Page 67 of Lost and Found Cowboy

Duke was standing in the kitchen fixing a cup of tea, and Mack shouted at him as he ran past. “Call 9-1-1! Lyle’s at the coffee shop with Lorna, and he’s beatin’ the hell out of her.”

Then he was out the door, soaring off the steps, in his truck, and flying down the highway.

Hang on, baby.

Three minutes.

That was all he would need to make it to the coffee shop. Although, he was trying to make it in two. He pushed his truck, figuring if a cop spotted him doing ninety-five down the highway, he’d just have to chase him straight to the shop.

He still had the app open, and he glanced at the screen, cursing as he saw Lorna throw a cup at, and miss, Lyle. Then he picked it up and flung it back at her, catching her on the side of the arm.

Hold on, darlin’. I’m coming.

Two minutes.

Then he’d make that bastard pay.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Pain exploded in Lorna’s face as Lyle’s fist collided with her cheekbone.

She cried out in pain as the force of the blow sent her reeling back, and she crashed into one of the tables. The corner of it bit into her hip as she whacked it on her way down.

“Do you think you can come intomybuilding and talk tomethat way?” Lyle shouted, advancing on her again.

She skittered backward, pedaling her body away from him with the heels of her sneakers.

So, in hindsight, it might have been a mistake to march into the shop, loaded for bear, and yell at him to get the hell out of her business. Which she meant in both the literal and figurative sense.

It had been a huge mistake for her to come down here to face Lyle, period.

What the hell had she been thinking?

A coffee mug, one of the many Lyle had been throwing across the lobby, lay within reach, and she grabbed it and hurled it toward his head.

She missed.

He grabbed it and threw it back at her. He might have played defense, but he still knew how to throw, and pain shot through her arm as the cup skimmed past the side of it.

Grabbing the back of a chair, she pulled herself to her feet then pushed the chair between them. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

He let out a laugh, the evilness in it churning her stomach. “Just becauseIdon’t want you anymore, doesn’t mean anyone else gets to have what willalwaysbelong to me. And don’t you worry, I’m planning to pay Lassiter a visit before I leave town. He doesn’t get to make me look like a fool and get away with it.”

She laughed, and his head jerked toward her. “Mack didn’t have to do anything. You look like a fool all on your own.”

She’dneverlaughed at him or talked back to him before.

And the sheer gall of her doing it now was sending him into even more of a rage.

He came charging toward her, and she stumbled back, tripping over the cup, and falling on her butt. She flipped over and got to her knees before he grabbed her ankle and dragged her back toward him.

She screamed as he rolled her over then straddled her body, landing hard on her hips as he sank down to pin her to the floor.

He punched her once, and she tasted blood in her mouth.

Then his hands were around her throat, choking the life from her. She bucked her hips, trying to push him off her.

Blackness clouded the sides of her vision. She was going to pass out.