Page 17 of Preacher

People shouted, and somebody near the counter stood up, but I didn’t care. Vega tried to straighten, so I caught him by the throat, slammed him against the wall and squeezed just enough to make his face change again.

“You put your hands on her again,” I said quietly, “and next time I take the hand off.”

His eyes narrowed instead of widening, which suited me better. Fear would have made him stupid, while anger told me he understood exactly what kind of conversation this was.

The representative grabbed my arm. “Stop. Are you insane?”

I turned my head, and he let go immediately, proving he had at least one useful instinct.

Holly stood beside the table, rubbing the red mark on her wrist. When my eyes landed on it, something inside me went colder, and Vega saw it happen.

“You think this town belongs to you?” he asked, voice strained under my hand.

“Yeah, I do.” I loosened my grip enough for him to breathe properly. “You came here thinking nobody was watching. You were wrong.”

“Preacher!”

Holly’s voice cut through the restaurant noise, and I looked at her. She wasn’t frightened by what she saw. She was angry and flushed, breathing harder than normal, but there was no horror in her face when she looked at my hand around Vega’s throat. That mattered more than it should have, and I released him. Vega cradled his injured wrist while the representative hurriedly gathered the folder he’d brought with him.

Holly picked up her own folder. “The sale is on hold. You contact me through my attorney from now on.”

Vega gave her a hard look. “You should think carefully before making that decision.”

“I just did.”

He looked at me once more before leaving with the representative. The restaurant had gone almost silent.

Holly picked up her bag. “We should probably go before somebody calls the sheriff.”

“Somebody already did.”

She looked toward the front windows as White’s cruiser pulled into the parking lot, then started laughing under her breath.

I looked at the lone cruiser outside, then at the red marks around her wrist. White could have the report if he wanted, but I had something else to deal with.

Holly caught my hand before I could move toward the door, her fingers closing around mine without hesitation. I looked down at them, then at her. She’d just watched me wrench a man’s wrist until it popped and put him against a wall by his throat, and she was still standing close enough that her shoulder brushed mine.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m pissed off more than anything else.”

“Good. I can work with pissed off.” I replied.

Her mouth curved despite the mark on her wrist. “That’s a strange response.”

“Means you’re not scared of me.”

“I know what you are, Preacher. I’ve always known what you are.”

The words landed harder than I expected. I squeezed her hand once before letting go. Outside, White was already climbing out of his cruiser with the expression of a man who knew exactly what he was about to find and hated every part of it.

Salvation still had a sheriff, and it also had us. The men buying their way into town were starting to understand the difference.

CHAPTER 5

HOLLY

By ten the next morning, I’d officially become the kind of person who rejected a cash offer I’d crossed New Mexico intending to accept.