Chapter 1

The announcement cut through the quiet store.

Every customer stopped mid-aisle at once.

Carts swung around. Baskets came up.

Within seconds the whole floor was pouring toward the fresh-food section.

Phones came out everywhere.

Every camera in the building pointed at Zach Turner, standing in front of the beef case in a skin-tight tracksuit.

"Hold on. That's the owner's boyfriend, and he just hit her own father?"

"There's no way. That's insane."

"He's dressed like he's somebody, too. How do you do something that disgusting?"

"Film it, film it. This is the best thing I've seen all year."

The muttering thickened around him.

Zach's face went from arrogant to red in about two seconds.

"You lying piece of trash!

"What are you saying? Shut your mouth!"

He screamed it and threw himself at the checkout counter, grabbing for the microphone in my hand.

I stepped aside.

He went past me and nearly went down.

I tightened my grip on the mic and watched him stumble upright.

"Nonsense?"

I pointed at the wreck on the floor.

"That's imported prime beef you stomped flat. That's not evidence?

"The handprint on Walter's face. That's not evidence either?"

I took one step toward him and held his eyes.

"You keep announcing you're the owner's boyfriend. Big man.

"So let's hear it. What kind of boyfriend gets to beat on somebody's father and destroy a thousand dollars of product in his girlfriend's own store?"

Something behind his face gave way.

Then he looked around at how many phones were on him, and the shame flipped straight over into rage.

"What are you all staring at? Nobody's filming this!

"Put the phones down!"

He raged at the crowd and got nothing back. So he turned on the store manager, who'd gone white and stopped moving ten seconds ago.

"Are you dead? Is that it?

"My girlfriend pays your salary so you can stand there and watch?

"Bring the shutters down. Right now.

"Nobody leaves this building."

The manager knew which way the wind blew, and he knew exactly how far Claire bent for this man.

He didn't dare argue.

He got on his radio.

"Clear the floor. Close it up. Move."

The big metal shutter started grinding down.

A minute ago this was a bright supermarket. Now it was a box with the lid coming down.

"What do you think you're doing? That's unlawful detention."

Somebody shouted it from the middle of the crowd.

"Shut up," Zach snapped. "One word of this gets out, and my girlfriend will bury every one of you."

Then he pointed at Walter and me, and turned to the loss-prevention crew closing in behind him in black uniforms — four big men, all of them built for exactly this.

"Break his phone.

"Drag these two lunatics into the back stockroom.

"There aren't any cameras back there.

"I'm going to teach them how to behave in person."

The guards started forward.

Walter was shaking so hard I could see it from where I stood.

He stepped in front of me anyway.

"Don't touch my son-in-law."

I pulled him behind me and kept him there.

Then I picked the heavy metal scanner gun off the checkout counter.

The first guard came in fast.

I swung once and caught him across the shoulder hard enough to fold him sideways.

"Try it."

My voice carried the length of the aisle.

"If any one of you puts a hand on us today, I promise you'll spend the rest of your lives in a cell."

It stopped them cold.

For a long moment nobody in that aisle moved at all — two lines of men leaning into each other, shoving, holding, waiting for somebody to break first.