“What do you mean, Limpy is there?” Butch demanded.
“Exactly what it sounds like,” Ralen said.
“Are you getting deaf in your old age?” Cash asked him.
She didn’t think it was possible for Butch’s scowl to get any worse, but it did. Now he looked positively menacing.
“Explain,” he snapped.
Nobody spoke up. Shoot. Maybe she’d have to tell him. But then Dotty started going through everything. His gaze was intent on her. So intense, it was almost terrifying. Addie knew if he looked at her like that, she’d probably pee herself from terror. But Dotty managed to stand her ground as she told him everything that had happened.
“Are you hurt?” He snarled the words at Addie and Monroe.
Addie shook her head.
“You said that he grabbed you around the neck. Do you have bruising?” he asked Monroe.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“And you weren’t there?” he asked Dotty.
“I came after.”
“Thank God Cash and Ralen were here,” Dotty said.
Butch’s gaze moved away from Dotty and back to Cash and then Ralen. “Why are the two of you there?”
Cash crossed his arms over his chest. “None of your business, man.”
“I think it is my business if you turn up at the same time as a guy set on assaulting Monroe and Addie.”
“And what are you trying to say?” Ralen leaned his hands on the desk. “Are you trying to say that we are associated with Limpy?”
It was the same thing that Dotty had kind of suggested, although she knew her sister hadn’t really meant to. Sometimes Dotty said things without thinking, things that could hurt other people. She always felt terrible afterwards. People just didn’t see that and thought that Dotty had little empathy and feelings.
Butch narrowed his gaze as he took them all in. “No, don’t suppose I am. But did you know that Limpy was going to be there?”
“Of course we didn’t,” Cash said.
“So then why are you in Las Vegas? Outside their house?”
“Are you mad we didn’t invite you?” Ralen asked, leaning back with a smile.
Butch didn’t answer. Was he upset that they’d gone without him? No, that wouldn’t make much sense.
“Nope.”
“Look, we need your help,” Ralen said.
“You need my help, but you’re not willing to tell me anything.”
“We came here so I could see Addie,” Cash told him. “So I could tell her how I felt about her.”
The scowl actually lifted off Butch’s face. “Huh, didn’t think you’d ever find the balls to do that. Or the good sense.”
“Cash has plenty of balls,” Addie said.
Cash cleared his throat. “Thanks for the defence, baby.”
