I reared back with my right arm and upper-cut Johnny hard enough to knock the grin straight off his face. His body crumpled to the ground within seconds.
I ignored the sting in my hand as I stood over his prone form and looked down at the pathetic display. “Who’s the bitch now, motherfucker?”
“Cassie.” Thatch’s concerned voice grabbed my attention. He lifted me up and away from the scene of the crime, and his hands moved over my face, my arms, my shoulders, searching for any sign of injury. “Shit, honey. Are you okay?”
“Oh, I’m fine, T.”
His gaze was wild with concern. “What the fuck happened?”
Thatch’s desire to kill the asswipe showed plainly on his face, so I chose my words carefully.
I pointed to Johnny, who was now being tapped in the stomach by the foot of the bartender.
“That guy, Joanie,” I responded. “He doesn’t have any manners.”
Thatch blinked three times like he couldn’t process what I was saying.
“Wait…did you just call him Joanie?”
“Oh, is that not his name?” I feigned confusion.
He barked out a laugh. “His name is Johnny. But I have a feeling you already knew that.”
I flashed a knowing smirk.
Thatch’s eyes turned from murderously concerned to filled with hilarity in the span of a heartbeat. “So, you took it upon yourself to teach Joanie some manners?”
I shrugged. “Obviously, someone had to.”
“This shit can’t keep happening every time you stop by, Thatch,” Charlie grumbled behind us as he tried to rouse a snoozing Johnny. “I’m calling the sheriff.”
“C’mon, Charlie,” Thatch begged as he stared down at me with a tickled grin. “Just let it go. He assaulted my fiancée.”
I grinned back.
God, we were both fucking insane. It made my belly flutter and my smile consume my face until I felt like my cheeks might burst.
Charlie laughed incredulously. “He didn’t lay a finger on your fiancée. I watched it all from behind the bar. And you know this cocksucker is gonna try to press charges the second he comes to. Hell if I’m going to be the one who has to deal with Miller tomorrow morning.”
Thatch put both of his hands on my shoulders. “Honey,” he said with amusement in his voice, “I have a feeling I’m going to be the one bailing you out of jail this time.”
“Well…” I shrugged. “It was worth it.”
“Hey, Sheriff Miller, do you mind if I use the ladies’ room and grab a snack from the vending machine?”
“Call me Bill, darling,” he responded from his comfortable position behind his desk—chair leaned back, boots kicked up on the metal table. “And help yourself to the snacks in the break room.”
“Thanks, honey.”
After I knocked Johnny out in one shot, I got arrested by the Frogstown Police. Sheriff Miller had placed me in cuffs and put me in the back of his patrol car while Thatch had tried to convince him otherwise.
But it hadn’t worked. Obviously, my fiancé had been a troublemaker back in the day and had zero pull in his hometown. The sheriff had actually made it pretty clear that if Thatch tried to come with me right away, he’d put him in cuffs right next to me. The sweet fucking giant had looked like he was considering it.
But thirty minutes of flirty banter and fluttering eyelashes had gotten me on the sheriff’s good side, and he had taken the cuffs off and given me free rein of the station.
He had even apologized for having to keep me for the required six hours.
Yeah, Bill and I were good buddies now.
Once I took a quick pee break and grabbed a bag of chips from the station’s break room, I plopped down behind one of the deputies’ desks and mimicked the same position as the sheriff. “Mind if I use my phone for a minute?”
“Go ahead, darling.” Bill flashed a grin in my direction before returning his attention to the small TV across from his desk. He was three episodes deep into a Bonanza marathon.
Thatch answered on the first ring. “You okay, honey?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. You can pick me up in about thirty minutes.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Fantastic. See you in a few.” I ended the call and relocated to a chair beside Bill. “Mind if I join you?”
He glanced over his shoulder and shook his head.
“I love these old shows,” I said as I opened my bag of chips. “I used to watch them all the time with my dad when I was a kid.”
“They don’t make ’em like they used to, that’s for damn sure,” he answered with a wistful smile.
Bill and I got through another episode of Bonanza before Thatch powered into the station to pick me up exactly thirty minutes later. He’d obviously timed it so I didn’t have to be here even a minute longer than necessary. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me sitting behind the sheriff’s desk, teaching him how to use Facebook.
“Honestly, Bill, it’s not as hard as you think it is,” I told him as I scrolled through my newsfeed. “Plus, it’s pretty awesome how you can keep in touch with pretty much everyone in your life without having to pick up the phone.”