Rising Bounty

by K. D. Jones

  “They’ve been gathering evidence against him for several years now. They’re going to get him, but until then they can put her in a safe location. She’ll be protected.”

  “She’s protected here.” Abe didn’t want her to leave; he wanted to keep her with him. He wanted to keep all of them, it was the first time he felt what it was like to have a family and he didn’t want that taken away.

  “Be reasonable Abe, talk to her about the offer. Let her make up her own mind about what she wants to do.”

  He ran a hand through his hair, worrying that Roxanne would take the offer and leave him. Damn it! Vic was right. He didn’t have his head on straight when it came to her.

  “What would ye do, Vic, if it was Lexi?”

  “I would at least talk to her and let her make the call. What is it that is really bothering you?”

  “Besides sending Roxanne and her family to a bunch of strangers to protect them and never seeing them again?”

  “Ah crap, you’ve fallen for her, haven’t you?”

  He sighed. “I’ve fallen hard. I don’t think I could take it if something happened to her or her family. I care about all of them.”

  “You’re falling in love, man, that’s new for you.”

  “I — don’t know what to do.” Was this Vic he was having a personal conversation with? His boss, the strongest man he knew and the guy who grew horns from his head when he got pissed off? Even more surprisingly, Vic was giving him really good advice.

  “Talk to her, see if she wants to meet with the agents. We’ll make sure she is kept safe no matter what.”

  “Thanks, Vic, I’ll call ye back.”

  He looked out as the sun was setting on the lake. This might be his last night with Roxanne. If she wanted to meet with the agents, he could be taking her tomorrow and she may decide to leave with them. If she did, he knew she would be taking his heart with her. She had snuck in the cracks and filled him with joy, and now she may be taking that same joy with her if she decided to leave. Vic was right though, this was Roxanne’s decision to make.

  Chapter 15

  “Is everything all right?” Roxanne asked when he came inside. He had been outside on the porch talking to his friend for a while on the phone. She could see that he was tense.

  Abe smiled at her but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Aye. I thought I would grill steaks tonight. Does that sound okay?”

  “Yeah. Do you need help?” She followed him into the kitchen.

  “Abe, what’s wrong?” she whispered.

  “After dinner, when yer mother and Cici go to bed, I need to talk to ye about something.”

  “Okay.” She wanted to ask him more but if it was bad news, she didn’t want her mom or Cici overhearing it. She tried to put her questions to the side and focus on helping him get dinner ready. She went to the refrigerator worried that this was it — he was going to tell her that she was too much trouble and send her away.

  Now faced with the possibility of never seeing Abe again, she realized just how much she didn’t want to leave him. She probably started falling for Abe the first time he strutted into the club wearing his kilt. He flirted and winked at her and then he called her lass. After that she looked for him to come in each night.

  Her feelings for him grew even more watching how kind he was with her mother and with Cici. He was gentle and funny but always supportive. She fell even faster and harder. She loved him and the thought that she may never see him again was tearing her apart.

  Steering her thoughts on a mundane task, she fixed baked potatoes and a salad while Abe grilled steaks for her, him, and her mother and grilled hot dogs for Cici. It was a pleasant dinner. They all laughed at Cici’s description of her teacher’s stern demeanor.

  “Cici, you’re exaggerating.” Roxanne laughed at her daughter’s antics.

  “No I’m not. She has these permanent worry lines on her forehead. Some of the students call her Mrs. Worrywart behind her back.”

  “I hope you don’t, that might hurt her feelings.”

  “I don’t think it would because she called herself that the other day and made the whole class crack up.” They laughed when Cici tried to demonstrate how many lines there were on her teacher’s forehead.

  Before long, it was time for Cici to be put into bed. Abe said he would do the dishes so she took Cici upstairs and put her pajamas on, and then tucked her into bed.

  “Good night, my little angel, have sweet dreams.”

  “Good night, Mama.”

  She turned the lights off and left the door open, just a crack. Her mother was waiting for her out in the hallway.

  “What’s going on?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Ever since you and Abe came back from the lake, there’s been a distance between you. Did you have a fight?”

  She shook her head and felt the heat rise to her cheeks thinking about the naughty things they did at the lake. “No. We — had a good time at the lake.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “I don’t know for sure but I think it has something to do with the phone call he had earlier with his friend. He wants to talk to me but wanted to wait until Cici went to bed.”

  “Well, go on then. Oh, and honey…”

  “Yeah, Mom?” She stopped before going down the stairs.

  “If you want Abe, you need to be willing to fight for him. A good man like Abe is hard to come by and it would be a shame to walk away.”

  She nodded her head and went down the stairs. She wasn’t sure what she would say if he wanted to end things with her. How could she fight him on that? She looked around the room and found him standing by the fireplace, adding a log.

  She took a seat on the sofa. “What’s going on Abe?”

  “Vic heard from Lauren Clay, our attorney.”

  “What did she find?”

  “A lot, actually.” He turned around, and instead of sitting next to her, sat down in a chair across from her moving it closer to her. He had a serious look on his face which made her think, this was going to be bad.

  She took a deep breath and braced herself for the worst. “Just tell me, Abe.”

  “At first none of Hadley’s witnesses that testified against ye would talk to Lauren. She turned her investigation to his financial records and discovered that funds were transferred from his political campaign donations to offshore accounts. She found that a lot of the transfer dates were around the time of the custody hearing. He’d been misappropriating the money for years and his backers were demanding a full inquiry and audit of his financial history. Lauren wasn’t able to question the judge who presided over the case because he went off world. She believed that one of those offshore accounts belonged to him. She’ll continue to search that out.”

  “If they can track the account down, find the judge, then that’s great.”

  “Here’s the problem. While Lauren and my people were looking into all this, it stirred up a whole other investigation that we didn’t realize was already taking place. Galactic Federal agents are already hunting down the judge but they believe he may be on one of the planets, like Bazin, that has non-extrication laws. They, also, are taking over control of looking into the bank account records so it’s making it hard for us to pinpoint people that he may have bribed.”

  “So we’re back to square one then, unable to prove Darryl is guilty.” She felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under her. She felt him move and looked to find he was kneeling in front of her.

  “The thing is, all those witnesses that refused to talk to Lauren at the beginning were suddenly calling her up and wanting her help. They don’t want to go down with Darryl when the Galactic feds get him. She got some of them to come in and give their confessions to the agents in exchange for being placed in the protective witness program.”

  She smiled with excitement. She moved forward to sit on the edge of the sofa. “That’s great. If we have their confessions and will testify against him, it’s what we w
ere hoping for.”

  “There’s more. Lass, the agents want to question ye and take yer statement. In exchange, they agreed to place ye, Sandy, and Cici in a protective witness program too.”

  “Oh.” She should be thrilled. After all these years on the run, she had prayed for an opportunity that someone would listen to her side of things and believe her. She couldn’t take Darryl on herself, which she found out the hard way. She needed others with more power and influence than her to do that. However, the thought of leaving Abe and never seeing him again bothered her, and the fact that it almost sounded like that was what Abe wanted hurt more than Darryl’s betrayal did.

  “It’s a good deal. Ye’ll still have to stay in hiding until after the trial is over with Darryl, but the feds promised to make sure that wherever they send ye, they will also provide security just in case. I warn ye, nothing is forever. Eventually their protection will run out.”

  She nodded her head, feeling kind of numb inside. “What do they need me to do?”

  “They asked that ye meet them tomorrow morning and give your statement.”

  “Okay.”

  Abe stood up and went over to the fireplace to adjust the logs. “Ye don’t have to if ye don’t want to.”

  “I want to give my statement at least. I finally have someone who will listen. I need to do this so that we can all have a chance at a normal life. I won’t have to drag Cici around from place to place uprooting her every time she gets settled. I won’t have to dye our hair or try to explain when one of us slips up and calls us a different name in front of something.” She watched him keeping his back to her. She couldn’t tell how he was feeling about all of it. “You can finally have your place back to yourself and get on with your life.”

  He looked at her for a moment. “I’ll make the arrangements for tomorrow. I’ll take ye to meet with Lauren and the agents. I’ll have two of my co-workers stay here with Cici and your mom for protection.” He didn’t sound happy about it.

  She stood up to approach him. “Abe, I don’t know how to thank you or repay you for all that you have done to help us.” She gasped when he turned away from her angrily.

  “Ye don’t owe me anything.”

  “Did I say something wrong?”

  “No. Go on upstairs to bed. I’ve got to make some calls about tomorrow.” He walked away heading for outside.

  Tears threatened to spill from her eyes. That was it then, they were over. He seemed anxious to get her out of his hands. She had hoped that he would want her in his bed again. She wanted to convince him to give her a chance, but it looked like he wanted her to take the offer with the feds. Maybe that was better for everyone. She didn’t go straight to bed. She headed to the bathroom to cry, covering the sound with the shower. Just when she thought she had found someone she was willing to open up to, he was throwing her away.

  *****

  Abe couldn’t go to bed. Everything in him wanted to storm up the stairs and bang on Roxanne’s door. She was planning to leave him and he had just said nothing to convince her otherwise. What was wrong with him?

  If she didn’t want to stay, he couldn’t make her. He punched the side of the log cabin. The pain of his hand only temporarily distracted him from the pain he was feeling in his heart. He took out his phone and dialed Vic.

  “Yeah?”

  “She wants to meet them and take the deal.”

  “Sorry, man, I really am. How do you want to play this?”

  “I won’t go to them in their hotel suite. They can come to us and it needs to be a public location with multiple exits to escape.”

  “There’s that new tri-story mall. We’ve scouted people there before. Isaac has a backdoor entrance to their security system.”

  “Perfect. Get it set up before I bring Roxanne. I’ll need Shy to come here to guard Sandy and Cici.”

  “Okay no problem. I know that Lexi will want to stay with them, too, at the cabin. We’ll keep her safe, we’ll keep them all safe.”

  “Thanks.” Before he hung up he added, “One more thing Vic.”

  “What?”

  By the time he got off the phone his nerves were about shot. He was trying to keep it together but nothing had ever been this hard or hurt this much. He was facing the possibility of losing the love of his life just after he had finally found her. He was willing to fight tooth and nail to keep that from happening.

  Chapter 16

  The next morning

  Roxanne felt miserable. She sat next to a silent Abe during the whole drive to town. When he parked in the mall’s parking lot, she had had enough of the silent treatment.

  “If you’re going to treat me like this, I can’t deal with it. I won’t stand for it!”

  “What are ye talking about?”

  “You have barely said anything to me this morning at all. Look, I’m sorry I’m putting you to so much trouble. After today you won’t have to deal with me and my problems any more.” She went to open the door but he reached across and shut it, keeping her from leaving.

  “I haven’t talked much because I am trying to hold back my anger.”

  She felt the tears pour down her face. “I knew it. I knew you were angry with me.”

  He reached over and pulled her into his lap, making her gasp. “Shhh...I’m not mad at ye, just at the fact that ye’re leaving and I don’t want to let ye go.” He wiped her tears from her cheek.

  “I thought it’s what you wanted, that you thought getting involved with me was a mistake and that you wanted to be rid of me.”

  He kissed her, taking her breath away. “I want ye here with me in my life, but I’m being selfish. It has to be what is right for ye and Cici. If this keeps the both of ye safe, I have to let ye go. Nothing means more to me than yer safety.”

  “I don’t know what to do.” She laid her head on his shoulder. It felt so good for him to hold her like that.

  “Let’s go inside and at least hear what they have to say. Then we can talk about it with yer mom and make a decision that is best for ye.” He tapped his earpiece.

  “Thanks, Vic, we’re coming inside now.” He lifted her back to her side of the car. “Vic says they are all waiting in the cafeteria area in the middle of the mall. Don’t worry, Isaac has broken into the mall’s security and is monitoring everything. Vic and his cousin Jagger are here along with two more of our bounty hunters who are posing as shoppers.”

  She got out and took his hand when he came around to her. They walked to the entrance of the mall. She couldn’t help but feel like someone was watching her the whole time. It made her feel better having him with her and knowing his friends were there to support them too.

  They were just approaching the cafeteria area. “Look, I see Vic and Lauren. Those other three in suits must be the agents. Lauren doesn’t look pleased with something. Stay close to me.”

  She stopped suddenly clutching his hand. He turned back to look at her. “What’s wrong, Roxanne?”

  “I — I don’t want to leave. I want to stay with you.”

  “Are ye sure? Ye might be safer with them.”

  She shook her head “No one would keep me safer than you have. I have only been at your place a couple of days and slept better than I have in years. If you don’t want me…”

  He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “I want ye more than anything. I just didn’t want to keep ye from doing what ye felt was right for yer family.”

  She kissed him cupping his face. “I want to be with you. You’ve become part of my family and I want to keep my family together in one place.” She watched as relief and then happiness showed on his face.

  “Good, because I’m not about to let ye go.” He wrapped his arm around her and they moved together. They continued to walk until they reached the table that the others were standing at. Lauren stepped forward to shake Roxanne’s hand.

  “Ms. Wall, good to see you again. Let me introduce you to agents Fitzgerald and Carlysle.”

  Roxanne shook t
he hands of the two agents then stared at the third man who was looking at her with too much intensity. There was an awkwardness in the air when no one introduced him so the man had to introduce himself.

  “Hi Mrs. Hadley, I’m Special Agent Gary Ward. I asked to be brought in on this because there were certain charges brought against you that need to be addressed.”

  She stepped closer to Abe who put his arm protectively around her shoulders. It gave her the courage to speak up. “My name is Ms. Wall. I understand that I’m in trouble.”

  Lauren folded her arms over her chest. “That’s not why we’re here, Mr. Ward, and I don’t appreciate you pushing your way into this meeting.”

  Agent Fitzgerald agreed with Lauren. “Ward, you need to either remain silent or you can leave.”

  Ward grumbled but moved back and watched her as she was escorted to a table to sit down. She was grateful that Abe and his friends were there. The size of the three men was very intimidating. No one would mess with her with them there.

  Lauren sat next to her while the other two agents sat across from them. There were no more chairs so Ward had to stand to the side. Fitzgerald nodded for Agent Carlysle to speak first.

  “We want you to tell us everything you know about your ex-husband.”

  She started from the beginning, with how she met him. Then she told them about her marriage and how abusive he was.”

  “If you were seen by a hospital or urgent care, we can get those records.” Lauren made notes.

  “What about his money habits?” Fitzgerald asked.

  “He was really bad at handling money. At the beginning of our marriage, I balanced the checkbook but when he started getting funds for his political campaigns, he took over our personal account too. I discovered he would move money back and forth from his office funds to our personal account. It looked like he spent money from the office funds and used our personal account to replace it. When I questioned him about it, I wasn’t allowed to look at the account without his permission.”

  Agent Ward snorted. “Mrs. Hadley, don’t you think you are exaggerating and trying to throw people off of you and onto your husband?”