Page 20 of Cash’s Trouble

Corbin moves around me faster than I expect and grabs the same wrist Doran bruised outside the bank. His fingers close hard, and he tries to drag her toward the nearest cruiser.

Lilly-Rose twists against him. “Take your hand off me.”

I remove it. My left hand clamps around his wrist while my right catches the back of his uniform. I turn his arm across his body, take his balance and drive him down onto one knee before forcing him face-first into the wet gravel. The impact knocks the breath from him. His badge strikes stone and his mouth splits against the ground.

I pin his arm between his shoulders. “She said no.”

A deputy reaches instinctively toward his gun. Judge’s voice cuts through the yard. “Nobody draws.”

Tank takes one slow step and stops. He doesn’t threaten or reach for a weapon. He simply makes every man present understand what Kane’s restraint is containing.

Lilly-Rose touches my shoulder. “Cash, I’m all right.”

I look at her wrist. Corbin’s fingerprints are already reddening across the fading marks Doran left. Rage pushes against the control I have left, but her face is steady. I release Corbin and rise.

He rolls onto his side, blood on his mouth and disbelief replacing the authority he wore through the gates. “Cuff him. He assaulted me in front of every officer here.”

The deputy who had approached me earlier looks at Lilly-Rose. “Ma’am, did Chief Deputy Corbin grab you after you refused to go with him?”

“Yes. I told him no and ordered him to let go.”

The deputy faces Corbin. “I saw it.”

“She’s under coercion.”

“No,” I say. “You just can’t stand that her words count more than your badge.”

The sheriff steps closer. “Wade, stay down. Put your hands where we can see them.”

Corbin looks at his own deputies, but nobody offers him the loyalty he expects. One of the investigators has King’s records in his hands. Another deputy is watching Lilly-Rose’s bruised wrist. The outside investigators are moving into position, and the sheriff has finally seen the man who stood beside him for years.

“You think this makes Kingdom Come better than me?” Corbin demands. “King owned half this county. I kept his violence contained, kept bodies out of public view and stopped your useless investigations from causing a war you couldn’t win.”

The sheriff’s expression hardens. “You sold your badge and called it order.”

“I protected this fucking department.”

“No, Wade. You protected yourself.”

Corbin pushes to his feet slowly, hands visible as though he’s decided to comply. One investigator moves toward him with cuffs. I see his gaze shift to Lilly-Rose. He shoves the investigator aside and lunges past me. This time there’s no controlled takedown.

I intercept him before his hand reaches her, drive my shoulder into his chest and slam him backward against the side of his own cruiser. Metal buckles with a hollow boom. His head snaps back, but I don’t give him time to recover. I hook his leg, take him to the ground and roll him facedown hard enough to force the last fight from his body. My knee settles between his shoulders while I wrench both arms behind him.

“She told you no twice.” I lean close enough that he hears every word. “You don’t get a third chance.”

The sheriff arrives with his cuffs open. I hold Corbin still until metal closes around one wrist and then the other. Only when the sheriff has him do I stand.

The sheriff pulls his deputy upright himself. “Wade Corbin, you’re under arrest for conspiracy to kidnap, official misconduct, obstruction of justice and falsifying a sworn affidavit. Further charges will follow when we finish opening every case you buried.”

Corbin spits blood onto the gravel. “King must be turning in his fucking grave at what you’ve become.”

Kane’s expression doesn’t change. “It’s lucky I don’t give a shit then.”

The outside investigators remove Corbin’s badge and place him in the back of the unmarked vehicle. His own deputies watch him leave without apology or farewell. They came to recover a woman from criminals. They leave having watched their chief deputy ignore her refusal, seize her and expose the corruption behind his warrant. Doran and the other attacker will be found through Corbin’s calls, payments and associates, and both will go down for this too.

When the last unmarked vehicle clears the gates, Kane faces the sheriff. “My father bought Corbin’s protection. We put right the part that belonged to us.”

The sheriff looks toward King’s file in the investigator’s hands. “That doesn’t make this club clean.”