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“To her, not me.”
“It’s okay, Martin. Let’s just go—”
“Tell her you’re sorry and it’ll never happen again.”
He squirmed, but when Martin twisted his arm higher, a spasm of pain crossed his face and he became still. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean no harm.”
“And it’ll never happen again.”
“It won’t, I swear it.”
“It’s all right. Please, Martin, let him go.”
After a moment, Martin shoved him away. Jimmy Ray stumbled, hit the opposite wall, then staggered off into the men’s room, complaining as he went about the pain in his shoulder. After another moment, Martin faced her. His eyes were grim enough, his expression savage enough, to frighten her far more than the drunken cowboy ever could. She swallowed hard, then touched his hand. “Thank you.”
Slowly, the worst of the threat seeped away, and he gestured toward the door. “Let’s get out of here.”
Darkness had fallen, but the street was brightly lit. Martin wished for shadows as they made their silent way back to the police department and Juliet’s car. This wasn’t the first time since the accident that he’d gotten into a situation that could have easily turned violent, but this was the first time that he’d wanted it to. He’d wanted to smash his fist into the cowboy’s face, to break a few bones and loosen a few teeth so that the next time the bastard wanted to harass some woman, he’d think twice.
But Martin could well imagine Juliet’s reaction if he’d taken it any further than he had. Hell, he didn’t have to imagine. He’d seen the fear in her eyes for a split second before she’d swallowed over that lump in her throat and thanked him. Fear. Of him.
They were only a few yards from her car when he finally spoke. “I would never hurt you.” But the promise didn’t come out as absolute and unwavering as he’d intended, because the awful truth was, he didn’t know whether he would. He knew he could have killed that cowboy. He knew, suspected—feared—that he’d killed in the past. When he remembered that past, when he again became the man he’d once been, who knew what he would be capable of?
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