by Rhavensfyre
“Ransom?” she called out tentatively. There was no answer. “What the hell is going on down there?”
Not knowing was killing her. Victoria crossed her arms and huffed. Put in the corner like a child while the grownups played cops and robbers.
Victoria started pacing again, only this time she conveniently forgot to turn around after a few steps. Meandering slowly down the hillside wasn’t technically following Ransom, not if it wasn’t intentional.
Then she heard someone make a horrible noise that just suddenly cut off, and she was off and running without regards for her own safety. Just before she rounded the bend that would take her directly to the pond she slipped on the muddy trail, sliding face first before coming to a rest in a clump of grass. “Ugh.” Victoria tried to get up, then froze and ducked back down into the grass when she saw Ransom. “Oh, no. What did you do?”
Ransom was standing at the edge of the meadow, near the water. Two very still bodies were laid out on the ground next to her, while a third lay some distance away. Ransom bent down, pulled a large hunting knife from one of the prostrate bodies and tested its edge against her thumb before leaning down again. Victoria gasped as the knife flashed, once then twice as Ransom jerked the blade up in a violent motion. She did the same with the second man then slammed the blade into a nearby log. The loud thunk as the blade sunk into the wood was one of the few things she could hear over her hammering heart. Relief washed over her when one of the men moaned and shifted, raising one hand up to his forehead and trying to sit up. He got Ransom’s attention first.
What is she doing? Victoria’s stomach and arms were covered in mud from her impromptu slide into home base. She was wet, cold and starting to shiver but she was afraid to move, unsure how Ransom would react to her spying.
Ransom grabbed the man’s hand and flopped him over onto his stomach while simultaneously pulling his belt free from his camouflage pants. He started mewling like a baby, but didn’t seem to have much fight in him. With neat, crisp motions, she tied the belt around his wrists, then leaned over and whispered something in his ear that quieted him down immediately. Then she did the same to the second man, leaving them on their stomachs with their arms tied behind their backs. Victoria shuddered. It looked like a decidedly uncomfortable position…effective, but uncomfortable. Even on the ground and from her hiding place, Victoria could tell that each man outweighed Ransom by at least 80 pounds apiece.
“If you’re done with your mud bath, Victoria, you can come on down. I won’t bite.” Ransom’s voice traveled up to her hiding place, the dry humor unmistakable even across the distance between them.
How the hell did she do that? She hasn’t even looked up and she knew I was here.
Victoria stood up, trying to wipe the sticky mess from her arms and stomach as she walked towards Ransom. It was difficult for her, trying to maintain some semblance of dignity while Ransom stared at her, running her gaze up and down her mud covered body with the strangest expression on her face.
“It’s not funny!”
“Yes, it is. You really should see it from my point of view. If you give me my phone back, I could even take a picture,” Ransom offered. She even managed to do it with a straight face.
“Don’t you dare!” Victoria exclaimed, refusing to admit that it was even the least bit funny. She hugged herself against another, more violent shiver. Ransom’s expression sobered immediately.
“You’re cold.” Ransom dug around the campsite and pulled out a travel blanket. Before handing it over to Victoria she sniffed it, her lip curling ever so slightly before nodding.
“It’s wool. Nice quality, too. They never used it so I think it’s safe.” Ransom surprised her by throwing the blanket over her shoulders and holding the two ends together just below her chin. She felt Ransom’s hand tighten around the blanket in front of her, pulling her in closer.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay put and call for the Sheriff?”
“I…” Victoria swallowed. She was saved from making up an excuse by the sound of another male voice. A uniformed man popped out of the woods on the other side of the pond and waved at them.
Ransom spun around, leaving Victoria free to tuck the blanket around her and walk away. Ransom was pissed. She had been doing a good job of hiding it, but she was not happy.
“Hello Roy, I have some troublemakers for you,” Ransom called out to the approaching Sheriff then turned back to Victoria. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“Hello again, Ransom. Nice to meet you finally, Victoria.” Roy smiled at Victoria and touched the brim of his cap before turning to Ransom and the men groaning on the ground below him. “Jesus Christ, Ransom. What the hell did you do to them?”
He might have sounded gruff but Victoria could see the respect in his eyes as he took in the whole scene. A slight tightening around his mouth appeared when he caught sight of the dark carcass near the pond.
“Oh shit, Ransom…is that?” He didn’t finish, and she just nodded and turned away.
Roy squatted next to the two men Ransom had taken down for poaching. They were just starting to get their wits about them, which meant they were already cussing up a storm, their voices thick and ugly and promising all sorts of fun stuff they probably shouldn’t be promising in front of the County Sheriff. The louder of the two had a huge goose egg across his right temple, the other one had a bloody nose and kept sniffing like a child with a cold. He sighed; they would have to go to the hospital and get checked out before he could take them to jail.
“Hey, guys.” Roy snapped his fingers in front of the two men. They twitched and pulled back from the sharp noise. “Got your attention now?”
They both nodded.
“Good, good.” Roy pulled his badge off his belt and held it out in front of them. “See this? I’m Sheriff Jameson. I’m going to suggest y’all might want to reconsider issuing all those threats to Ms. Greathouse here.
“Dammit, Sheriff. I want you to arrest that woman for attacking us.” The first one started in on him the minute he was back on his feet.
“Oh, really?” Roy drawled, “So, you want me to arrest the caretaker of this property who, let me see…is a woman. You want me to file an official report that Ms. Greathouse here beat up two strapping men like yourselves, all by her lonesome?”
Embarrassing them was just for fun, but now it was time to get down to business. Roy was done playing with them. He moved in closer to the two men and lowered his voice. There wasn’t going to be any doubt as to what he meant by the time he was done with them.
“Do you have any idea how much trouble you are in?” He started listing the charges, ticking each one off with first one hand then the other. The men quieted down right away. Their faces paled in increments, then blanched sheet white when he added poaching and hunting inside a wildlife sanctuary.
“Are you good now, Roy? I’ve got to get my guest back to the house.” Ransom purposefully avoided using Victoria’s name now that the poachers were back in the land of the living.
Roy nodded. “Yeah, it’ll be a bit of a hike back to the SUV, but I don’t think they’ll give me any trouble.”
The two men lurched and staggered across the rough ground. He had put handcuffs on them, but Ransom’s knot work had proved too difficult to negotiate so he had to cut off the impromptu restraints. Both men had to walk funny just to keep their pants from falling off their hips.
“Seriously Ransom? Did you really have to do this?”
“No, I didn’t have to, but I wanted to.”
“I guess I can zip-strip their pants when I get to the SUV, but did you have to cut their bootlaces, too?”
“Well, it’s like you said, Sheriff. It was just little ole me and two strapping men. I had to make sure they couldn’t overpower me.” Ransom smirked at the Sheriff before turning and walking away. Victoria’s gaze remained glued on the two men for a moment longer before she turned and followed her.
“Just make sure you come in and give
your statement,” Roy called out after them.
“Sure thing, Roy.” Ransom was doing her best to put as much distance between her and the scene behind them.
“Oh, and Ransom? The Deputy position is still open if you ever change your mind.”
Ransom stiffened but kept moving. She was not going to let him goad her today. She had too many other things to deal with.
“Not going to change my mind, Roy. Stop asking.”
***
Now I know how good her security is.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ransom grabbed her keys the minute they got back.
“This time, do what I say,” Ransom said, sliding the barn door shut behind her. “Stay in the house until I get back.”
“Where are you going?” Victoria asked, shifting uncomfortably beneath the wool blanket. The drying mud was itchy and stiff; she had hoped to hop in the shower right away.
“I abhor waste; I am going back up to dress out the deer. He shouldn’t just lie there and rot.”
Ransom’s answer left Victoria with a vaguely unsettled feeling in her stomach. She could not in a million years see herself doing what Ransom was getting ready to do. Just knowing that the meat came from such a regal animal would keep her from eating it.
“Oh. I don’t know how you can do that.” Victoria grimaced at the thought.
Ransom crossed her arms and gazed down at her. “Not for me, Victoria. I know someone that could use the meat, any food actually.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize.”
“Did you really think it was enough just to deny those assholes’ their trophy? Those men were arrogant, entitled little bastards who thought they were above the law. That’s why I went after them. If we hadn’t found them, they would have had their little celebration, taken their trophy and left the carcass behind.”
Ransom was getting worked up again. She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths before she felt composed enough to speak again. “Please, Victoria. Just get inside, lock the door and wait for me to come back.”
After Ransom left, Victoria walked into the house and did as Ransom requested. She had a lot to think about. The woman really was a mystery. So passionate about her causes yet practical enough not to let those emotions get in the way. She hadn’t batted an eye at taking out those two men—but what they did to that animal? That seemed to tear her up more than anything else.
Sooner than Victoria expected, Ransom returned from the pond with a large cooler tucked in the back of the jeep and no desire to engage in small talk.
“You cleaned up and changed.” Ransom took one look at her and announced. She looked exhausted, standing in the kitchen trying to guzzle down the last of the orange juice. For some reason, Victoria expected her to be filthier, covered in as much dirt and grime as she had been after her slip and slide adventure down the mountain, but somehow Ransom had managed to escape the worst the mud had to offer.
“You seem surprised,” Victoria said, managing to hide her disappointment. Ransom was back to short, terse sentences.
“Not surprised, just making an observation.” Ransom tossed the empty carton into the trashcan. She needed to get rid of the stench of old blood and mud clinging to her clothes and coating her skin before it invaded every pore. “I’m going to grab a quick shower and change. Be ready to go in ten.”
Ransom vaulted up the stairs without waiting for an answer.
Victoria sagged against the counter. Now that hurricane Ransom was upstairs, she could breathe again.
“Wow.” That’s all she could say. The woman was somehow managing to run hot and cold at the same time, balancing two storm front’s that were bound to collide at any time. When they did, it was going to be ugly.
Ransom blew back down the stairs about five minutes later, fully dressed and ready to roll.
“Ready to go?” Ransom asked, not slowing down on her way out the door. Victoria had to pick up her pace to catch up or risk being left behind.
The Jeep was a sight to see. After all the rain, the trails had been difficult enough to navigate on the ATV, they must have been hell for the Jeep. Every square inch from the fenders down was covered in blackish mud that, surprisingly enough, had missed the passenger seat, although she did have to toe a huge chunk of mud off the floor just to get in.
Instead of turning towards town, Ransom turned the Jeep in the other direction, heading deeper into the countryside. She kept her eyes straight ahead, shifting efficiently if not a little aggressively through the corners, basically ensuring that conversation between the two of them was kept to a minimum.
When the thin county road gave way to unmarked, kidney punching gravel, Victoria started to wonder if Ransom had chosen their route just to torture her. Then they pulled up to a small cabin hidden deep in the woods. The ramshackle building, tacked together with tarpaper and mismatched scraps of old wood looked like it was ready to fall over at any moment.
“Oh, my God.” Victoria felt her heart break just looking at the place. This was poverty at a level she had rarely seen, and she felt horrible for doubting Ransom. “Who lives here?”
“Mrs. Johannsen,” Ransom answered, looking at the place with a troubled expression on her face. “The place is falling apart but she won’t leave it. Every time I come up here, I worry she won’t pop out of that door.”
“Why? Doesn’t she have any family to take care of her?” Victoria had to ask. She desperately wanted to know why one elderly woman would choose to live here, all alone and so far away from the rest of the world.
“Oh, she has family, alright.” Ransom narrowed her eyes, furious that her last “pep talk” with Mrs. Johannsen’s family had failed to produce any results. She was going to have to talk to Buddy, maybe he could knock some sense into her family. Left on her own, the old house was not going to survive another winter, and neither would Mrs. Johannsen.
“That doesn’t sound good at all,” Victoria said. “Are they not good people? I mean, who would leave a family member like this?”
“No, they aren’t.” Ransom shook her head, then blew out her breath. “Mrs. Johannsen, she’s a sweet lady. She doesn’t deserve this. The problem is, her asshole relatives don’t see her as a relative…she was their aunt’s ‘live-in companion’ and the minute the poor woman died, they took control of her house and sold it for a huge profit. Like a lot of women her age, she had married young, was widowed and carried on with her life. This house was the only place she had left to go when they kicked her out of her real home.
“It was a piece of crap when she moved in, and it’s gone downhill from there. Me and Buddy, we remind the Smithfield’s once in a while that they owe their dearly departed aunt something for taking that house from her partner despite her wishes. That house was worth a lot of money. They can afford to spend a little of it on someone else. From the looks of it, we need to pay them another visit.” Ransom paused for a moment and started tapping out an angry beat on her steering wheel. “It’s all bullshit. Those women were together for over thirty years."
Victoria watched her suck her cheeks in. She licked her lips, then bit one of them…obviously holding back something else she wanted to say.
“I’m sorry, Ransom,” Victoria said. People were so cruel, and for the stupidest reasons.
Ransom jumped out of the Jeep and hauled out the cooler. “This won’t take long.”
The little old lady who came out to meet them was so wrinkled and shrunken it was impossible to tell her age, only that she was very, very old. Despite her years she walked with a straight back and an air of self-sufficiency that belied her real need. Now Victoria was angry for her, too. The woman had to be at least ninety years old. It was absolutely criminal, what her so called relatives did to her.
Ransom was different with Mrs. Johannsen. Polite and articulate, she was the embodiment of the concerned neighbor. Victoria hovered near the Jeep, uncertain as to what her job there was and too fascinated with watching the two of them to bother
inserting herself into the conversation. She realized something by doing that. Separated by many years, they were still two sides of one coin.
Even from a distance, Victoria recognized a similar spirit residing inside both of them.
Strong, resilient…shaped by their experiences, but refusing to let those experiences break them completely. Mrs. Johannsen was their past, with all the knowledge and heartbreak that their history embodied…and Ransom? Her story was vastly different, but she was still willing to take up other people’s fights for them. Victoria wouldn’t call her an idealist, not by any measure, but she was still a fighter…a warrior down to her core. No matter how much it made her bleed inside.
Ransom was wonderfully gentle with the old woman, making sure to respect her dignity while still managing to do all of the work. This was yet another side of Ransom she hadn’t seen before, her concern for one old woman purer in heart than most of the charity work she had seen in the past.
Unfortunately for Victoria, that responsiveness was fleeting. By the time they climbed back into the Jeep, Ransom was back to brooding over whatever else was bothering her.
The ride back to the house was much the same as the ride in, silent except for the wind blowing past her ears. When they got home, Ransom went through her security routine, then went straight up to her room and shut the door with barely more than a mumbled apology. The message was clear. Ransom didn’t want to talk.
Victoria walked up the stairs with the straight back and determined demeanor she usually held in reserve for a particularly difficult interview. Ransom was going to talk to her, holding everything in like this wasn’t healthy. Like it or not, they were stuck together in this house, and that meant they had to communicate. She tapped on Ransom's bedroom door, then opened it without bothering to register what she had said.
“We need to talk.”
“Not right now, Victoria.” Ransom met her in the middle of the room. Arms crossed and not in a great mood, she waited to see what Victoria had to say.