Oh, he didn’t have to worry about that. She wasn’t going to attempt to climb down with this thing up her butt. What if it fell out? Mortification filled her.
Kent opened the door and reached up for her, lifting her down. Then he took hold of her hand and closed the door. “You’re worrying too much.”
“I’ve got a lot to worry about.”
He leaned in and brushed his lips against her ear. “No, you don’t. All you have to worry about is obeying me. Pleasing me. Understand?”
She understood he was extremely arrogant. But somehow, that arrogance actually helped settle her. So when they were finally seated at a desk across from one of the deputy sheriffs, she thought she was acting pretty normal.
Ed walked up to them and shook her hand then Kent’s. “Thanks for coming in. Jace will take you through some mugshots. You’ll both be pleased to know that we got the guys who attacked you and Eden the other night. So that’s one less thing to worry about. And your house has been released, so you can get back in to tidy it up.”
“I’ll get some people onto that,” Kent told her. She decided not to argue. She didn’t want to step foot in that house right at this moment.
“So Max didn’t give any clues about where he is?”
Kent went through the entire conversation with the sheriff, who gave her a reassuring look at the end of it. “Don’t stress too much about this, okay? We’ll find your brother and these guys.”
Okay, so maybe she wasn’t pulling off the ‘everything is normal’ thing as well as she thought. Ed gave her hand a final squeeze, grinning as Kent growled and glared at him.
She slipped her
hand free and nudged Kent. “You can’t growl at the sheriff,” she scolded as Ed walked away.
“He held your hand too long.”
She rolled her eyes at his possessiveness. But she had to smile as well.
Fifteen minutes later, she no longer felt the urge to smile. “Him. It’s him.” She pointed a shaking finger at the photo of the man who’d approached her in the parking lot of the diner and grocery store.
“You’re sure?” Jace, the nice deputy asked.
“Yes. I am.”
Jace called Ed over. He stared down at the shot with a frown. “Well, shit.”
“What is it?” she asked with alarm.
Ed glanced at Kent. She didn’t understand the look they shared. “What?”
Kent nodded at Ed. “Tell us both.”
“That’s Dirk James. He’s an enforcer for a crime family in Seattle. Bad news. How did Max get mixed up with the Bartollis?”
She had no idea, but Max had a knack for getting himself into the worst sort of trouble.
“All right, we’ve got something to work on. Thanks for coming in, sweetheart. Why don’t you go and get some rest, you’re exhausted.”
Rest? How could she rest?
“I’ll take care of her,” Kent said quietly. “Thanks, Ed.”
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, she gazed out the window as Kent parked the truck. What were they doing at Walmart?
“What are we doing here?” she asked. She could barely remember leaving the police station. She guessed Kent had helped her. She was still in shock over learning how much trouble Max was in.
Much as she hated him sometimes, she didn’t want to imagine him in pain or...or worse.
She bit back a cry at the thought.