Page 25 of Trouble Walked In

“Baby—” Ronan began.

One of the officers jerked her arm behind her back and said, “If you don't comply with our request, we can compel you to do so. We cannot allow you to be a danger to yourself or anyone around you, Miss Devereaux. You'll need to come with us.”

“Ouch, Jesus! Is this really necessary?”

“Perhaps you shouldn't have resisted,” he said, slapping a handcuff on her wrist.

“You're hurting her, goddammit,” Ronan roared, closing the scant distance between himself and the cops quickly. The men at the table she had been serving jumped up to grab him and hold him back. “Let me the fuck go!” he yelled, struggling against them. “They're fucking hurting her!”

“Ronan,” she screamed as they dragged her toward the door, not even bothering with the other cuff. She tried to jerk herself from the officer's hold to go to Ronan. Another set of large arms circled him from behind. Suddenly, she felt herself slamming headlong into a wall of pain, her muscles going rigid and completely immobile. She vaguely heard a pained scream, but before she could even begin to register that it was her own, everything faded to blessed darkness.

Chapter Fifteen

Ronan blinked himself awake, his head throbbing and his jaw aching as he came to in slow increments. He found himself on his office couch with no memory of how he'd gotten there. All at once, tonight's events hit him like a freight train. Moira!

He rubbed a hand over his face. Fuck! Her piece of shit father had gotten her Baker Acted. She'd been fucking tased. What kind of monster did that to his child? Ronan stood up, ignoring the nausea and pounding of his head, with murder on his mind. His wolf was filled with a primal rage like he had never experienced before. He was going to tear John Devereaux limb from bloody limb before the night was over.

He pulled open the door of his office and ran directly in to Ty and Sarge. Sarge immediately reached out and said, “I know what you're thinkin'. Don't do it. You're not gonna do your woman any good in jail.”

It took Ronan a second to see past the blinding rage, but his wolf seemed to register Sarge's words. The second that part of him settled, all that was left was fear. “They took her,” he said quietly. “She's my mate and I couldn't even protect her.”

Ty shook his head and asked, “If you would have done what you wanted, we wouldn't have been able to even bail you out of jail, Ronan. We'll help you get her back. I called a lawyer friend of mine while you were passed out. Remember Lindy? I have her looking into the legality of it all.”

Ronan narrowed his eyes and asked, “Why the fuck was I passed out? What did you do?”

Sarge answered. “Cold-cocked you. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. You were about to shift in front of those cops, Ronan. Couldn't have that.”

Before he could think better of it, he reared back and slugged Sarge as hard as he could in the face. Fucking prick. “You son of a bitch. My ears are still fucking ringing!”

He merely grunted and asked, “Feel better now? I hope so ‘cause that's your only free shot ever. Got it?”

Better? No. If anything, he felt worse than he had before. Now he added the guilt of hitting a friend on top of the yawning ache he felt in his chest. He sighed.

“No,” he said miserably. “Christ. I need to figure out how to fix this. I need Moira. I swear to fucking God, if he wasn't the goddamned mayor, they'd never find his body!”

“Slow down, Ronan,” Ty cautioned. “I know you're pissed. I know you're scared. We're gonna fix this.”

“Who's watching the bar right now?” Ronan asked a moment later. “Jesus. They're probably drinkin' straight out of the bottle, Ty!”

Not that it fucking mattered anyway. Everything else was shit, so why not the bar too? Ronan slumped against the wall. What was he going to do? Poor Moira. He couldn't even imagine how scared she was right now. He'd flipped out after they tased her. He prayed that she was okay. He wasn't exactly a religious man, but still.

Ty snorted. “I closed the bar early, boss. Everyone was threatening to break down the mayor's door with torches and pitchforks. Sarge had to threaten the ones that stayed to within an inch of their lives. I know she's new around here, boss, but everybody in this disjointed little community of ours loves her already. She's one of us. We're gonna get her back.”

Ronan felt his eyes fill. Jesus. He needed to get his shit together. This wasn't helping Moira in the least. He wiped at his eyes with the heels of his palm. “I have no idea what to do.”

“About that,” Ty said. “I might have something there. When I told Lindy the story, her first comment was about the fact that it was Lorelei PD. This isn't their jurisdiction. I don't know what exactly that means yet. Maybe they were able to get some sort of permission to do this. I don't know what kind of hold the mayor has on Polk County PD, though. She said she'd look into getting a copy of the form along with the report.”

“Thank you,” Ronan said, feeling some of the pain in his chest ease. “I don't think that will be enough to stop her father, though. The other day, he called twenty times in a half hour. She ended up having to block him. I wish the fucker would have left a voicemail so we'd have something on tape! Fuck!”

“This guy thinks he owns her. He's powerful and a little fucking crazy to do this sort of shit to his own kid. That's a real bad combination,” Sarge grumbled. “You can't just go and threaten a man like that with physical force. You gotta speak his language.”

Ronan frowned. None of this speculation was going to help Moira. “I have no idea what his fucking language is. Part of me just wants to tear him apart. Even if she wasn't my mate, what sort of sorry son of a bitch would have his obviously not crazy daughter committed because she didn't wanna marry a stranger?”

“Wait, what?” Ty asked.

“Yeah,” Ronan said. “Her father wanted her to marry some guy in the state senate. Ben Mason. I think she said he was running for governor this next term. She came home from college on summer break and her father told her he was going to announce her engagement.”

“The orange guy with the dumb commercials?”

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