and ran her hand over her right side, applied a little pressure, and winced. Then she lifted her blouse enough to reveal a pink and purple bruise on her rib cage. “I didn’t even notice that last night.” She met Harry’s eyes, but they were on her bruised skin.

Her father’s expression had gone blank and still. Maria knew him well enough to be worried.

“We’re gon’ need you to tell us where that car is,” he said, speaking real slow. “After that, you’re free to go. My brothers-in-law might want a word with you, but I really got no say in that.”

Billy Bob got out of his chair and took two steps back from the table. “They’re fixin’ to kill me?” Then he looked at Maria. “They’re fixin’ to kill me, Maria Michele!”

She saw the alarm in Harry’s eyes and tried to send him reassurance without giving up the game. There was no way her dad would let Billy Bob go.

Everyone who really knew her family knew they were good, decent people. But they also knew you didn’t mess with a Brand without incurring the wrath of the whole clan. It just wasn’t done. Not in Quinn, it wasn’t.

“You want me to stop ’em?” she asked. “Tell me what you did with Harry’s car.”

“I didn’t take the goldern car! I walked into the bar, had the fight?—”

“Assaulted two people, trashed the place,” she said.

“He hit me first!” Billy Bob argued. “Then I walked outside, got in my truck, and left! That’s it.”

Willow returned. She didn’t have any beer, and Maria realized she’d left to give her dad a shot at Billy Bob.

“You can take him back to his cell, Deputy, then come right back,” Lash said. And Maria found it odd to hear her father refer to her cousin that way. If it was strange to her, she wondered how weird it must feel to Willow.

Will gave a respectful nod and took Billy Bob by the arm while the suspect tried to talk his way to redemption. She returned seconds later, sans prisoner.

“What did the parking lot cam show?” Lash asked.

Willow looked blank, then alarmed. “Manny’s place has security cameras?” She pressed a palm to her forehead. “I didn’t even think to ask.”

Lash nodded slowly. “That’s okay. But you need to get over there and see to it. The system’s old enough that it only saves a day or two at a time, as I recall from the last bar brawl Garrett and I had to sort out over there. And if you want to see the footage, you’ll have to do it in person.”

“That’s pretty old,” she said.

“Part of it’s the user,” Lash said.

Willow had lowered her head. “I messed up.”

“You’re doin’ a good job, Willow.” Maria appreciated her dad’s reassuring tones to her rookie cousin. He wasn’t being her superior at that point; he was being her uncle.

“I want to be doin’ agreatjob,” she replied, lifting her chin and looking him in the eye.

“Well, that only comes with experience, which takes time. You’re puttin’ in the time, so…greatis inevitable.”

“Thanks, Uncle Lash,” she said.

He left them. Willow turned to Maria and Harry, and Maria saw her notice how close they were standing. She hadn’t really noticed herself until that moment.

That wasn’t true. She’d actually been wondering if she could inch a little closer without drawing undue attention. What in tarnation was wrong with her? She’d just dumped a man yesterday!

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