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“That’s Kai,” a woman said.

“Whoever he is, he needs to quit⁠—”

“Dave, be quiet and call an ambulance.”

Ambulance?

I jumped off the cretin who had been trying to hurt Marlowe and looked around. In the back of the van, I saw Marlowe struggling to get up on her elbows.

“Jesus, Marlowe, are you alright?” I asked as I crawled in beside her.

“I’m.”

I carefully embraced her, cradling her head in the crook of my arm.

“You’re what, Honey?”

“I think I’m alright.” Her words came out slow and slurred.

“How hard did Denny hit you?” I whispered my question.

“That’s not Denny.”

“It’s not?”

“No. I’ve never seen him before.”

Fuck. What in the hell is going on?

I started to press around on the back of her head.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m checking for lumps, to see where he hit you.”

“He didn’t.”

She tried to get away from me, but I wasn’t letting her. Fuck, I wasn’t going to let her out of my sight again. Next time I was going to be clearer. She was to stay in the vet’s office, not go wandering around in some parking lot.

“There,” she pointed.

I looked to see what she was pointing at. It was a blue rag. When I picked it up I could smell the chloroform. Fuck, he hadn’t hit her.

“Where’s that ambulance?” I shouted out.

“It’s coming.” I focused on the woman talking and realized it was Alice Draper, the woman who owned the hardware store with her husband Dave. I took a breath so I wouldn’t rip her head off.

“Alice, do you know what the ETA is?”

“It’s coming from Sevierville. But I’ve also called Doc. He should be here in another minute or two.”

This time I actually cared, and hoped he was worth a shit. He seemed to be doing okay for Sam, but I hoped he would know how to handle a woman who had just breathed in a bunch of chloroform. Just as I was thinking that, I heard groaning. The scumbag who had hurt Marlowe was coming to.

“Alice, do you think you could keep an eye on Marlowe while I spend a little bit of time with my friend down there?”

“Kai, you don’t want to end up in jail,” she cautioned. It was that moment that I realized she was raising teenagers.

“I won’t.”