Harley stared at the flash drive in her outstretched hand. He moved toward it, but Beth menacingly blocked his path. Kendra fought the urge to either laugh or shake her head in amazement at this slender young woman getting away with threatening a man who easily had a hundred pounds on her.

Harley glared at Kendra. “And who in the hell are you? Her lawyer?”

“Never mind who I am. All that matters is that I’m holding an HD video file that makes you look pretty damn ridiculous. We all know this woman didn’t sneak up from behind you with a pole sign. She came right up into your face with nothing but her bare hands. Not only will your buddies run for the hills when this surfaces, they’ll know that this sweet young thing mopped up the sidewalk with you. Is that really something you want them to see?”

Harley looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

Kendra rolled the tiny USB stick across her open palm. “And it’s not just your buddies who are going to be laughing their asses off. I’ve already uploaded this to my YouTube account, and I set it to go live in a little less than two hours from now. Then the whole world will see what happened out here last night. But if you’re cool with that…”

“You bitch.”

She ignored him. “It’s just the kind of thing that could go viral, don’t you think? A big, beefy bully getting pounded into the sidewalk by a cute little woman. I’m sure that every evening news program in the country will pick it up to show right before the last commercial break. You’ll be famous, but not the kind of fame you’ll like.”

His face was now the color of a radish. He gathered himself as if he was about to lunge at Kendra.

But Beth wagged her finger at him. “Careful, Harley.” She pointed back at the camera. “You have an audience.”

“Shit.” His hands clenched into fists at his sides. “What do you want?”

“I want to get the hell out of here and never lay eyes on you again,” Kendra said. “And that’s what Beth feels, too. So we’re going to hit the road.” She checked her watch. “But in the next hour and forty-nine minutes. I want to hear that you called the Inyo Country Sheriff’s Department and told them that you had too much to drink last night and were confused and Beth Avery is completely innocent. You’ll tell them that you’re not pressing charges and would like to put this behind you. You want it so badly that you’re going to furnish them with a signed written statement to that effect and drop it off with Sergeant Filardi. If I get that call from the Sheriff’s Department, I’ll take the file off my YouTube account before a single person sees it.”

He pointed to the USB stick in her hand. “What about that video?”

“We keep the video.” Kendra smiled. “Maybe we’ll pull it out once in a while on girl’s night out when we’re looking for a good laugh after a few glasses of wine. But other than that, no one will see it.”

“How do I know you’ll keep your word?”

Beth shook her head. “I have no special desire to be known all over the world as ‘that girl who beat up the redneck dumbass.’ Why would I? It would just get in my way. Sure I’d do anything I had to do to show you that you can’t get away with this kind of bullying. But if I win the battle, all I’ll want to do is turn my back on you.”

Kendra shrugged. “I’d actually love to see The Today Show gang giggling over it some morning next week, but the ball’s in your court.” She glanced at Harley, who was glowering at them. “Personally, I hope that Harley is stupid enough to fumble around and blow it.” She tapped her watch as she and Beth turned and headed back to her car. “Tick-tock, Harley.”

*   *   *

KENDRA AND BETH HAD JUST RETRIEVED Beth’s car, a silver Mercedes SLS AMG roadster, from the impound lot when a call came to Beth’s mobile phone from Sergeant Filardi at the Sheriff’s Department. Beth put the caller on speaker.

“Harley Gill is dropping all charges. He just came by with a written statement,” the officer said. “Mind telling me what you said to him?”

“Nothing much,” Beth said. “Just a little commonsense wisdom.”

“Ma’am, I’ve known Harley most of his life, and ‘common sense’ and ‘wisdom’ are two things that aren’t usually mentioned in the same sentence as that guy.”

“Well, in the cold light of day, I think he realized it wouldn’t be too good for his rep for people to know that he’d been beaten up by a woman half his size.”

“That I can believe. In any event, the case is now closed. Have a good day, ma’am.”

Beth cut the connection.

“You didn’t mention the video,” Kendra said.

Beth’s eyes narrowed on her. “Well, I didn’t think it was a good idea to lie to a cop. Which is what I would have been doing, right?”

Kendra smiled. “Would you?”

“I may not have your powers of observation, Kendra … But I’m pretty sure that camera wasn’t there last night.”

Kendra feigned a look of total innocence. “Really? Hmm. I guess you were too busy pounding that guy’s face into the ground to notice.”

“Kendra…”

“Fine.” Kendra shrugged. “I might have dug an old webcam out of my closet before I left home in case I needed it. And I might have stuck it under the roofline with some double-sided tape.”

“When?”

“Just a little while ago, on my way to the jail to see you. I wanted to take a look at the scene before I got your story.”

“You did more than take a look.”

“I know you. I knew you weren’t guilty. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared if push came to shove.” She made a face. “No big deal. If it wasn’t necessary, all I’d have lost was an old camera that hadn’t worked in years.”

“Well, I’d say it worked pretty well just now.”

“I guess it did. Most bullies don’t like to broadcast it when they get pummeled by one of their victims.”

Beth pointed to Kendra’s pocket, where the USB stick still bulged. “And what was on the memory stick?”

“Data for my music-therapy study. Good thing I didn’t have to show it to him. I might have bored the guy to death.”

Beth threw back her head and laughed. “Good thing.”

“You won’t have to worry about him anymore. As long as you leave town, I think he’ll be happy to forget about the whole thing.”

“That makes two of us.” She paused. “After you tell me how you managed to play Bubba so cleverly. I was watching you and you were able to meet his every response almost before he made it.”

She glanced away. “You described him. He wasn’t hard to analyze.”

“Kendra.”

“He was the easiest mark imaginable.” She looked back at Beth. “Nicholas Marlin would have considered him totally unworthy of using him.”

“Mark?” Beth’s eyes were suddenly eager. “And who’s Nicholas Marlin?”

“Someone I knew from my unsavory past. A friend of a friend.” She sighed. “He was a con artist. He was fairly despicable, but I learned a lot by watching him. He was truly amazing. He could read things about his marks that were totally incredible just by observing body language and facial expression.”

“Then I can see how that would be useful to you.”

“It was. My other senses were honed, but my visual acuity had to be sharpened. I had to know what I was seeing. I learned a lot. Not all of it good. It’s incredible how the human mind can be manipulated if you study just how to push the buttons.” Her lips tightened. “In the end, I tried to forget him and the more sinister aspects of what I’d learned by watching him.”

“Sinister?”

“Drop it.” She smiled with an effort. “And forget it as I’ve done. Except when I need to pull something out of the hat as I did with Harley.”

“Interesting. But then you’re always interesting.”

“Forget about me,” Kendra said firmly. “We obviously have some catching up to do. What have you been doing with yourself, besides morphing into a one-woman army?”

Beth tilted her head. “Why don’t you tell me?”