The Viper (Untamed Hearts #1)(45)

The ambulance showed up.

So did Chuito.

“Wyatt!” Chuito yelled as he got out of his car. “Come on, man. That’s my cousin.”

“I’m not arresting him. We’re just letting everyone cool off. He was irate when I got here,” Wyatt said as he went back to writing. “We don’t need you making things worse.”

“Her neighbors are looking at him,” Chuito argued as he pointed across the street. “Is her ex-husband handcuffed?”

“Yes, he is.” Wyatt gave a Chuito a look. “I’m gonna have to ask you to back up, Mr. Garcia. You aren’t part of this investigation.”

Chuito rolled his eyes and took two steps back. “Happy?”

The sheriff just gave Chuito another hard look but went back to writing. He took a statement from Katie too, who didn’t pull any punches. She backed Marcos up completely, and she didn’t seem too concerned about Grayson being arrested.

Which made him feel a little better after the living room incident.

“Has he been harassing you a lot, Katie?”

“Yes,” Marcos answered for her. “I saw him grabbing her in the school parking lot.”

The sheriff’s eyebrows rose. “Grabbing her?”

“Like he was trying to hurt her,” Marcos told him.

“He’s just never gotten over the divorce.” Katie shrugged. “I don’t think he’d hurt me, but—”

“But?” The sheriff pressed.

“I don’t know.” Katie sighed. “He calls me all the time. He bothers me at school, and he’s made it very clear he doesn’t appreciate me divorcing him.”

“And tonight he broke into your house?” the sheriff went on. “That’s harassment, Katie. Did my sister know about all this? I know she helped you with the divorce.”

“Well, not the breaking-in part.”

“But the rest of it?” Wyatt went on. “And she didn’t tell you to talk to me? I find that hard to believe.”

“She might have suggested it, but—”

“Are you gonna take the handcuffs off him?” Chuito pointed to Marcos. “He was protecting his girl, Wyatt. I know you get that.”

“Okay.” The sheriff cut off Chuito with a stern look before he turned back to Marcos. “Are you calm now?”

“I was calm then,” Marcos argued as the sheriff glared at him. “I was.”

The sheriff let him go, and Marcos rubbed his wrists self-consciously as he took a step back from the SUV. It was cold out, but his back was still sticky from the nervous sweat that didn’t want to stop despite his short sleeve shirt.

Ending up on his face with handcuffs being slapped on his wrists caused an extreme case of post-traumatic stress. Irate. Hell, if the sheriff only knew what was going on in his mind. He had wanted to fight it with everything in him.

They brought Grayson out on the gurney, but he was handcuffed to the bars and crying. “This isn’t bair, Sheriff! Don’t do dis!” He pointed at Katie as they wheeled him past. “You did dis to me!”

The deputy escorting Grayson nudged his shoulder. “Quiet.”

Then he really started sobbing, and Marcos almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

“He is a woman,” Chuito said in Spanish, sounding disgusted. “No wonder she was driving me crazy for your number.”

Marcos laughed. “Right?”

“Okay, y’all can go back in the house.” Wyatt gestured to the house. “I’ll be in touch.”

“I can’t wait,” Marcos said drily, but was stopped from saying any more when Chuito kicked the back of his leg hard enough to make him trip.

“Thanks, Wyatt,” Chuito called out instead.

“Hey, can y’all make sure this is the last time I have to come out and deal with some catastrophe revolving around you two?”

“It’s the last time,” Katie promised.

Marcos was almost to the door, when something about the sheriff’s comment hit him, and he turned on his heel. Chuito tried to grab his shirt, but Marcos broke out of his hold and ran up to the sheriff so fast he jerked. Marcos didn’t miss his hand on his gun, but he didn’t let that stop him.

“Hey, Sheriff, since you’re so quick to judge, I noticed you never found the gringa who tried to kill Katie.” Marcos couldn’t keep the scorn out of his voice. “It took me twenty minutes in this town to find her. Great police work there. Did you even look?”

“Excuse me?”

“The accident. With Katie and me, I know who caused it.”

The sheriff looked uncertainly to Katie and then turned back to him. “Okay, let’s hear it.”

“It’s that girl, the one her ex is dating.” Marcos turned back to Katie. “What’s her name?”

“Do you mean Ashley Moore?” Katie looked shocked. “Marcos, I don’t know that he’s actually seeing her and—”

“No, it’s her. She drives a red ’09 Toyota Corolla, but it’s not a factory red. It’s a new paint job; I can tell. And I told you that night, it was a ’09 Toyota Corolla. Look back on your notes, you’ll see. It was her car. I’d bet all the green in Chuito’s bank accounts on it.”