Page 76 of The Cowboy's Second Chance Bride

My gut told me I’d pushed her too far and was about to get hit. I had to let go of my crutches and put my wrapped foot on the ground to try to block her, but I was a few seconds behind when she delivered a heel punch to my temple. That surprised me. I’d totally thought she would be a fist-punch person.

“Now it looks like you have a problem. What are you going to do about that?” she asked.

Honestly, I made the decision before I was even cognizant of it. My weight had shifted to my injured ankle and my right fist had pulled back. I made sure my thumb wasn’t tucked, like Cal had told Rod. And I socked her in the eye.

“That’s what I’m going to do about it.” I shook out my hand and shifted back to my uninjured ankle because, holy crap, the pain in both my ankle and hand was powerful.

She reared back, her hand over her eye, and moved into feral mode. She brought her arms up like she was going to claw me to death, and my heart sped up. I would have to use a crutch as a weapon.

Suddenly I was in the air. Cal picked me up by the waist and spun me away from her, using his body to block me from her. “What the hell?” I cried.

She charged but came to a dead stop when she collided with him. He didn’t even wobble. He was a brick wall.

I dangled a few feet in the air and tried to look over my shoulder to see what was going on. The woman was on the ground, having bounced off Cal and fallen back. He offered her a hand to help her up, but she snarled, one hand still over her eye.

“Ma’am,” he said.

“She hit me.” She pointed at me.

“You hit me first,” I retorted. Oh my days, it was like being transported back to the playground.

Cricket joined the fray. “Kathy, what the hell is going on?”

The woman glared at her.

“Can you put me down?” I asked Cal.

He took me to the bench and lowered me to the seat. “How’s your hand, slugger?” His voice was quiet. He held my chin in his hand as he inspected my cheek. “You got a nice welt.”

“I think she had a ring on her finger.”

He brushed his thumb across it, then picked up my hand and checked out my knuckles. “I always did say you had a mean right hook.”

“Because I know to keep my thumb out.”

“Good girl. Though I’d rather you not punch people.”

“Me too. Her son is the one who Rod got in a fight with, and I think her nephew is the one stalking Casey.” I kept my voice low so as not to trigger her.

Fort joined us. He looked between me and Kathy.

“Arrest her. She assaulted me.” She jabbed her finger in my direction several times.

Fort sighed. “Well, now, let me ask you if you hit her first. Because just in the short walk here, five different people—we’ll call them witnesses—told me what they saw, and they all said you started it.”

“You’re on their side. I should have known.”

A deputy rushed up and handed Fort two bags of ice. He handed one to Kathy and one to Cal, who put the bag gently on my face. “Five minutes, then switch to your hand. Five on, five off.”

I nodded.

“Look over here, Kathy.” Fort pointed to the lamppost next to the bench and then a few more on the path. “And there and there. There are cameras on all those. All I have to do is watch the film. So I’m not sure if you can claim assault and know that Sabrina might be able to claim self-defense, but we’d have to get lawyers involved and all that. You want to do that?”

The disgust slid from her face replaced with worry. She shook her head.

Fort nodded. He turned to the deputy. “Take Kathy and Bobby to the diner and get them some coffee and food.”

The two of them were hustled away.

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