“Already looked into that. All I saw was a hooded figure. No way to tell who it was. And that brick through the store window?—”
“Wait, what brick?”
His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Had to have been around the time you came to town.” He turned and pointed to the left side of the store. “That front window—Josie and Delaney were here when it happened. Beginning of the day and no one saw a thing.”
Anger surged once again. Every time I thought I was regaining some control, something else pissed me off. And this time, I wasn’t sure if it was Ellie not telling me that it had happened or the fact that someone had already vandalized her store.
“Whoever’s doing this is gonna pay,” I ground out.
Mav snorted, shaking his head at me. “Okay, there, Butch. How about you step back and let us handle this one before you hurt yourself.”
“Handle it like you’ve been handling everything else?”
“We have no suspects. You won’t get much further than us.”
That didn’t stop me from wanting to burn down the whole goddamn town for treating Ellie like crap.
“Look, we’re doing everything we can. We’ll find out who’s doing this, and they’ll pay. I swear to you.”
There was truth in his words, but it did nothing to calm the rage inside me.
“This was personal,” I hissed, keeping my voice low. Spray paint and a brick through the window…that’s petty shit. But to come in here and tear the entire place apart—” I shook my head still unable to believe this happened.
“The closest thing you’ve got to an injured party is Bailey, and I know she could never do something like this. Still, I’ll have a talk with her. At the very least, maybe she knows of someone who’s been extra pissed about what happened.”
“You won’t get anywhere with that,” I snorted.
“I completely agree. But when you’ve got the whole town as suspects, it’s kind of hard to narrow down. We tried to get her to install cameras, but she refused. She didn’t want the town to feel like she was spying on her.”
“Yeah, well, that ends now.
“Hey, I called my brothers,” Jeff said, stepping over the mess. “They’re on their way in with reinforcements.”
“Thanks.” Sighing, I turned and looked at the mess. The store, I could fix. But Ellie, that defeat in her eyes, the absolute devastation on her face when she realized nobody cared.
How the hell was I supposed to fix that?
And because I didn’t know, I got to work, dragging broken shelves and tables out to the street. Josie and Delaney set up a makeshift workstation, sorting through clothes that were damaged and salvaging anything they could.
Frankly, most of it was garbage. I didn’t really see the point in any of it, but they worked studiously, inspecting everything in great detail.
“Jeff, grab that end,” I said, pointing to the large table that was split nearly in half.
Together, we hauled it out through the window since the doorframe wasn’t large enough to allow us through. Glasscrunched under my feet, pissing me off every time I walked over it.
Suddenly, Jeff stopped walking.
“What are you doing?”
He jerked his head, looking at something behind me. Setting down the table, I turned, shocked by what I was seeing. The crowd from earlier had returned, and this time, they all wore work clothes and gloves.
Ruthie, the owner of the diner, stepped forward. “We came to help.”
I laughed at the idea of anyone from town lifting a finger to help Ellie. “Now you want to help?”
“Ryder—”
“No,” I snapped. “You can all fucking go home. You didn’t give a shit about her before, and you sure as shit don’t give a crap now.”
