Read One Summer for Free Online Page A

loosened grip, he added, “You behave yourself, boy, or you’ll be back on the floor before you can wipe your nose.”
    “Get up, then,” Greg Skaggs said, and eased back away from his erstwhile prisoner before standing. He did not return his gun to its holster but kept it ready in his hand.
    Johnny’s reply as he got to his feet and turned to face them was offensive enough to make Rachel excuse the sudden tension in the officers’ stances. He stood balanced on the balls of his feet, his fists clenched at his sides as if he expected to be attacked at any minute, his face white and smeared with blood, his eyes glittering with rage.
    “I’ll run into you one day when you’re not wearing a uniform, kid,” he said to Greg Skaggs. “Then we’ll see how tough you are.”
    “That sounds like a threat to me.” Chief Wheatley’s voice had a warning edge to it.
    “You hush,” Rachel said fiercely to Johnny, and walked right up and tapped him in the center of his chest with an admonitory forefinger. Without any real reason other than gut instinct, she was suddenly, fiercely, one hundred percent on his side. He glanced down at her, jaw tight, eyes hard, but, silenced by the look she gave him, he said nothing more. Rachel pivoted in front of him, standing between him and the others like a shield. The absurdity of her protecting him, when the top of her head didn’t quite reach his shoulder and she was perhaps half his weight, was lost on her at the moment. The injustice of the situation inflamed her. What had he done, after all, that Carl Edwards had not done, too, except be Johnny Harris?
    On the floor, Carl Edwards moaned, stirred, and sat up, rubbing the back of his head. He glanced around, saw Johnny, and his face contorted.
    “You son of a bitch,” he snarled. “I’ll get you, see if I don’t. You murderer—you think you can kill my sister and get away with it?”
    “That’s enough, Carl,” Chief Wheatley said sharply, going over to catch him by one arm and haul him to his feet. “You want to press charges against Harris for assault?”
    “Hell, yes, I—”
    “To be fair, Edwards threw the first punch,” Ben interrupted, his tone reluctant.
    “See there?” Rachel looked triumphantly at Chief Wheatley. “Why don’t you ask Johnny if he wants to press charges against Carl? That’s only fair.”
    “Rachel—” Chief Wheatley sounded harassed.
    “I don’t,” Johnny said abruptly from behind her.
    “Don’t do me any favors, you bastard!” Carl Edwards rasped. “I’m gonna cut you up just like you did Marybeth. Remember how pretty she was, Harris? She wasn’t pretty after you got through with her, was she? You scum—howcould you do that to her? She was just seventeen years old!”
    “Now that sounds like a threat to me,” Rachel said, but the measure of satisfaction afforded her by the reversal was erased by the sudden, pitiable collapse of Carl Edwards’s face.
    “Come on, Carl, let me take you on home,” Chief Wheatley said quietly as Carl gasped with emotion and tears started coursing down his face. Rachel felt her heart contract with pity for him. It must have been unimaginably hard to lose a sister in such a horrible way—but nevertheless, she was on Johnny’s side.
    “You tell him not to come back in here, Chief. I’ll press charges for trespassing against him if he does,” Rachel said clearly as Chief Wheatley, his men following, escorted a sobbing Carl Edwards toward the door.
    “God, Rachel, don’t you have any compassion at all for him? Edwards loved his little sister. You gotta feel sympathy for him.” Ben sounded aghast at this cold-hearted threat.
    “I do feel sympathy for him.” She turned to look at Johnny. Blood from a split lower lip was smeared all along the left side of his face. A liberal amount stained the once white T-shirt. Outside, the sound of cars pulling away told her that the police had left. The store was once again open for business.
    “Olivia,