Jack Murray, Sheriff by Janice Kay Johnson

Author:Janice Kay Johnson [Johnson, Janice Kay]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2000-07-29T20:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

ADRENALINE HAD roared through his body from the moment he heard the girl’s voice on the phone. She sounded unbearably young.

“Mr. Murray…I mean, Sheriff…” She quavered to a stop. Swallowed. “This is…this is Stephanie Sommers. My…my dad is here, and he’s yelling at Mom, and Lauren and me, we’re scared.”

“I’m on my way,” he promised her, and hit the street at a run. Two blocks took him no more than a minute. He didn’t give a damn that one neighbor had to slam on his brakes backing out of a driveway, or that another who was mowing turned to stare.

Outside Beth’s place, Jack listened for raised voices. Nothing. Had the bastard already knocked her out? Fresh fear had him taking the steps two at a time.

Before he could knock, the front door swung open. Stephanie had been waiting for him. Face pinched, she stood back and said in a low, frightened voice, “They’re in the kitchen.”

“You were smart to call,” he told her with an approving nod.

Muffled by walls came a drunken bellow. “I don’t give a good goddamn!”

The girl flinched. “He used to yell like that all the time. Why does he get so mad?” she asked in sad bewilderment.

“I don’t know.” Jack didn’t like the tone of what he was hearing. “Sweetheart, why don’t you go up to your bedroom? I’ll talk to your father.”

He didn’t wait to see if she obeyed. Stepping quietly, he passed the dining room just as Ray Sommers’s snarl rattled pictures on the wall. “Don’t threaten me, bitch!”

Jack entered the kitchen unseen. Sommers had his back turned. Beth stood with one hand on the open back door, facing Jack, but with her entire being focused on her ex-husband.

“Now,” she ordered, her face pale but set, fear in her eyes but her chin held as defiantly as ever.

Jack had never admired her more. Her very determination made him hesitate. Would she thank him for interfering?

Sommers was clearly drunk; his broad stance didn’t disguise a momentary weave. He might just go without ever having to know his daughter had been so scared of him, she’d called Jack.

Things happened so damned fast, Jack was still flat-footed. With lightning speed, Sommers backhanded Beth, sending her staggering back against the stove. Jack moved then, with the despairing knowledge that he was too late to keep her from being hurt. As he grabbed the son of a bitch and flung him away from Beth, all Jack could think was, I shouldn’t have hesitated. Damn it, I shouldn’t have hesitated!

Out of the corner of his eye he saw her face, swelling, turning purple. Sick anger gave him the strength to easily counter her drunken ex-husband’s blind punches. Blood splattered when Sommers’s nose met the refrigerator. Let the bastard learn what it felt like. He wrestled Ray Sommers to the floor and yanked handcuffs from his back pocket.

He started reading him his rights without thinking. Halfway through Jack stopped, realizing this wasn’t his arrest. He looked up to see that

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