Ransom's Redemption

by Rhavensfyre

  “Good to see you again too, Ransom. Ms. Carrillo.” Roy stood up and adjusted his tie, then waved at a youngish uniformed woman to join them. “Actually, I need a statement from both of you. Ms. Carrillo, if you’d just follow Deputy Jones here, she’ll take your statement. Ransom, you’re with me.”

  “No,” Ransom said, flatly refusing Roy’s request.

  “No?” Roy raised an eyebrow at her.

  “I don’t want Ms. Carrillo’s name on any official paperwork. She had nothing to do with what happened yesterday. In fact, she had strict orders to stay away from the area and didn’t see a thing.” Ransom turned, gazing levelly at her companion. “Other than calling you, she had nothing to do with the entire episode. Isn’t that right, Victoria?”

  “Yes, that’s right,” Victoria said, taking her lead from Ransom.

  “Ransom…” The warning tone in the sheriff’s voice was unmistakable.

  The air in the small office had been stale before, now it felt absolutely frozen. Victoria’s jaw dropped. Between the two of them, she wasn’t sure which one of the two was more stubborn…but she knew which one she considered more dangerous. Roy would be disappointed to find out it wasn’t him, despite the big ass Colt strapped to his waist.

  “Sooo…I think I’ll just find a cup of coffee while you two hash this out.” Victoria headed for the door, managing to grab the deputy before she escaped.

  “Lead me to coffee,” she whispered, her expression screaming “help me”.

  The deputy shot a guarded look back at her boss, then flashed a quick smile at her before leaning closer.

  “Sure thing. I don’t blame you. Those two are like oil and water, I wouldn’t want to be in there either when they go at it.”

  “Really? Do tell.” Victoria grinned. Ransom had taught her the importance of proper reconnaissance…and here was a lady who looked like a talker.

  ***

  “There.” Ransom signed the paper work and turned around to leave. She was hoping to collect Victoria and make a quick escape before Roy gave her his usual spiel. She made it as far as the door.

  “Ransom, one more thing before you go,” he rushed on before she could object or leave, both of which were an equal possibility. “I really wish you would reconsider my offer and become a Deputy. You’re wasting your skills sitting up there on that farm all by yourself.”

  “I’m not by myself, Roy, I have Victoria with me.”

  Ransom sounded perfectly reasonable, and quite happy to have a new excuse for not accepting his perpetual job offer, and that was the problem. Victoria wasn’t from Johnsonville. She had a job, friends, an entire life she had been torn away from. When Ransom found her stalker, and he had no doubt she would, Victoria would run home and leave her behind. She didn’t deserve that, and it would only make her dig her heels in even deeper. He would never convince her to leave the safety of her refuge.

  “Yes, for now. But she will be leaving eventually,” he persisted, somehow maintaining a passive attitude in the face of the deadly glare Ransom threw his way.

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Look Ransom. I understand. It’s pretty obvious that something’s going on between you two. This isn’t just about the “job” anymore, it’s personal.” Roy shook his head at her. “I just don’t want to see you getting hurt over something like this.”

  “Roy, listen to me. I know you mean the best for me, and I know you’re only doing what my Dad asked you to do. I appreciate that. But honestly? This is none of your business.” Ransom was getting pissed now. “And as for the job? Why would I want to take you up on your offer? The people here, they don’t even know what to do with me, let alone how to treat me. Which Ransom Greathouse would you be hiring? In their eyes, who would they see?”

  “Now, Ransom. You’re being too harsh on the townspeople.” Roy stood up, finally losing his amiable country sheriff routine.

  “Am I?” Ransom spat. “If I wasn’t everyone’s favorite war hero we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. You know as well as I do that hiring me would be political suicide for you.”

  She turned her face away and closed her eyes. No. I will not do this again. Ransom rapped his desk with her knuckles. “You know what. I’m done here. You have my statement. If anything else comes up, please let me know, otherwise I’m going back up to the farm.”

  She found Victoria in the breakroom. “Are you ready to go?”

  “Yes.”

  Each lost in their own thoughts, the two women scrambled back into the Jeep and headed for home.

  Ransom spent the ride silently fuming at Roy. It was cruel of him to remind her of her shortcomings like that. She barely tolerated short trips into town, a place she grew up, around people she knew all her life…but he didn’t know that, did he?

  Dammit, Roy. I didn’t need a dose of reality this early in the morning.

  ***

  I see you but you don’t see me.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Again.”

  Victoria cursed and slapped the padded mat beneath her. It had been two long weeks of training with Ransom, two weeks of drill sergeant worthy barking and martial arts training that she thought Victoria would find handy “just in case”. Two weeks of bruises, cursing, sweating and frustration while they sparred in Ransom's basement for hours on end.

  It was also two weeks from the day that Sheriff Jameson had called them in to take their statements over the poacher incident. Ransom had left that interview in a foul, broody and contemplative mood. Once they got back to the farm, she had returned to several of her old habits. She was completely professional, friendly enough in a casual sort of way…but whatever strides they had made as a couple...and yes, Victoria had started to think of them as a couple, just vanished.

  The closest she was getting to any physical contact with Ransom now was their workouts and that was not how Victoria wanted to spend their time together. Hours of sweating, grunting and grappling with a woman who made her skin tingle every time they touched. Each time Ransom grabbed her, she was supposed to move in and go limp, but it was damn hard to concentrate when all she wanted to do was throw her down on the mat and have a real workout. Except that Ransom was stronger, faster and better than she was.

  “This sucks,” Victoria muttered.

  “Maybe, but it might save your life someday.” Ransom ignored the baleful look Victoria gave her, she’d seen it before and was immune to the expression. She knew she was driving Victoria hard, but she had good reason for it. It wasn't enough for her to know how to perform the moves, she had to be able to do it from muscle memory, instantly, without thinking about it.

  “In a dangerous situation, when the adrenaline is pumping through your veins and fear paralyzes any attempt at coherent thought, that is when training like this will make the difference. Boring, repetitive training that performs regardless of your emotion, that reacts only to the situation.”

  She held out her hand and hauled Victoria back up to her feet.

  “Again,” Ransom repeated the command for what seemed like the thirtieth time that afternoon.

  Boring, repetitive, emotionless. Ransom’s little lecture was full of unintentional barbs that kept picking at her emotions. Victoria was over it, done. She was pissed and turned on, and so damn frustrated over the entire situation that she wasn't paying attention when the object of both her fantasies and her irritation grabbed her again. She reacted instinctively, driven to strike out at the woman who denied her for so long, yet kept tempting her with her presence. She let Ransom pull her in before turning boneless, falling back just as she put effort into her motion, pulling the blonde down and over her as she purposefully fell to the mat. Her momentum carried her, and she suddenly found herself straddling Ransom, who lay prostrate beneath her thighs on the mat. Wide-eyed, her arms held out to her sides in surrender, Ransom seemed just as surprised that Victoria managed to flip her as she was. Beneath that, a sharp glint of something else flashed across her e
yes. Respect?

  Got you! Victoria smirked, just before her brain ground to a halt and shifted gears, her body reacting to the intimate position almost instantly.

  The ragged sound of their breathing was the only noise in the quiet expanse of the large basement. It sounded overly loud in Victoria's ears, competing with the sound of blood rushing like a crimson torrent at her temples in time with her pounding heart. The two women stared at each other for what seemed like eternity, neither sure what to do next. It was Victoria who moved first, her head dipping lower as if unable to fight the magnetic pull Ransom’s lips seemed to hold on her.

  She half expected Ransom to protest. Instead, Ransom just watched her with a mildly bemused expression on her face. There was no modest lowering of eyelids, no flutter of lashes or looking away in order to break the moment, not a single clue for Victoria to follow.

  Be bold. What’s the worst that could happen? Victoria asked herself, wetting her upper lip with her tongue and tasting salt. Ransom’s gaze slipped down, following that simple action with her own. Her lips parted just the slightest, and she inhaled deeply enough to shift Victoria’s weight back.

  Victoria brushed her lips very softly against hesitant lips, inhaling the spicy scent of the other woman’s skin. Caught up in the memory of another night, she moaned and tried to deepen the feather-light kiss.

  Suddenly, Victoria was straddling something a hell of a lot less complacent as Ransom's body tensed and bucked violently beneath her, rolling her so quickly her head spun and she found herself back on the mat again, bright green eyes watching her closely, much like a cat did when it was toying with a mouse. Like that mouse, she was tightly pinned, unable to move beneath a very warm and solid body that might as well have been a brick house. She struggled for a moment, then gave up.

  Victoria gasped when Ransom lowered her head until they were practically nose to nose. She was so close; Victoria could count the gold flecks hidden within the emerald green depths. Those flecks began to disappear, sinking into a sea of black as Ransom's pupils dilated, until only a corona of pale green held those inky black pools at bay. The kiss that followed was unexpected, quick, powerful, and left her completely breathless as Ransom's full lips pressed against hers. A demanding tongue pushed aside any resistance on her part, then withdrew before Victoria could fight back, leaving only a taste and a promise that made Victoria beat her fist against the hard foam mat in frustration.

  “You aren't focused,” Ransom accused the woman trapped beneath her.

  “Me? Need I remind you that you just kissed me?” Victoria asked in disbelief. She made it sound like it was her fault Ransom was able to overpower her so easily.

  “Only to prove how easily distracted you get.” Ransom climbed off of Victoria.

  “I flipped you, didn’t I?” Victoria was moving past frustrated, especially since she was suddenly talking to Ransom’s retreating back.

  “You know what…I’m done.” Victoria rolled away from the training mat and headed for the stairs. Done with the day, done with Ransom and seriously done with being teased and then left gasping for air like I’m the prize in some fucked up catch and release contest.

  As Victoria attempted to storm past the source of all her anger and frustration, Ransom spun around and grabbed her arm.

  “Done with what?” Ransom demanded, then snatched her hand away from Victoria’s arm when she realized what she was doing.

  Her face paled, and she examined her hand for a moment, staring at it as if she didn’t know who it belonged to, then scrubbed her palm across her thigh as if she could erase the physical memory.

  “You. Me. Us. You take your pick, Ransom. You keep pushing me away when I know you want me as much as I want you. Well, I can’t do it anymore. Nothing has happened in over two weeks. My practice, what’s left of it, is in shambles. I’m going back home.”

  “It’s not safe to go back yet,” Ransom argued.

  “I’ll take my chances. Look at you; you are so stressed out trying to keep me safe from some unknown entity that you aren’t taking care of yourself.” Taking a deep breath to bolster herself, Victoria swallowed hard before continuing. “I care too much about you to watch you destroy yourself for me, so I’m done.”

  She was surprised at how hard that was to say. As sharp as a razor, the words stuck in her throat and raked across her vocal cords. There were too many painful truths held in that one sentence.

  Ransom tried to speak, but she was held off by an upraised hand demanding her silence.

  “Look, I'm not an idiot, nor am I deaf or blind. I told you, just because you’ve taken to sleeping on the couch doesn’t mean I can’t hear you stay up most of the night, that I don't hear your nightmares. You do know you talk in your sleep, right?” Victoria demanded, letting herself feel all the rage and frustration she’d been holding inside.

  “No, I didn’t.” Ransom’s subdued response sounded mechanical, emotionless.

  “How are you supposed to protect me, when you spend half your time avoiding me, and the other half running away from your past? Do you know how hard it’s been for me to watch you not eat, not sleep, always vigilant to the point of making yourself sick, and for what? So you can protect me when or if this stalker ever shows up? At the rate you’re going, you are going to be useless to me and to yourself! I would rather leave now than watch this slow spiral you’ve fallen into. It hurts too much to watch you do this to yourself because I know you are doing it for me.” Victoria gestured, taking in the haunted expression, the dark circles under Ransom’s eyes. She couldn't continue staying at the farm with the way things were. Ensuring her safety was one thing, but destroying Ransom in the process was another.

  “It’s still safer here. No matter what, you know I can protect you,” Ransom insisted, not realizing that she would have sounded more convincing if she hadn’t retreated from Victoria in the first place.

  “Is that the only argument you have left? Because honestly, that’s not enough right now. No one’s heard a damn thing from the stalker since the attack on the PI. Maybe he’s lost interest and moved on.” Victoria waited for Ransom to say something, anything to convince her to stay.

  She didn’t. Victoria knew what she wanted to hear, but she wasn’t sure if Ransom did.

  “I need some fresh air.” Victoria’s shoulders sagged in disappointment. She bolted past Ransom and out of the house, managing to make it to the porch before breaking down. She clung to the wooden rail as tightly as a sailor would cling to the deck of storm-tossed ship, and the world around her felt just as unsteady.

  Whitman appeared out of nowhere, jumping onto the railing next to her and meowing for attention. She sniffled, then chuckled wryly. Of course. Leave it to a cat to put things in perspective. Your world feels like it’s twisted and turned on its head? Wait for a cat to stroll by, balanced on the thinnest beam like it's nothing at all. You’re an emotional train wreck? Doesn’t matter. It’s all about the pets. Behind the ears, if you please. In return, you’ll get a purr.

  “Well, Whitman. Any sage words of advice for me today, hm?”

  All she needed to hear from Ransom was that she wanted her here, not to keep her safe, or because it was her job…but because SHE wanted her here. How hard was that?

  Evidently, pretty hard, Victoria berated herself, because you can’t even bring yourself to ask her.

  The screen door slammed behind her. She couldn’t hear Ransom moving behind her, but she could feel her presence. Starting as a tingling sensation along her spine, it curled around the base of her skull and made the small hairs at her neck stand up on end. She didn’t want to turn around. It was too easy to fall into those soulful green eyes, a sensation much more pleasant than drowning, but still capable of stealing her breath away.

  “Victoria, I’m not sure what you want from me.”

  Just tell me you want me to stay with you, Victoria thought, squeezing her eyes shut against the deep ache that desire engendered. There were other words,
but those would do for now.

  “This has nothing to do with anything I want from you. If anything, it’s quite the opposite.”

  Whitman was getting the benefit of her inner turmoil, purring like crazy while she ran her hand across the silky fur, and head-butting her whenever she forgot to keep her fingers moving. The tabby cat was a tiny little orange ball of tranquility in a sea of confusion right now, and she needed that anchor.

  “I don’t want you to go, Victoria, really I don’t.” Arms wrapped around her middle as if to ward off some invisible blow, Ransom looked wounded, both physically and mentally.

  The protective posture wasn’t lost on Victoria, if anything it reinforced what she already knew. Ransom was hurting. It was a deep hurt that had nothing to do with any physical injury and it was tearing her up inside. The military might have patched Ransom up before letting her go, but they sure as hell did a shitty job dealing with the psychological shrapnel left behind.

  “I don't want to go either, but unless something changes, I can't stay. We had a bargain, Ransom. You promised me we’d be a team, and you reneged on that deal. I thought you understood what I was offering you, but it looks like I was mistaken.” She reached up to capture Ransom’s face between her hands. “Look at me. Don’t turn away from me. I am offering you this day and whatever days we have together and it is enough. All you have to do is choose!”

  “Whatever days we have together,” Ransom muttered. “How many is that? Another week? Two? You already threatened to leave even though the stalker is still out there. There’s nothing holding you here once this situation is resolved.”

  Victoria took a step back. “Wait. Stop right there. All of this…sleeping on the couch, pulling away from me, it’s because you think I’m going to leave when this is all over?”

  “Yes, Roy said…”

  “Roy?” Victoria exclaimed, finally making the connection. Now things were starting to make perfect sense. “He told you this, didn’t he, that day he called and asked for your statement?”