Three Coulter Family Novels by Catherine Anderson

Author:Catherine Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2012-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

Ryan hit the door of the place called Suds two steps ahead of Jake. As he staggered into the dim interior he scanned the room for any sign of Bethany. The bartender, a potbellied, sandy-haired guy in a white apron, jerked his thumb toward the rear. “Back there. I done called the cops.”

Ryan and Jake scrambled for the rest room sign. It was a toss-up which of them made better time, the only certainty being that they didn’t fit abreast when they started down the hallway. Ryan took the lead with an elbow in Jake’s gut. If some creep had Bethany cornered, he wanted the honor of killing him.

When Ryan reached the end of the hallway, the scene that greeted him was worse than he imagined. Some woman who looked as if she’d been used hard and smacked for her trouble had a man backed against the wall with a broken bottle shoved against his crotch. She looked prepared to castrate him.

Ryan didn’t really give a shit if the guy came out of this with his balls. He tried the ladies’ room door, but the damned thing wouldn’t open. Jake arrived at almost the same instant. Breathing hard, he flattened his hands on the door.

“Bethany, honey? Open up. It’s Jake and Ryan. You okay?”

“Ryan?” she cried from the other side of the door. “Why’d you bring him?”

Ryan fell back. If that wasn’t a fine how-do-you-do. He was here to save her. She was his. Not Jake’s. Certainly not that creep’s, who was about to lose his reason for being alive. Any man worth his salt looked out for his lady.

Ryan rapped his knuckles on the wood. “Bethany? Open the damn door.”

“Is that awful man gone yet?” she asked shrilly. “He ripped my blouse.”

Ryan glanced over his shoulder. His gaze connected with bleary brown vulture eyes, and he suddenly wondered why the hell he was messing with a door. He turned, advanced, and said to the woman, “I’ll handle him from here.”

Kate moved back, and Ryan stepped up to take her place.

He might not have laid hands on the man. His mama had raised him civilized, after all. But the son of a bitch looked Ryan up and down, grinned cockily, and said, “Are you the pussy who couldn’t get the little lady’s rocks off?”

Ryan never remembered exactly what happened after that. Witnesses claimed he grabbed the jerk by his shirt, picked him up, and proceeded to ring his bell by repeatedly slamming him against the wall.

The next thing Ryan clearly recalled, he was in handcuffs. He wasn’t sure why he was in handcuffs. His knuckles burned, and there was a man in custody holding his face, but Ryan had no recollection of hitting him.

It was all pretty much confusing, actually. The cops brought Bethany out of the bathroom, and every time she looked at Ryan, she wailed, “Oh, God! Oh, God! All I wanted to do was to talk. I never meant for this to happen.”

Kate put an arm around her.

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