Adam drove down the street towards the clinic, singing along lustily to the song on the radio.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed, his eyes focusing on a bright red antique convertible parked in front of the clinic. He turned down the radio and then squinted into the bright August sunshine. It wasn’t a car that he recognized and as many miles as he put on his truck, driving around the area, checking on animals…

That was really saying something.

As he pulled in next to it, he noticed the Utah license plates. Definitely not from around here, then. Why were they stopping at his clinic? A hurt pet while on the road? The Long Valley area was a tourist destination, sure, but the Whitaker Veterinarian Clinic was definitely not on the list of the Top 10 Things You Must Do While in Idaho.

He swung out of his truck and headed for the door, taking one last look at the older car over his shoulder as he went. There was something wrong here. There was something about this car that was setting off alarm bells in his head, and it wasn’t worry about an animal potentially hurt and waiting inside for him. No, there was something else—

A Karmann Ghia. It was a Ghia.

Holy shit, it was a cherry red antique Karmann Ghia.

He grabbed the door handle of the clinic and yanked it open just as he heard Kylie cry out, “Don’t!” His eyes swept the room, taking it all in, everything in slow motion, bile rising up in his throat. There was his precious Kylie, being held by a short, muscular guy, shaved head, a long, thin knife held to her throat.

A knife. Oh God, a knife.

His eyes popped up to Norman’s – because it could only be Norman standing in front of him – and saw that he was watching Adam closely in return.

“You must be the new boyfriend,” Norman said, snarling as he pressed the knife further into Kylie’s throat, cutting off her mumbled pleadings for him to stop. “Did you know that this dumb bitch here doesn’t even know how to follow directions? I told her to get rid of this thing, but look at her. She’s huge. No doctor is going to take it out now. Because of her incompetence, I have to clean up her mess. Again.”

Just stay calm. Don’t agitate the man further. Maybe Ollie will get to work unseen and can call 911. His eyes swept the room fruitlessly as his mind spun. Was Ollie already there? He might be in the bac—

“Your sniveling teenage boy is tied up in the back,” Norman said, reading Adam’s searching eyes correctly. “I didn’t want to have to deal with two people, in case one of them decided to act like a hero. And then you had to come along. Well, it can’t be helped.” He snorted with disgust. “I mean, I doubt you’d agree to turn around and walk away.”

Adam’s eyes went wide at that, and the first sounds he’d made since he arrived came out – a low, nasty chuckle. “Hell no, I’m not walking away,” he growled, his eyes jumping between Norman and Kylie. Was the man psychotic? Adam couldn’t see something like this and walk away, even if he didn’t know Kylie from Eve. What kind of human being could? Oh, so sorry to interrupt your abortion in process with a giant fillet knife. Let me just get out of your way and let you two get to it.

As his eyes flicked between Kylie’s – pale green and terrified and begging for help – to Norman’s – pale blue and icy and lifeless – he debated his choices. He could charge the man, but Norman would be able to hurt/maim/kill Kylie long before Adam got there, and considering the soulless look in the man’s eyes, he was pretty sure Norman was more than happy to do that.

Could he talk the man down?

Maybe?

He held up his hands in the air pleadingly. “Look, I think that this has just been a misunderstanding,” Adam started out. “If you put the knife down, maybe we can all talk and decide together on what to do.” Right after I punch your teeth down your throat and then turn you over to the cops.

Yeah, right after that.

Norm let out a snort of laughter. “Do I look that stupid?” he asked condescendingly. “I didn’t think that I appeared to be the village idiot, but maybe I was wrong. Was I wrong, Kylie?” He jerked on her hair, causing tears of pain to spring to her eyes. Adam’s heart twisted inside of him. Dammit, he was a country vet who dealt with badass bulls, not psychotic wannabe murderers. And if he screwed this up…

“No,” Kylie whispered carefully. Adam could read the terror in her eyes from across the room.

“Look, no reason to think I meant that,” Adam said calmly, shuffling forward just a bit, hands still held up in a surrender position. If he could just get within arm’s reach…

“Back up or I slit her throat,” Norman said, pressing the blade to Kylie’s throat. A small red line appeared across it. Kylie didn’t even dare whimper.

Adam stumbled backwards. “No need to do that,” he said, still holding up his hands placatingly, terror ripping through his stomach. He thought he might be sick.

He had to keep calm. Figure out a way to force Norman to make a mistake. “Look, let’s not move too hastily here. We can slow down and think through our choices. You don’t want to hurt Kylie, right? You have your business, your wife, your family…you can’t go back to all of that if you kill someone. So let’s try taking a step back to see if we can find a solution—”

“I told this dumb bitch to get rid of this thing!” Norm growled, cutting Adam off. “She didn’t do it, so I have to do it for her. That’s the solution.”

I can’t reason with him, I can’t call the police, I don’t carry a gun with me, I can’t get to his side fast enough to get Kylie away from him before he just slits her throat. The only other person who knows what’s going on is tied up in the back and is absolutely no help to me. What other choices do I have?

And then the thought he’d had over a month ago, when Kylie had first shared the truth of what had happened the night she’d told Norm about the baby, rang in his mind.

This guy is a stereotypical bully – he’d never pick on someone who could actually put up a fair fight.

Bully…

Bully…

Bully…

Adam had been lucky growing up – he hadn’t been picked on much. A little here and there, but he’d tended to be on the tall side and none of the bullies had wanted to pick on someone bigger and taller than them. Just like right now – Norm didn’t want to take on Adam in a fair fight; he wanted to hurt and abuse a woman who was smaller and weaker than him in every way.

But what was one thing that was true about almost every bully out there? They were thin-skinned megalomaniacs. They couldn’t stand having someone think that they were dumb or less than in any way, because secretly, they think they’re dumb and less than.

Adam opened up his mouth, praying that his new plan wouldn’t end up with Kylie on the floor in a heap. Please God please God please God…

Adam forced out a taunting laugh. “You think that you’re not the village idiot, huh? That’s not what I see in front of me. A smart man would’ve planned this out so much better. A smart man would’ve made sure to pick a time or a place where no one else would walk in on him. But you…you picked right here, in the middle of town on a Thursday. And you honestly thought you’d be able to pull this off without a hitch? They must grow ‘em stupid in Utah.”

Norman’s body tensed up, his icy blue eyes narrowed and angry and pissed as hell. “How dare you, you stupid country bumpkin!” he roared. “What do you know – you drive a pickup truck old enough to date and work in this tiny cinder block hellhole. Obviously, I am a lot more successful than you, and—”

Adam laughed sarcastically, cutting his tirade off, while Kylie sent him pleading looks to just stop pushing this guy’s buttons. Adam didn’t dare look at her. He knew he wasn’t a good enough actor to pull that off.

“Shiiitttt…” Adam drawled, adding in a thick country twang that hurt his ears to even use. “I might just be a country bumpkin, but I at least know not to be such a dumbass like you.” The color began to climb in Norm’s cheeks, and Adam could tell he was starting to get to him. Just keep going… “I mean, Lordy, could you even have been more retarded? Only an idiot would walk into a business like this and attack a girl. How low can you go?”

With a roar that seemed to come from deep inside of him, Norm threw Kylie to the side and charged at Adam, his knife in a death grip in his hand. Adam waited until it was almost too late and then reared up, a cowboy boot straight to the shorter man’s face. The momentum of the charge put so much force into the boot kick, Norm dropped to the ground, his hands cradling his face, blood pouring out of them, screaming in pain.

Adam sprinted past the man, intent on getting to Kylie’s side to console and protect her, when she instead did a sharp about-face, snatched the phone off the cradle, and dialed 911. “Yes, this is an emergency,” she snapped. “An insane man just tried to kill me.”

Adam stumbled to a stop. He’d thought that…well, that Kylie would be crying. And would need him to hold her and tell her that everything was okay. Instead, she was doing her part to take Norman down.

He couldn’t be more proud of her than if she’d just won an Olympic gold medal. Anyone who underestimated Kylie was in for a hell of a surprise.

He turned around and instead snatched the fillet knife off the ground where Norm had dropped it and hurried into the back, slicing through the duct tape holding Ollie’s wrists and ankles to an old wooden chair, and then turned on his heel to head back towards the front. Norman may be thrashing around on the floor now, begging for his mom, but that didn’t mean he’d stay there.

“Holy shit!” Ollie yelled, as soon as he got the duct tape off and the cotton out of his mouth. “I can’t believe that jackass! He taped me to a chair!”

“C’mon, Ollie,” Adam said, laughing a little inside at the teen’s disbelief. He was heady with emotion and relief and his legs were rubbery but he had to keep going. He couldn’t sit down until this psychopath was behind bars. “The police should be here soon.”

They hurried back upfront to find Kylie still on the phone, telling the dispatcher everything that had happened while Norman…Norman was busy crawling towards the door.

“Oh no you don’t,” Adam said, grabbing the man’s collar and yanking him backwards. He was a little too pleased to see that Norm, in fact, had broken teeth as he gasped and begged for mercy. “It’s not so fun when you’re on the receiving end of an ass-whooping, is it, shithead. I do hope your job comes with a nice dental plan.” Norm got up on his hands and knees, making a drunken attempt for the door, but Adam grabbed his collar and flung him back down on the ground again. Sprawled out in front of him on the floor, Adam put his shit-and-straw-covered boot on the guy’s chest, pinning him to the ground.

“Huh. Well now, Ollie,” he drawled to the teen who was standing on the sidelines of the action, looking terrified and excited by turns. “I think it’s rather fun to keep him pinned here like the insignificant insect that he is. Kylie, how you doin’?”

“Good,” she called back calmly. “The dispatcher says the police are almost–oh, that’s them now.” There were sirens in the distance, tearing up the street towards them. “Thanks, Mr. Behrend. You be sure to bring your cat by next week when you have a chance.” She hung up the phone as Adam turned to shoot her a look, his boot still firmly planted in Norman’s chest. Norman let out a pained groan and Adam smiled to himself.

Maybe more than a little firmly planted.

Kylie shrugged at Adam’s surprised look. “Mr. Behrend started telling me about his cat while we were waiting for the police to show up. I mean, you have to talk about something. Apparently, she’s been dry-heaving lately and he doesn’t know why.”

“Sounds like a major case of hairballs…” Adam said, tapping his finger on his chin, pretending to think. The piece of shit on the ground began whining and mumbling, and Adam knew that pretending to ignore him, as if he were literally not worth worrying about, was the worst thing someone could do to him. Worse than breaking his teeth, not paying attention meant they weren’t giving Norman the Great the due respect and attention that he deserved.

Police were jumping out of their cars, doors slamming, sirens wailing, and still, Adam pretended to stay focused on the mystery hairball case. “Did you ask Mr. Behrend if she’s been shedding more than usual lately? It could be—”

The front door burst open as Officers Knittle and Morland moved in, guns drawn, shouting. Adam turned back to them, grinding his heel into Norman’s sternum one more time as he did so, and then waved. “Hi, you guys,” he said pleasantly, ignoring the whimpered pleas for help from his footstool. “Everyone is fine, but I imagine you’ll want to have the dentist meet you at the station along with a doctor. He’s gonna need a full check-up.”

He stepped back and let the men in blue do their job. Kylie came up and stood next to him, wrapping her arms around him. “I can’t believe he came here,” she said, her voice shaky and uneven now that the danger was over. “I can’t believe I ever thought I loved him.”

Adam hugged her tight. “The good news is, he’s gone,” he said softly against the crown of her head. The smell of wildflowers wafted up and tickled his nose, reminding him of everything he almost lost. He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “Everything is gonna be all right now,” he whispered.

And as Officer Abby Miller came in and began asking them questions, and as the police car pulled away with Norman in the back, Adam couldn’t help comparing this to the last time the person he loved desperately needed him. That time, it’d ended in funeral flowers and caskets and people awkwardly hugging him and endless casseroles, brought by neighbors who wanted to do something to help, even though eating had been at the very bottom of his priorities list.

Yeah, everything was gonna be all right now.