"Your whole dang family has a problem withyou," Skeeter sneered, poking Cletus in the chest with a finger that had a large silver ring on it. "It's not just me."
"How dare you talk about my family?"
"Everybody knows they can't stand you!"
Cletus gaped, so outraged he couldn't speak. He hauled off and plowed Skeeter in the face with a fairly impressive right hook. And then, before any bystanders could jump in and stop him, Cletus drove a fist into Skeeter's gut, bending him over.
"That's ENOUGH!" Uncle Mike shouted, pushing past a few people to get to the two of them. "Stop it RIGHT NOW and SIT DOWN!"
Uncle Mike's angry voice was scary enough that I'd immediately stopped making any trouble on the few occasions he'd used it on me in my childhood. Even now, several people automatically sat down when he snapped out the command.
But not Skeeter. He straightened and smashed his fist right into Cletus's face so hard that Cletus flew back and hit the floor, his head bouncing off the tile loudly enough to make me wince.
Then Skeeter swung around and pointed at Uncle Mike. "Andyou! Tell that wife of yours that we all know she's dirty. She must have taken kickbacks or a bribe to give that contract to this scumbag."
Uncle Mike's face turned to stone, and his voice to ice. "You will never, ever speak of my wife like that again."
And then my sweet, kind, law-and-order uncle knocked Skeeter Hatfield completely out with one punch.
The utter shock of seeing that was the only reason I completely missed it when theotherman on the floor rolled over and reached out a hand to grasp my arm to help him pull himself up.
And that's why I spent the end of my lunch hour watching Cletus McKee die.
12
Jack
Iwalked into Beau's Diner to utter chaos.
Cletus McKee was sitting on the floor, holding his head in his hands.
A man I didn't know and had never seen before was out cold on the floor next to him.
And Tess's Uncle Mike was crouched down, bent over someone else on the floor.
I caught a flash of red hair.
It wasTess.
Tess was down.
I didn't know the noise was coming out of my throat until I heard the roar when I leapt over two tables and several people in one giant bound to get to my wife.
"What happened?" I snarled, hitting my knees next to her, lifting her into my arms, staring down at her pale, pale face.
She was still conscious, but her eyes were wild with pain and sadness.
I whipped my head to stare at Mike. "Who hurt her? What happened?"
He shook his head. "Nobody hurt her. Well, Cletus did?—"
"Cletus is a dead man," I said, the words a painful rasp in my throat. "Tess. Tess, baby. Talk to me."
"Not … not his fault," she whispered.
Then she fainted.
I slowly turned my head to stare at Cletus McKee, and whatever he saw in my eyes turned his already-pale face dead white.
