“Hell if I know. I come home. There’s no supper on the table. But she had time to whine. Whine, whine, whine, nag, nag, nag. Where I been, what I been doing and who I’m doing it with.”
“Is that when you hit her?”
The glassy eyes went sly. “You know how clumsy she is. And when she’s on the whining and nagging she can’t see straight. Stupid bitch walked right into a door. Then she takes off.” He gestured, spotted the neighbors.
“Buncha assholes got nothing better to do than stand around outside. I’m in my house.” Ty pointed to his own feet to prove a point.
“Redecorating.”
“That iskey-rect!”
“Maybe if you spent less time redecorating and more time fucking your wife, she wouldn’t walk into walls and take off.”
“I’m gonna get me some paint and…What’d you say?”
“You heard me.” Beside him, Ash goggled, but Brooks kept his eyes trained on Tybal. “I guess you can’t get that peashooter you call a dick up anymore.”
Ty swayed back and forth on his size-fourteen boots, blinked his bloodshot eyes. “You better shut your fucking mouth.”
“Then again, when you’re equipped with a cock the size of a gherkin, what’s the point in trying to get some wood?”
“Get off my property, you fucker.” Ty shoved him, and that was enough. But Brooks wanted to nail it shut.
“That the best you got?” Brooks put a sneer on his face. “I guess it figures a dickless wonder does the pushy shove like a girl. Next thing, you’ll be pulling my hair and crying.”
Though he was prepared for the punch and Ty was teetering drunk, it still carried some weight. Brooks tasted blood as Ash let out a wondrousJesus Christbeside him.
And on a roar, Ty charged.
Brooks sidestepped, turned his foot just enough that Ty tripped over it and went flying into the yard.
“Now you’ve done it. You’re under arrest for assaulting an officer.”
“I’ll kill you.” Scrambling to his feet, Ty came at Brooks, fists flying.
“Add resisting arrest.” Brooks dodged or blocked most of the blows. “You want to give me a hand securing the prisoner, Ash?”
“Yes, sir.” Breaking out of his openmouthed shock, Ash ran forward.
“You keep your hands off me, you pissant cocksucker.” He swung at Ash, went wide, but connected with his shoulder.
“That’ll be a second count of assaulting an officer. I think it’s clear we’ll be throwing drunk and disorderly into the mix.”
Between the two of them, they got Ty down on the ground, cuffed him. As they hauled a struggling, cursing Ty up, Brooks scanned the faces on neighboring lawns.
“I’m sending a deputy out shortly,” he said, raising his voice. “He’ll get statements from y’all. I don’t want anybullshit, you hear? You say what you saw. Anybody doesn’t, I’m charging with obstruction of justice. Don’t test me.”
He put a hand on Ty’s head, boosted him into the back of the cruiser, then swiped the back of his hand over his bloody lip. “Deputy Hyderman, you follow me in.”
“Yes, sir, Chief.”
He ignored Ty’s rantings as he drove to the station, did his best to ignore his aching jaw as well. The warning look he shot Ash had the deputy keeping his mouth shut as they loaded Ty into a cell.
“I want a lawyer. I’m suing your ass, then I’m kicking it for saying that shit.”
“What shit?” Brooks locked the cell door.
“That shit about I ain’t got a dick, and I can’t get it up to do Missy. You fucker.”
