Untamed Hearts 1: The Viper (17 page)

He ran so fast the guy was barely into the living room before Marcos got to him. Marcos grabbed the intruder from behind. He fisted his hair in one hand and pushed him down. Not knowing if he had a gun or not, Marcos slammed his face into the coffee table with enough force to hear bones crunching.

The scream that burst out of him would have embarrassed Marcos’s Aunt Sofia. Really, this guy screamed like a girl as he crumbled onto the carpet, clutching his nose.

Marcos had never heard a guy wail like that before, and he just knelt over him, breathing hard, staring down as the smaller man tried to scramble away from him. It was hard under the blood, but now that he saw his slim frame, Marcos recognized him.

It was Katie’s ex-husband.

Marcos rubbed a hand over his face and groaned. “Coño.”

He couldn’t really hit him again. It felt like hitting a woman. What did she ever see in this guy?

“What—” Katie came running into the living room. She was still putting her arms into the sleeves of her robe but stopped and screamed when she saw her ex bleeding all over the living room. “Oh my God, Grayson!”

She ran to him, and that
really
irritated Marcos.

Grayson was still crying, like
actually
crying, as he held his phone to his ear with one hand and held his nose with the other. “I’m walling the wops!”

“You broke in!” Marcos shouted at him before he turned to Katie, who had run into the kitchen. “He
broke in
, Katie. I locked the door when I left and—”

Grayson stopped his conversation with the cops to yell. “He’s stawing here?”

“That’s right, motherfucker.” He gave Grayson a hard look. “Now she knows how a real man’s supposed to do it.”

“Marcos, don’t.” Katie brought back a roll of paper towels and fell down on her knees next to Grayson. “Just be quiet while I deal with this.”

“He’s crying like a woman,” Marcos pointed out. “Come on.”

“He’s bleeding all over the place.” Katie’s voice quivered as if she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “He’s not like you.”

“Are you sure he has cojones?”

Grayson narrowed his eyes up at him, though he still held the phone to his ear like a lifeline. “What does dat mean?”

“It means
balls
, chica.”

“Marcos!” Katie shouted. “Stop!”

“Fine.” Marcos threw up his hands and turned away. “Have fun with your girlfriend.”

He went into the bedroom and grabbed his things. He tossed half his clothes on the bed. Then he ripped off his jacket and pulled on a shirt since he was going to have to be dealing with the cops.

He might as well get it over with now, so he called his cousin because he didn’t dare go out there. He should’ve hit that Grayson motherfucker a second time just to shut him up.

“What?” Chuito answered on the second ring, making it obvious he was still pissed.

“Don’t give me any attitude,” he yelled in Spanish. “I just got done dealing with Angel’s bullshit. He went out to your mother’s to threaten me, and now Katie’s ex-husband is bleeding in the living room. How can you take this town? He cries like a woman.”

“What?” Chuito barked back. “Angel went to my mother’s?”

“Send her to Puerto Rico.” Marcos rubbed his hand over his face. “Get her out of Miami. Tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Chuito was obviously still trying to get his bearings. “Did you say Katie’s ex-husband is bleeding?”

“He broke in!” Marcos shouted at him in Spanish. “What was I supposed to do? Now he’s calling the cops and—”

“Coño, Marcos!” Chuito yelled over the sound of a door being slammed. “I’m coming over there.”

“No. Fuck you. I don’t need your help!” Marcos growled, but the phone went dead.

He could hear the sirens, and he broke out in a cold sweat against his will. He leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath, cursing himself again for coming back to this town.

He
really
hated the cops.

He was hoping to God they didn’t search his truck, because he didn’t have a permit for his gun, and that was the last thing he needed. With his record, he could serve real jail time for an arrest like that.

For just a moment, he thought of jumping in his truck and ditching this town, but he knew it’d just come back on his cousin.

And Katie.

He flinched when he heard the police come in.

Grayson shouted. “He’s win there!”

The door burst open, and he stiffened when the entire door frame was filled with the biggest, meanest redneck cop Marcos had ever had the misfortune of knowing. Sheriff Wyatt Conner was worse than his sister, and that was saying something, because Marcos really hated Jules Wellings.

“Let me see your hands!” the sheriff shouted, his gun leveled at Marcos’s chest.

Marcos held up his hands and said as calmly as possible, “He broke in.”

“On the ground. Now. I’m sure you know what to do.”

“Really?” Marcos asked in disbelief as he got to his knees with his hands behind his head. “Motherfucker broke in.”

Instead of listening to him, the sheriff forced him onto his stomach and handcuffed him. He put his gun away and said, “Boy, you’ve been in my town two times, and two times I’ve had to show up.”

“Yup,” Marcos said rather than argue.

He was still sweating over the gun. He didn’t need this asshole searching his truck, or he’d have a
real
reason to arrest Marcos.

“He walled me a woman,” Grayson was shouting from the living room. “He’s wangerous!”

“I did call him a woman,” Marcos assured the sheriff.

“Boy—”

“I’m not your boy,” Marcos growled when the sheriff forced him to his feet. “I just happen to be the only motherfucker within five miles who doesn’t have a white ass.”

“Hey,” someone shouted from the living room.

Marcos looked over when the sheriff led him out and saw a very large black cop talking to Katie. The cop was glaring at Marcos as if he took personal offense, but all Marcos could do was sigh and shake his head.

He really did have the shittiest luck.

Katie jumped to her feet. “You can’t arrest him!”

“Katie, let me do my job,” the sheriff said in a stern voice.

“Marcos is staying with me.”

The sheriff was still leading him out toward the front door, but Katie followed after them. “Grayson
did
break in. This is my house. I own it. He doesn’t have a key. Marcos probably didn’t recognize him. I was just telling Adam that it’s all a big misunderstanding.”

The sheriff stopped walking. His hold on Marcos’s shoulder forced him to stop too.

“Now you believe it, when she says something.” Marcos snorted. “So tell me, Sheriff, is it just Latinos you have an issue with?”

“You can’t arrest him.” Katie’s voice was still quivering in panic. She actually grabbed Marcos’s arm as if that would somehow save him. “You can’t. He didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t recognize Grayson. I know he didn’t.”

“Are you staying here, Rivera?”

“Sí.” Marcos answered in Spanish on purpose.

“Did you recognize him when you attacked him?”

“No, I don’t hit girls.”

“Your mouth is ’bout to get you in a whole heap of trouble.”

“
Vete pa’l carajo
.”

“Please un-handcuff him,” Katie pleaded. “Doesn’t he have a right to defend my property if he’s staying here?”

“Grayson said the attacker came at him from outside.”

“Is taking a walk illegal in Garnet?” Marcos asked.

Katie still sounded frantic as she said, “Grayson must’ve used the key under the mat and—”

“You have a key to
your house
under the mat?” Marcos looked at her like she was crazy. “Chica, he could’ve done anything to you. Why would you do something like that?”

“He wouldn’t do anything violent.”

“Why’d he break in at one in the morning, then?”

“Okay.” The sheriff sighed behind them. “I take it y’all are involved.”

“Yeah.” Marcos turned his head to glare at the sheriff. “Someone in this town likes Latinos.”

“Look, boy—”

“I told you I’m not your boy.”

“Jesus, let me just put you in the car until I can sort this out.”

“What?” Katie shouted. “No! You can’t put him in back there like a criminal.”

“Let the ambulance get Grayson out of here first.” The sheriff forced Marcos to step around her. “Having the two of them in the same room is obviously a mistake.”

“Are you gonna arrest her ex?” Marcos asked. “What if I wasn’t here? Isn’t it your job to protect people like Katie?”

“If he broke in, you bet your ass I’m gonna arrest him. Did he have permission to enter your house, Katie?”

“No, he did not,” Katie answered without hesitating.

Sure enough, the sheriff talked to his deputy on his mic, and Marcos understood enough about what he was saying to know Grayson was about to be in a whole world of shit.

That made Marcos feel almost upbeat, and he let the sheriff lead him to his sheriff SUV without complaint. He sat there, obediently, with his hands cuffed behind his back. “Can you make sure I get a good view of you hauling him off to jail?”

“He’s going to the hospital first. You broke his nose, Rivera.”

“So?” Marcos snorted as he looked up at the sheriff, who was co-owner of the Cellar and a former UFC fighter. “You’ve had your nose broken, I’m sure. Did you cry like that?”

The barest hint of a smile tugged at the sheriff’s lips. “No.”

“Look, I didn’t know it was him. I honestly didn’t. I wouldn’t have used as much force if I did,” Marcos assured him. “I saw someone breaking in. I thought he was trying to hurt Katie. I just acted.”

“Where were you when you saw him breaking in?”

“I took a walk to make a phone call because I didn’t want to wake up Katie. I came back and saw a man opening the door. I thought someone was trying to hurt her, so I stopped him before he could. I didn’t even hit him a second time.”

Wyatt stepped back and looked from Katie, who hovered nervously near the car, to Marcos, who sat in the backseat. “Trouble seems to follow you two.”

Katie’s huffed. “I realize that.”

The sheriff left Marcos in the car and walked inside. When he came back, he took the time to take a real statement from them, but Marcos noticed he didn’t take the cuffs off him.

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.