I finally got my wits about me and rushed forward to save my friend. “Tabitha! Have you lost your mind? Let go!”
But Tabitha was holding on tight, pulling Neely Kate’s hair with all her strength as Neely Kate grappled for her hands. I started searching the parking lot, looking for something to use to stop Tabitha. A crowd of older women had formed around us, and they looked on in shock and horror. One of the women had a mostly full water bottle. I grabbed it from her hand and twisted off the cap. Rushing toward the two women, I started sloshing the water on Tabitha, who began to shriek as she let go of Neely Kate’s hair.
Tabitha turned her murderous gaze on me, and I gave her one last slosh for good measure before tossing the bottle on the pavement, and took off running. But Tabitha had longer legs and tackled me, dropping me hard into the grass. “I’m gonna kill you!”
I rolled to my side as she grabbed my throat, her eyes wide and crazy, and I suddenly wondered what crime she had committed to earn her probation. Oh, crap.
“You let go of my best friend!” Neely Kate screamed, wrapping her arms around Tabitha’s chest and pulling. Tabitha lost her balance and fell to her side, her legs still pinning my waist to the ground.
The two women were shouting at each other while I tried to get out from underneath the both of them.
Suddenly a woman’s voice shouted with authority, “Move out of the way. Get out of the way.” The older women surrounding us let through a redheaded woman in a sheriff’s uniform. Deputy Hoffstetter, the sheriff deputy who had insulted Muffy in my own front yard, looked down at the lot of us with disgust, her eyes going wider when her gaze landed on me. “You all stop that nonsense right now. You’re under arrest.”
Chapter Eleven
If Deputy Hoffstetter thought her command was going to stop Tabitha, she had another thing coming. The crazed woman had managed to grab poor Neely Kate’s hair again. The deputy had pulled out her taser and was about to go to town with it when one of the older women followed my lead and dumped the contents of her mug on Tabitha. Unfortunately, it was a mug full of steaming, hot coffee.
Tabitha started screeching as she jumped up, ready to go after the poor blue-haired Good Samaritan. Instead, Deputy Hoffstetter jumped on top of her, wrestling her to her stomach and slapping a handcuff on one of her wrists.
I managed to crawl away from the pile, rolling over to sit on my bottom as I watched the deputy fasten the other handcuff on the wild brunette. Climbing to my feet, I started to help Neely Kate up. When I saw the tears in her eyes, I panicked as I realized that Tabitha had knocked my pregnant friend to the ground.
I held up my hands. “Don’t get up. We have to make sure the baby’s okay. I’m going to call an ambulance.”
“The only person you should be calling is your attorney,” the deputy said. “Like I said, the three of you are under arrest.”
Everyone started shouting at once. The older women were taking sides—some backing up Tabitha, the others taking Neely Kate’s side after hearing she was pregnant.
Taking advantage of the mayhem, I quickly pulled out my phone and hit call. “Mason,” I said the moment he answered the phone. “I’m in trouble.”
“Are you okay?” he asked, sounding panicked.
“Yes . . . no. I don’t know. Deputy Hoffstetter’s about to arrest me and Neely Kate.”
“Why? What happened?”
“We got attacked by Neely Kate’s cousin’s friend. She knocked Neely Kate to the ground, Mason. I’m worried about the baby, but the deputy won’t listen.”
“Where are you?” he asked, anger in his voice. But I knew his anger wasn’t directed at me.
“Big Thief Hollow. At the community center.”
“I’ll be right there, but in the meantime, don’t talk to the deputy. Tell her you’re waiting for you attorney. Hang on, sweetheart. I’m coming.”
“Thank you.”
Before I could say anything else, the deputy pushed through the crowd and snatched my phone. She didn’t look amused. “No calls.” She shook her head. “Why am I not surprised you’d think you could flout the rules?”
I suspected the deputy recognized me from the other night, but we didn’t know each other personally. Why would she make an assumption like that? “You told me I could call my lawyer,” I said as she spun me around and put a handcuff on my wrist.
“You’re gonna need one.”
“Is that really necessary?” I asked.
“If I had my way, you’d be barricaded in a county jail cell,” she said, fastening the other cuff.
I tried to look over my shoulder at her to see if she was joking, but I was fairly sure she wasn’t.
She sat me on the ground next to Neely Kate, who was also cuffed. We watched the deputy haul Tabitha to her feet and stuff her in the back of a patrol car.
“Are you okay? Do you think the baby’s okay?” I asked her, consumed with worry.