“They were at the wreck, all except for one officer who was already out on another call. He’s on his way here now, and the others are coming in from out of town.”

“What’s the fight about?” Hunt asked.

“A boy from the Ryman family was running off to get married to a girl from the Dillon family. Pete Dillon took off chasing them, and that caused the wreck.”

Hunt’s eyes narrowed. Ryman? As in Tall Man’s family? What were the odds? He didn’t know what he was walking into, but Ava’s welfare took precedence over any hesitance he had in interfering with police business.

He took off in long, angry strides, hit the doors with the flat of his hands, and walked right into a melee.

Orderlies were trying to keep the angry family members away from the exam rooms where doctors were tending to victims. Rhonda Bailey was behind the nurses’ desk with blood on her cheek and a small cut over her eye, and another nurse was crying.

Two grown men were fighting with each other, and two females with them were screaming and cursing and pulling each other’s hair.

Then Hunt saw Ava, pinned against the wall by another man. She was arguing with him and struggling, trying to get free. Every fighting instinct the army had instilled in Hunt kicked in, and he began wading through the melee, punching and shoving, trying to get to her.

One of the men turned to swing at him, and when he did Hunt hit him in the chin with an uppercut. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head. He fell backward onto the floor and didn’t get up.

The other man came at Hunt from the right, so caught up in the bloodlust of battle that it didn’t even dawn on him that his “enemy” was now unconscious on the floor.

Hunt hit him in the nose with his first punch, and then the side of his jaw with his second. The man fell to his knees, both hands over his face, moaning, “You broke my nose!”

The women who’d been screaming and cursing were suddenly silent, standing there in shock and staring at Hunt.

The man who had Ava pinned became aware of the silence and turned around, saw his brother on the floor, and then shouted at Hunt.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked.

That’s when Hunt realized who he was. Josh Ryman. Tall Man Ryman’s brother. What the hell were the odds of their families butting heads like this again?

Then Hunt saw the fear on Ava’s face and started walking toward her, his hands doubled into fists, his gaze fixed on Josh’s face.