Brokenhearted Beauty [Divine Creek Ranch 19] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Heather Rainier

  “If you two bitches don’t pipe down, I’m taking you both in for disrupting the peace and obstructing justice!”

  Leah snorted with laughter. “I’d like to see you try.”

  Georgina said, “We had a deal, Dicky Bob, you just remember that. I know what side you like your bread buttered on.” Her battered idiom left little doubt what she was offering. Just the thought sickened Leah. As if to make her nausea worse, the wind changed direction and a foul odor drifted with it. She tried to ignore it to pay attention to the debacle unfolding in downtown Tuspita.

  Leah knew it was a bad idea to prod the man. He still had a report to write. Dicky Bob’s radio squelched and a garbled message came through. Whoever was on the other end sounded irate.

  Leah said, “Officer, I need that report so I can be on my way.”

  Georgina screeched, “You keep your fuckin’ mouth shut, Dicky Bob!”

  Wondering what Georgina was getting so worked up about, Leah said, “Do you know each other, Deputy? Is she implying you have some sort of ‘deal’?”

  Georgina bared her teeth and pointed her finger at him. “You don’t tell her nothin’, Dicky Bob!”

  Deputy Dicky Bob responded to the situation by hauling off and kicking the nearby tree stump in the vacant lot that neighbored the gas station property. “That’s it, I’m taking both of you damn bitches down to the jail. We’ll sort all this out down there.”

  He grabbed for Leah and she pulled away. “If you’re not arresting me, I’m not going anywhere with you or this skank.”

  “What the fuck did you just call me?” Georgina screeched as she ran at Leah, claws bared.

  The atmosphere was suddenly split by a high-pitched scream and the most horrendous odor Leah had ever experienced. Her eyes watered and felt like they were on fire and her stomach rebelled violently as she spun around, searching for the cause.

  Deputy Dicky Bob was holding his hands to his face, screaming, like a girl. “It sprayed me!”

  The source of the odor became apparent as the skunk raced right between Georgina’s legs and across the parking lot in terror. Georgina shrieked like a fire alarm, “No, it sprayed me!”

  “No, it sprayed me!” he hollered and then made a gagging sound.

  Not hanging around for a debate about exactly who got sprayed, Leah ran with the rest of the crowd, dodging the poor, frightened skunk. Anyone within ten yards of that critter could consider themselves sprayed.

  Her stomach rolled as she stumbled to her car to grab her box of tissues to mop her eyes, but she was suddenly grabbed from behind.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” Dicky Bob hollered. His face was red, his eyes were watering and his nose was running. “You’re under arrest for…for…evading arrest, and a bunch of other stuff.”

  I have died and gone to Hell.

  “I wasn’t evading arrest, you idiot! I was evading a skunk!”

  “We’ll just see about that,” he said as he roughly pushed her against her car. Georgina screamed again and then vomited all over her mustard yellow tank top.

  “I think that means you won’t be getting your blow job from Georgina after all, Dicky Bob.” Leah turned after he finished putting handcuffs on her and she smiled at him.

  The nausea finally won and she lost her lunch on his shirtfront.

  Chapter Nine

  Hank Stinson pulled up next to James’s parked patrol car and rolled down his window. There was something in the set of Hank’s jaw that signaled trouble.

  “Hey, Hank. What’s up?”

  Hank said, “Got a call a little while ago from Miss Evelyn over at Stigall’s. Leah’s run into a bit of trouble.”

  “What? Is she okay?”

  “More or less, yeah. I have to head up to Tuspita and I think you and Vincent need to come with me. Her dad’s on a fishing trip and she told Evelyn not to bother the two of you, but because of the circumstances that have since developed, I thought you’d want to know. Chief knows and he said it’d be fine. He’s called Vincent in so he should be there waiting for us. I’ll follow you to the station and then you can ride with me up there.”

  “Tuspita? What happened?”

  Hank looked like he was grinding his teeth together. “I don’t have the whole story yet but I’ll fill you in on the way there. I think she needs you and Vince the most but I want to make sure this is all handled according to the rule books.”

  Vincent was waiting on the curb in front of the police station when they pulled up, still dressed in his uniform. James checked in with the chief who was out front in the foyer and then he joined Vincent and Hank in Hank’s black SUV.

  On the way to Tuspita, Hank filled them in with what he’d been told by Evelyn, after Leah had called her the second time from the sheriff’s department offices.

  Hank said, “She stopped in Tuspita to get gas. Of all the places I wouldn’t want her to stop on that route, that one tops the list. There was an accident in the convenience store parking lot. The stories differ as to who was at fault. After the deputy arrived, there was an altercation of some kind and Leah was taken into custody. They’re searching for the other driver, who ran off.”

  “Ran off?”

  “Yes, the sheriff, who is related to the arresting officer, said that he had the department looking for her and they didn’t think it’d take long to find her. He made an obscure comment about having them follow their noses.”

  “Leah was arrested?” Vincent asked and he looked at James in the back seat in shock before turning back to Hank. “That sounds really fishy to me.”

  Hank shook his head and let out a long aggravated breath. “I don’t like to jump to conclusions but something is off about the whole situation. The sheriff wasn’t happy to find out that I’m on my way up there. He’ll be even less happy when he sees two other uniformed officers with me but I don’t give a crap. I know Leah, and my bullshit meter is pegged on his story.”

  “What are the charges against her?”

  Hank snorted. “Obstructing justice, disturbing the peace, evading arrest, and injury to an officer.”

  “What? She’s five feet tall! What’d she do? Stomp on his foot?” James shook his head in astonishment. The situation would be funny if he didn’t know that she was sitting in a cell at the moment. That was painful to imagine.

  “We need to get her out of there,” Vincent said. “She’s probably scared to death.”

  They pulled slowly through the town of Tuspita and the first thing Hank did was circle the block where the altercation had supposedly happened. “I’ve heard how the sheriff’s department plays in this area before, guys. We’re making a quick stop before we visit the sheriff’s department. Here we are.”

  He pulled into the parking lot of a flower shop located cattycorner from the convenience store and the three of them climbed out.

  “Good Lord, someone spooked a skunk,” Vincent said as the obnoxious odor hit them. “That is strong.”

  They followed Hank into the florist’s shop and the lady working behind the counter paused in the entry from the work room, her eyes wide as she glanced at their uniforms. “Can I help you, officers?”

  Hank was quick to explain the purpose of their visit and the lady, who turned out to be the owner, was more than willing to help them. She took them in the workroom and showed them the surveillance footage shot by the security camera mounted under one of the eaves of her building.

  The owner said, “I saw all the fuss going on over there but I was busy at the time so I didn’t investigate. I wouldn’t put it past that loudmouth reprobate to purposely destroy evidence that might implicate his son. You’re more than welcome to my surveillance video. And make sure you talk to Delilah Anders, the convenience store attendant. She’s probably still on duty and she could tell you what she saw.”

  James hated delaying getting to Leah but Hank was correct in doing a little homework first, rather than arriving without all the information they needed. The florist copied the entire segment on
to a DVD for Hank and the three of them thanked her and went across the street.

  “Officers, how can I help you?” the elderly lady said from behind the counter at the convenience store.

  They interviewed Ms. Anders who told them everything that’d happened, including the visit another sheriff’s deputy had paid to the store to review the security footage. She gave them access to the equipment and they weren’t surprised by what they found.

  “See how the time stamp skips an hour earlier today? One would almost think that someone had tampered with it,” Hank said.

  With brows arched, Vincent said, “Now I understand why you stopped in at the florist.”

  Hank shook his head in disgust. “Nepotism is the least of the problems the department has in this area. Let’s go get Leah.”

  Eau du skunk was even stronger at the sheriff’s department office and James gulped in revulsion as the stench worsened once they got inside. “Holy shit.”

  Vincent blinked like his eyes were watering and Hank looked around the empty front entrance. “Wonder who’s in charge around here?” He hit the bell on the counter and a young woman came running to the front with a respirator strapped to her head. “Can I help you, sirs?” Her eyes bulged as she took in their uniforms and badges. “Uh, I’ll be right back.” As she retreated down the hallway she hollered, “Daddy!”

  Hank drummed his fingers on the Formica counter as they waited. Finally, a short, older, balding man in a sheriff’s uniform appeared. “Gentlemen, how can I help you?” He hitched his uniform pants up under his belly.

  The picture of patience, Hank showed him his identification and said, “We spoke on the phone, Sheriff Harmon. I think you know why I’m here.”

  Harmon frowned and pointed at James and Vincent. “And these two?”

  “They’re here to assist me, as well as to pick up Ms. Woodworth.”

  Sheriff Harmon’s chin jutted out like a bulldog’s and he said, “She ain’t going nowhere until the judge sets bail. She assaulted my boy—I mean my deputy—and damaged a citizen’s transportation.”

  Hank scoffed and said, “Have you formally charged her? Have you located this other citizen? I thought you had deputies searching for her in connection with this case.”

  Sweat beaded on the sheriff’s upper lip. “Uh, no. We think she was traumatized by the events and sought safety with a friend. She’ll be in directly, I’m sure. This case is rather complicated, Sheriff Stinson, as you can well imagine.”

  “Before you say much else to incriminate yourself or this shambles of a department, it’d be best to let you know I’ve already launched an investigation into the crimes against Ms. Woodworth. What do you say you and I go in your office and iron everything out while you let these two officers go see Ms. Woodworth?”

  The sheriff’s eyebrows bunched up like a bushy caterpillar under the brim of his sweat-stained cowboy hat. He finally nodded and gestured at his daughter to take James and Vincent back to Leah.

  The stench grew stronger the farther they went down the hallway, and the young woman looked back at them. “Sorry about the stink. We tried to get her to take a shower with that carbolic soap and tomater juice but she wouldn’t let us near her with it.” She panted through the respirator as she led them down the hallway to the holding cell.

  “Can’t say I blame her,” Vincent whispered. “I wouldn’t want any of them near me either. Does his whole family work in the department?”

  “Looks like it.”

  They turned a corner and saw Leah, scrunched up in the corner of the holding cell with her head resting against the dirty wall. In the opposite corner of the small cell, a drunk lay on the other cot, snoring like a jackhammer. There was only one cell and they’d put them in together. James could feel his ears swelling and he wanted his hands on the person responsible for this travesty.

  Movement caught his eye and he noticed the deputy sitting in a chair, reading a newspaper, with a bandana tied around his head, covering his nose. He looked over the edge of his newspaper and frowned at the young woman and she said, “These two are here to see the perp—I mean Mizz Woodworth.”

  He shrugged and folded up his newspaper.

  Leah jumped up from her spot on the rumpled old cot. She wrapped her hands around the bars and gazed at them through the barrier. “Am I seeing things?”

  Vincent stepped over to her and threaded his arm through the cell bars and put it around her. Her forehead clunked wearily against the bars and Vincent kissed it, even as he obviously fought to not react to the odiferous cloud that surrounded her. A soiled gauze bandage was wrapped around one of her fingers.

  James gestured at the locked cell door and said, “Why is she in a cell with a man? There are rules about putting men and women in cells together.”

  The deputy waved a dismissive hand. “Arnie won’t hurt her.”

  “Maybe not but I’m about to hurt you if you don’t unlock that cell,” Vincent said in a grating voice that promised he was serious. “There are no solid charges against her. Even if that hasn’t been proved yet, what do you have to fear from a little five-foot-tall wisp of femininity like Ms. Woodworth?”

  Leah looked worn out and very irritated. “Wisp of femininity?”

  Vincent turned serious eyes on her. “You can chew me a new one after we get you out of here, okay, doll? Tell us what happened.”

  She rubbed her wrists, and said, “My intention was to be in this shithole of a town for five minutes to gas up and be on my way,” she said, going on to explain the events that led to her being placed in a cell. “The skunk sprayed Dicky Bob and the other driver ran off, he cuffed me and said I was under arrest for obstructing justice and disturbing the peace. I threw up on him and he started screaming at me and shaking me. The only way I could get him to stop was to knee him in the nuts.”

  She looked at him and pressed her lips into a straight line, and a snort escaped her.

  “You threw up on him?” Vincent asked, still frowning as he wrapped his other arm around her.

  “Uh-huh.” Her snort turned into a giggle.

  “You shouldn’t be doing that with a prisoner,” the deputy said pointing at the way Vincent was holding her.

  James turned to him and said, “As a fellow brother in law enforcement, I’m gonna tell you that the shit is about to hit the fan around here and when it does, you don’t want to be on the list of people she points fingers at. All he’s doing is comforting her, you ass-wipe, so sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up.”

  The deputy shrugged and went back to his newspaper after adjusting the bandana. “No sweat off my back.”

  “That seems to be the motto around here,” James said as he looked around at the dingy room and then moved over to stand beside Vincent and Leah. “Makes me appreciate my hometown even more.”

  Squinting at the patches on their uniforms, the deputy inquired, “Divine? Where’s that?”

  Leah snarled and said, “I’d tell you but you’d probably come visit and fuck it up.”

  Vincent chuckled and squeezed her. “Shhh, now, little jailbird.”

  She looked up at Vincent and in a barely discernible voice said, “I’m happy to see you, but don’t get the impression that you’re off the hook. I told Evelyn not to call you.”

  Vincent had the decency to look ashamed and murmured, “I know. Hank called us. He’s in with Harmon right now setting this all straight so we can spring our little jailbird.”

  James leaned in and kissed her forehead. “You’re a sight for sore eyes, honey.”

  “Am not,” she said. “I’m a mess. He pulled me down with him when he fell after I kneed him, so now I have road dust and scrapes on my knees, plus I have vomit and skunk spray on me. These have not been my finest hours.”

  “He had you on the ground?” James asked and then looked over at Vincent. “Hank will see all of that on the video.”

  She whispered, “And I have to pee really, really bad.”

  “They wouldn’t tak
e you to the restroom so you could have privacy?”

  “They told me that since I was a flight risk, I could pee with Harmon’s daughter standing in the bathroom watching me or they said I could use the toilet in the cell. I don’t think Arnie would’ve minded,” she said, gesturing to the sleeping drunk. “But I did. I’ve been holding it.”

  “A flight risk?

  “You know me. Rule breaker. Troublemaker. Hell on wheels,” she said with a tired smile.

  James tilted her face up and looked into her eyes. She was exhausted and pale, and she was right, her blouse was dirty and her slacks were torn at the knee. And she really did stink. He stroked her cheek and then kissed her through the bars. At the last second she turned so his lips landed on her cheek. “You don’t want to kiss me. I need a toothbrush, soap, and maybe a sandblaster first.”

  James shook his head. “I still think you’re beautiful. You can’t help all the other stuff.”

  A little bit of color entered her cheeks as she reached up and stroked his jaw. “Sweet talker.”

  “Hey now,” said the deputy suspiciously. “What’s going on over there?”

  Vincent turned to look at him. “None of your fucking business.”

  Just then, the deputy starring in the brief snippets of surveillance video James and the others had seen earlier came in through the back door. He slicked his fingers through stringy wet hair before shoving his cowboy hat down on it. Speaking to the deputy, he said, “Holy shit, I thought I’d never get that stink offa me. Damn, it smells like shit in here. Bitch wouldn’t get cleaned up?” Just then he noticed James and Vincent standing there.

  Both Vincent and James turned to Leah and she nodded. “Meet Deputy Dicky Bob Harmon.”

  Looking intent on doing damage, Vincent released Leah but James clapped his hand on his shoulder and said, “Allow me.”

  The intent must’ve been obvious in his eyes because Dicky Bob held out a hand in supplication. “Now, now, I was just doing the dictates of the law when I brung her in. She caused all kindsa hell in town and she’s in that cell for a reason.”