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Landon filled the other officers in on what had happened as Sunnie waited by his car with the reporter. He’d completely forgotten about the other guy until Landon had carried her back to the vehicle and seen him watching them. So much for no witnesses. At least this one wasn’t a Collins.
The four other officers planned to search the area for the mugger, though Landon didn’t hold out much hope that they’d find anything. The guy was long gone.
He was halfway to the pub, after dropping the reporter off at the precinct parking lot to grab his own car, when Aaron’s voice came over dispatch.
“Where’s my daughter, Officer Riggs?”
“Dammit,” Sunnie muttered from the passenger’s seat.
Landon picked up the handheld, speaking into it. “She’s with me, Lieutenant.”
“And where are you?”
Landon glanced over at Sunnie. “Taking her home.”
There was a moment of silence over the radio. Then Landon’s cell phone rang, Aaron’s name appearing on the screen.
Sunnie rolled her eyes.
“Yes, sir,” Landon said as he answered it.
“I want to see my daughter.”
“I know, sir. But she wanted to go home. I promise you she’s fi—”
“She needs to file a police report, Landon.”
“I know that, sir, but she wanted—”
“Dammit, Landon! Stop with that ‘sir’ shit. There are protocols that need to be followed, and I want to see my daughter. Want to know that she’s okay. Then I want to shake some ever-loving sense into her. What the hell happened?!”
“A guy tried to steal her purse.”
“And?”
Landon wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Sunnie was going to have a bruise on her cheek tomorrow and she was limping. It was going to be obvious she put up a fight, which would send Aaron into orbit. “And, um—”
“Give me the phone,” Sunnie said, holding out her hand. Landon hesitated, then decided this was his chance to get out of the middle.
She took the cell phone. “Dad, listen—”
There was a pause, and Landon could only assume Aaron was reading her the riot act.
“I’m fine. I will come down first thing in the morning to file the damn complaint. Even though that seems pointless. The guy didn’t get—”
There was silence…a long silence.
Sunnie sighed. “Who told you I put up a fight?”
Uh-oh.
She gave him a look and mouthed the word reporter.
Then she sighed as she turned to look out the passenger window. “I know it was stup—” Aaron didn’t appear to be in the mood to listen to her excuses. “I know, but—” He kept cutting her off. “Yes, but—”
Landon considered what he’d seen of the fight. The dude had been bigger than Sunnie, and he hadn’t been messing around. It was obvious he’d intended to keep going until he got the purse, and God only knew what he would have escalated to if she’d kept holding on to it.
Landon glanced over at the mark on her cheek. He couldn’t tell if it was the result of a punch or a slap. His chest seized at the thought, his grip on the steering wheel tightening until his knuckles went white.
