Page 8 of Loving My Enemy

Still fuming about trivia night with my friends, I drove the patrol car up and down each of the blocks, making sure the citizens of Tulip were safe and secure in their homes, at the park,and even playing the last minutes of a game of tag before the sun sank behind the horizon. Trivia night allowed me to hang with my friends—people I’d known my entire life—and pretend that life was normal and good. That everything was all right.

Several circuits of the town later, I’d stayed away for as long as I could. Now it was break time and I needed a burger and some noise. But I couldn’t shirk my responsibilities, so I took my time, looking down each street that I passed in search of any signs of trouble. Tulip was a safe town. The most we had to deal with was a few domestic violence incidents, kids doing stupid kid shit, and the occasional possession charge. Still, it never hurt to be too sure.

A few blocks from the Black Thumb, the sound of car tires screeching drew my attention. I hit the gas. Chances were good it was a few of the high schoolers doing something stupid like drag racing, but it wouldn’t hurt to check it out. Dust flared up from the Black Thumb parking lot and I swung the patrol car into the half-pavement and half-gravel lot. A familiar figure with long blond hair flowing in the breeze was on the ground, bent over someone lying toes up, which was never a good sign.

When I was just a few feet away, I saw exactly who it was. Elka was bent over Buddy, the owner of Black Thumb. The unconscious owner. “What are you doing?” My voice was a little gruff, but things didn’t look good for her from where I stood.

Elka looked up, those big blue eyes feigning innocence. She opened her mouth to speak just as the front door opened and Nina and her boyfriend Preston, his best friend Ry, Mayor Ashford, and Maxine, who I’d known my whole life, walked out to take in the scene.

“Well? What the hell did you do to Buddy?” I shouted at her, ignoring the way she flinched at my tone.

“What? I didn’t do anything, you ass!” At my skeptical look, she glanced around at the others who were all waiting for anexplanation. “I was leaving to go home because I didn’t want to have to walk by myself too late. When I stepped out, I thought I heard a scuffle around there.” She pointed to the side of the bar with very little light. “It’s a bar, so I figured it might be a woman in need of help, but when I got back there, Buddy was staggering as a dark car sped away.”

“Pretty damn convenient.” There was no way in hell that little wisp of a thing was able to get Buddy to the front of the bar.

“Hardly convenient. He was hit in the head and staggering all over the place until he passed out here. I didn’t want to leave him when he was unresponsive.” Her tone was sincere but I still didn’t believe her.

“You could have called 911, or do they not teach that where you’re from?”

Shaking her head in disbelief, Elka turned to Nina. “I dropped my purse somewhere over there when I saw him staggering around.”

Likely story. Just like a woman to lie with a straight face and then get mad when no one believed her. “Back away from Buddy,” I ordered. Firmly.

“I can’t,” she began with a quiver in her voice.

“Now!” I pulled out my gun and aimed it at her. Not my best moment, but for all I knew, she was the one who’d assaulted Buddy. “Back away, Elka.”

Her eyes welled with tears and indecision gripped her—at least that’s how she wanted it to appear. Again, her gaze went to Nina. When Elka spoke, her voice broke. “His head is bleeding. A lot. My hands are applying pressure.” Her head fell and tears streamed down her cheeks.

Ry stepped in and eased her hands away, wincing at what he saw, her dress covered in blood. “Shit, this is bad.” His dark gaze scowled up at me. “We need a rig. ASAP.”

Fuck. I radioed dispatch to get an ambulance here right away. “Five minutes,” I said to no one in particular and scanned the parking lot in search of signs that Elka wasn’t a liar. “Who else was inside?”

Nina got in my personal space and I knew she would have something to say. “No one who would have stuck out. Then again, what do I know? Maybe Elka is some bank robber. I mean, why else would you pull your gun on her?” She shook her head and walked away but I heard the “Asshole” she muttered.

Everyone else pretty much had the same thing to say. “What in the hell is your problem, Antonio? You pulled a gun on a good Samaritan.”

She already had them fooled. “Yeah and what do you know about her that makes her so good?”

Preston’s golden boy features darkened. “What do you know about her that makes her so bad? She’s mostly kept to herself but now I guess we all know why.”

How in the hell did I end up the bad guy here? Preston never lost his cool with anyone, not even his overbearing barracuda of a mother. “I know her type.”

“Yeah, well now we know yours too, don’t we?” Nina continued to glare at me from her spot beside Buddy, holding his hands while Ry checked him out. “You’re too much of a bear to do anything but be okay, Buddy. Besides, if you die, then I’ll put white wine spritzers on the menu.”

“He’s not dying,” Ry told her confidently. “Got a hell of a crack on the head though. Could’ve been a lot worse without the pressure to the wound. Where did you—” Ry stopped and looked around. “Where did blondie go?”

“Her name is Elka,” Nina spat out, eyes still shooting red hot daggers my way. “My guess is she went home to pack her shit and leave Tulip.”

Good riddance.

“That won’t happen,” Mayor Ashford assured everyone, one hand absently rubbing his belly. “Because Officer Vargas will apologize. Won’t you?”

Yeah, when hell froze over. But that wasn’t how you spoke to the mayor, so I stared at him for a good long moment to let him know I wouldn’t be bullied. “Apologize for doing my job? I don’t think so.”

Ry stood and wiped bloody hands on his jeans. “Then maybe you need a new career, Vargas. Buddy backed up what she said.”

Buddy was trying to sit up and Nina helped him, being uncharacteristically sweet and caring. Not that she wasn’t a nice woman, because she was—she just didn’t wear it on her sleeve. “I’d have died back there; no one would have seen me for hours. She saved my life.” Buddy looked around. “Where’d she go?”

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