Of course, not stopping to see if you’d perhaps seriously hurt someone was an affront to common decency, and she supposed she could grant him that much, that he’d be angry at that. She’d never thought of him as a bad person, really, just a guy who’d gotten lazy, careless at the worst possible time, the worst possible moment.

And that moment had gotten her father killed.

Chapter 10

“You’ll come to our place,” Hayley said as she put an arm around Amanda. “That way you can take your time deciding what to do.”

Amanda seemed to hesitate, but then Cutter, who was sitting at her feet, nudged her slightly. She stroked the dog’s head, and her expression cleared. Adam didn’t know how the animal did it, but right now he was glad of it, for Amanda’s sake.

“All right, for a while,” she said.

Adam let out a breath of relief. She wouldn’t be alone. The Foxworths would look out for her. He hadn’t forgotten what the paramedic said. Although the injury looked like little more than a bump on the head, symptoms could show up later to indicate it was something worse.

Quinn came over to stand beside him.

“She’s a friend of yours, the deputy?” Adam asked, without looking at him.

“She is now. Foxworth crossed paths with her on a stalking case last month,” Quinn said.

“You say that like that’s what you do, that kind of case.”

“Sometimes. We got into it helping a guy keep a promise.” Quinn grinned suddenly. “Well, Cutter got us into it, actually.”

Adam blinked. Gave Quinn the quickest of glances, then looked at the dog again. “You guys are making him sound...almost scary.”

“Oh, there’s no almost about it,” Quinn said, still grinning. “And don’t ask me for an explanation because I don’t have one. He just knows when people need our help.”

Adam shook his head slowly, watching the dog lean into Amanda. And finally, looking down at him, she smiled. That alone was worth a lot, he decided.

“He also has another talent, but we’ll save that for later,” Quinn said, and Adam realized the man was watching him much as he’d been watching Amanda and Cutter. He grimaced inwardly as he once more dodged the man’s look. “Right now, he’s decided you two need us, so we might as well get started. You can follow us back to the house.”

You two? What the...?

“I... I’m fine. Just look after Amanda. The paramedic said—”

“I know the routine. Orientation times five, every hour or so for the next twelve.” Adam shot a quick glance at him again. Quinn shrugged. “Been there before.”

“The car,” he began, looking away.

“We’ll take care of it. Obviously, it means a lot to her, so we’ll find someone who can put it to rights.”