Love in Darkness (Castles on the Sand 2)

Seventeen

“Alex!” Madison’s more than shocked. She’s a little scared.

I hold both hands up in surrender and back away. Yeah, that is, without a doubt, the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, which is saying something. Before this it would have been the time I dented a police cruiser with a rock while the cop was at the wheel.

John mutters as Madison helps him sit up. “You okay?” she asks.

I get out my cellphone and dial. The voices in my mind go quiet, and that’s unnerving in its own way, because I didn’t make them do that. They decided on their own.

“Hello?” Officer Li answers.

“Hey, can you have the dispatcher send someone to the theater in Sequoia Ridge?”

“What’s going on?”

“I just knocked a guy out. They’ll want to book me.”

“Do I want to know why?”

“Just send someone.”

“You okay? You sound pretty rough.”

“I’m trying to report a crime, not start a therapy session.”

I lean against a nearby car. Madison gets John to his feet and ignores his attempts to shake her off. With a fearful glance at me, she escorts him into the lobby of the theater. Neither of them look back as they head down the hall to the movie. A sensible voice in the back of my mind yammers that they should check him for a concussion, not just take off.

“What happened, Alex?” Officer Li’s voice is firm.

“John was giving me heat over Madison.”

“Yeah, okay. Listen, I’m almost there.”

“This isn’t your jurisdiction.”

But his cruiser glides around the corner and parks in front of me, sleek and silent as a panther. Officer Li rolls down the window.

Belatedly, I hang up my phone and put it in my pocket.

“You okay?” His demeanor is all wrong. The guy who’d show up with a superior smile, handcuffs dangling from his fingers, is history.

“I’m not the guy who got hit,” I say.

“You’re also not a guy who picks fights.”

“Excuse me? You booked me for battery how many times?”

“Well, you don’t run away from fights either, but you don’t start them. You always play it cool until the other guy throws the first punch. What did John say?”

“Nothing.”

“Alex, what’s going on?”

I fold my arms across my chest and glare at him, feeling for all the world like I’m a teenager again, sitting in that stupid holding cell with the gray walls on two sides while Officer Li writes me up. Only I’m not in that cell, or even arrested.

“Are you letting me off because I gave your son some rocks and you the name of a doctor? That what this is?”

“Nah. I’ve just learned a few things in the years you’ve been gone.” He gets out of his cruiser and leans back against it, mirroring my posture. “Tell me what happened.”

“John, Madison’s brother, thinks I’m trying to get back together with Madison.”

“And he’s being an arrogant S.O.B. about it.”

“S.O.B.?”

“I’m trying to be respectful of your culture. You’re a Mormon.” The corners of his mouth turn up in a smirk. “Or is using abbreviations also too much?”