Page 95 of Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon, Idaho 4)

Hey, Caroline, this is Chase, Gabe’s friend. I don’t know if he’s ever mentioned me, but look, he’s in trouble. They arrested him this morning for assault, and I don’t even know if you care, but he needs you. He won’t say that, because he’s a stubborn son of a bitch, but he does.

Caroline’s stomach dropped out, and a thousand different situations flashed through her mind—none of them good. Jumping up from the bench, she kicked off her four-inch heels and ran to flag down a taxi.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Revenge is a dish best served cold . . . and with plenty of gloating.”

—Miss Know It All

AFTER EXPLAINING TO Mr. Kline why she had to leave so suddenly and that she couldn’t possibly take his offer, Caroline packed up her suitcase and checked out of her hotel. When she arrived at the airport, she spent the night trying to get on a flight to Boise. Finally, she got a 6:00 A.M. flight and arrived in Idaho a little after noon. Surpassing the 80 mph speed limit, Caroline arrived back in town on a mission: she was going to rescue Gabe and try to make up for bailing on him. She was a strong, independent woman who had made mistakes and turned her life around. She wasn’t a princess, though Gabe often called her one, and she didn’t need a knight to slay her dragons.

She could do that all on her own.

Her first stop was the police station. When she’d called Chase back, he said they were holding Gabe there until Monday. Chase didn’t know who the alleged victim was, but Caroline could only think of one man in Rock Canyon who Gabe would want to beat the snot out of. And if Kyle had provoked Gabe, intending to get revenge, she was going to use every piece of leverage her father had to destroy him.

Though really, if Kyle was involved in any way, shape, or form, she would make him pay. At this point, he’d threatened everyone she loved at one time or another, and there was no way in hell she was about to let him ruin Gabe’s life.

Caroline loved Gabe. She’d known it the moment she’d read Chase’s text message, but even before that too. Only she’d been too freaked out to face it. He was hers, and she was his. She needed him. And now, he needed her.

She didn’t care that she was speeding, and when a cruiser pulled out behind her and flipped on his sirens, she ignored him long enough to pull up in front of the Rock Canyon Police Department.

As she climbed out of her car, she heard a shout behind her. “Put your hands up!”

She turned toward the police officer, who had his gun trained on her, and squinted. “Grady Jenkins, put that fucking thing away.”

“Put your hands up first, Caroline,” Grady said. When Caroline was in high school, Grady had been a pervy freshman who’d liked to crawl under lunchroom tables to stare up girls’ skirts.

“I don’t have time for this, Grady,” Caroline said, holding up her hands. “Just get your ass over here, and get my shit.”

Grady kept his gun out until he was a few feet away and then put it back in his holster. “I really ought to arrest you, you know.”

“My purse is on the front seat; insurance is in the glove compartment,” she said, ignoring his shout as she turned and ran for the police station entrance. Barging into the front reception area, she walked up and started banging on the bell. “Hello!”

Officer Sam Weathers came running to the front and yanked the bell away from her. “Geez, Caroline, what in hell’s bells has gotten into you?”

“Do you have Gabe Moriarty in lock-up, Sam?” She craned her neck to see down the hallway.

“As a matter of fact,” he said, flicking the toothpick in his mouth.

“When do you plan to release him?”

“I don’t,” he said, and when she opened her mouth to argue, he cut her off. “I got a victim that said, and I quote, ‘Gabe Moriarty did this to me.’ ”

“Whatever he said, it’s a lie. Gabe wouldn’t—”

“Wasn’t a guy. It was your sister Eleanor who filed the complaint.”

“What?” Caroline hollered, sure she’d heard him wrong.

“Yeah, she was here pitching a fit yesterday morning that she’d turned him down at Buck’s, and he’d followed her outside to her car. Beat her so bad, poor thing’s eye is nearly shut.”

Why would Ellie lie? She had to be lying. Gabe would never hurt a woman. He’d sworn he’d never hurt a woman. “You don’t understand. I know him. He did not do this,” she insisted, panic edging into her voice.

“Well, your ‘knowing’ isn’t enough to trump an eyewitness,” Sam said, obviously irritated.

Caroline obviously wasn’t going to get anywhere with Sam; she needed to talk to Gabe.

And then Ellie. Her blood was boiling, trying to figure out why her sister would lie. Was this to get back at Caroline for bu

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