by Rhavensfyre
She took off again, not waiting to see if Ransom was following her or not. The shocked expression on her face was enough to seal her guilt. Of course she would love some help, but she wouldn’t break confidentiality to do it. Besides, there was no guarantee the answers are in there…it was just an exercise in futility meant to keep her from going crazy while she waited. Meanwhile, my practice is slowly falling apart, and there’s nothing I can do about it. This stalker couldn’t have been crueler, taking me away from the people that come to me for help. Unless?
She spun around with a question on her lips, only to realize that Ransom had indeed fallen behind. She was on the phone and she didn’t look happy.
“Thanks, Buddy. I appreciate the heads up.” If Ransom’s expression could call the weather, they’d be running for cover from the thunder and lightning gathering.
“What’s going on?”
“We’ve got a suspect.” Ransom tucked her phone back in her pocket and rolled her neck. That was a sure sign she was irritated.
“I don’t get it, this is good news, right? What happened? Who is it?” Victoria had a million questions.
“It is good news, I don’t know who it is, and as for what happened?” Ransom took Victoria’s hand and headed for the house at a ground eating clip.
“Someone showed up at Buddy’s store, asking a whole lot of questions and making Buddy nervous. When he mentioned your name, Buddy, uh…well, he decided to help out a bit and make sure the man didn’t leave until the Sheriff showed up.”
“So, why are you so pissed off?”
“Because that was three hours ago.” Ransom clenched her jaw so tight it popped. “We need to go see Roy and find out why he didn’t bother calling us.”
“I’m sure he has his reasons,” Victoria offered. She was trying to be generous, but she couldn’t quite pull it off. She still thought Roy was an asshole.
“We’ll see,” Ransom said, trying to curb her irritation. Whatever game Roy was playing, that was between the two of them, not Victoria. It was enough that she had to deal with a stalker. She squeezed her hand and smiled. “This is good news. Just think, it could all be over soon.”
***
Ransom and Victoria were forced to cool their heels while Roy interviewed the suspect.
“Sorry, Bud, you aren’t going anywhere. If my deputy here says you resisted arrest, then that’s just what happened.” Sheriff Jameson grinned at the greasy looking man they had taken into custody. “Now, I suggest you just sit down and relax until we get this all sorted out.”
Before the Sheriff left, he looked back at the cuffed man. “Oh, and when you are ready to tell me what, or who, you were looking for on that itty-bitty back country road, I would be happy to hear that, too.” His statement resulted in a gratifyingly shocked expression that left no doubt whatsoever that the man was up to mischief. How much of his “I don’t know what you are talking about” routine was pure bullshit Roy still didn’t know, but he’d sure try to find out before he had to release him.
“Is that him?” Ransom asked, impatient to find out what he knew about Victoria.
“It is, and before you ask, no you can’t talk to him.”
Ransom’s head shot up, her eyes flashing angrily at the Sheriff. Roy just looked at her mildly and motioned towards the door. Ransom grimaced, her mood going from angry to royally pissed in one sentence. Ransom waited until the two of them were in the privacy of the Sheriff’s office, somehow managing to hold her tongue until the heavy wooden door was closed and the blinds were drawn.
“What the hell, Roy?” she thundered, not caring if her voice was sufficiently muffled by the thick glass between them and the rest of the station. She was pissed. “First, you don’t call me when you arrest this guy, even though he was asking about Victoria, now you’re not going to let me talk to him?”
Roy simply strolled over to his desk and pulled open a drawer. The muffled thunk of leather on wood was like a glove thrown down between them. Ransom looked down at the leather encased star sitting on the sheriff’s desk. From the look on her face, it could have been a snake sitting there waiting to bite her.
“Now, Ransom,” Roy continued in his mild tone, “if you want to interrogate this guy, you have to be legit, and that means being the power behind the badge.” He gestured down at the silver-metal-star.
Ransom opened her mouth to disagree, the argument sharp against her tongue.
“No,” Roy spoke more forcefully. “Ransom, I’m not budging on this. I’ve got nothing on this guy other than the fact he knows Victoria’s name. That’s pretty thin any way you look at it. If we don’t get something more solid to link him to her case, I’m going to have to let him go eventually.”
Ransom shoulders dropped. “There really is no way out of this, is there?” she asked, the defeat in her voice absolute.
For one short second, Roy felt sorry that Ransom was going to have to take the badge this way, but only for a second. He walked back around to Ransom, picking up the badge and placing it in the palm of her hand.
“I know you’re hesitant, Ransom. But look at it this way. You get to interrogate the son-of-a-bitch in there, and you have the power and authority to protect Victoria—legally. This is a win-win situation. I know you don't see it this way now...”
He placed one gnarled hand on Ransom's shoulder, noting the iron hard strength there, and took pity on her. “Look, consider this a temporary appointment for now, eh? After Victoria is safe and sound, we will revisit this. If you don’t want the job then, I won’t force you.”
Ransom stared down at the deputy badge and shuddered. That bit of silver represented everything she feared—taking responsibility for others, having their lives in her hands, the risk of failure. Ransom thought about that for a second, mentally grumbling over every detail, before coming to terms with the inevitable. The badge opened up resources she hadn't had before; she could always quit after all this was over.
“Fine, I’ll do it. But just so you know, I’m still not happy about this.”
Green eyes, just as pissed off and fiery as her father’s had been, blazed beneath equally stern eyebrows. Roy chuckled at the younger version of his best friend. He would have been proud of his daughter, of what she had accomplished in her short life already…and what she would accomplish in the future.
“That is perfectly okay with me, Ransom...be pissed, if that’s what helps you. Just remember, DEPUTY… you do work for me, so try turning that pissy attitude towards those who really deserve it.” The Sheriff nodded in the general direction of the interrogation room. “Victoria’s waiting for you out there. See if she recognizes this guy. Maybe you’ll have better luck with him than I did, but as far as I’m concerned, he’s nuttier than a squirrel turd.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll find out when you get in there.” Roy sat down behind his desk. “Just try to get a name, anything. He won’t tell us shit.”
“What about ID, fingerprints?”
“Nope. No wallet, nothing, which is strange enough as it is. The man looks and smells like he hasn’t taken a bath in a few days. He must have come by bus or hitchhiked in. That probably explains how he ended up out at Buddy’s, there’s a drop-off near there.” Roy flung his pen down in disgust. “As for prints? The damn system is down. Server got fried during the last storm. We’re still waiting for the technician to get us back up and running.”
“This just keeps getting better and better.” Ransom let herself and her sarcasm out the door with a sloppy salute to her new boss and one last parting shot. “You know; Victoria was right about one thing.”
Roy looked up from his desk. “What’s that?”
“You can be an asshole,” she said, and then she slammed the door.
***
Victoria stood up when Ransom walked into the room.
“What’s going on, Ransom? No one’s telling me anything…” her voice trailed off when she noticed the badge clipped to Ransom’s bel
t, her gaze flicking past the shiny bit of metal to the 9mm now displayed openly on her hip. She sagged against the desk behind her. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes.” Ransom’s entire demeanor had changed, every bit of her being screamed cop, and it wasn’t just the badge.
“What happened in there?” Despite herself, Victoria had to admit that the transformation was impressive. Ransom must have been quite imposing in her military uniform.
“The Sheriff put an offer on the table that I couldn’t refuse.”
“He what?” Victoria exclaimed, turning back to stare at the closed door behind them. What the hell game is he playing now?
“It was either this,” Ransom tapped the badge at her waist, “or he was going to lock me out of the investigation.”
That’s it! Hot anger blew through her veins and sent Victoria’s blood pressure sky rocketing. “That’s bullshit and you know it. I’m going to fix this now.”
Victoria tore into Roy’s office without bothering to knock.
“Can I help you, Ms. Carrillo?”
His tone, somewhere between bored and amused, infuriated her. She recklessly advanced farther into the office until she reached the only barrier between them. She leaned over his desk, slapping her palm down on the short stack of files there and sliding them away from his reach. She didn’t want anything distracting him from what she had to say. “What the hell did you just do, use me as leverage to get Ransom to take that damn badge?”
“I used the case as leverage.”
Roy leaned back in his chair to put some distance between them. The woman was barely five-two at the most, so looming wasn’t exactly something she did well, but she was mad as hell. Ransom has chosen a spitfire of a woman to fall in love with, he thought, life is going to be mighty interesting for these two.
“I am the case.”
“That’s true, and that’s also why she’s wearing that badge right now.” Roy wasn’t above giving credit where credit was due. “She wouldn’t have done it for anybody else. But you? She would do anything for you, you can see it in her eyes.”
“That’s rare, coming from you, especially after I just spent two weeks fixing what you screwed up the last time you ‘talked’ to her. You’ve got a lot of balls. Telling Ransom I was going to leave her was a shitty thing to do.”
“Yeah, it was,” Roy admitted.
Victoria staggered back a few steps, shocked out of her angry rant by Roy’s unexpected admission. She stopped reacting and started thinking, hard, about what was going on between Roy and Ransom. She gazed around the office before saying one more word to the man.
“Ransom’s father was the Sheriff before you, wasn’t he?” she asked, stopping in front of a large plaque she had noticed before but hadn’t paid much attention to. The standard government photo, replete with patriotic flags in the background, didn’t look any different from the dozen or so other photos plastered along the main hallway, not until she took a closer look at the youngish face glaring back at her. She had seen that fierce, hawkish gaze before…the first time Ransom greeted them at the gate.
“Yes.”
Victoria spun around. Caught off-guard, Roy gave himself away. A fleeting shadow of some deep emotion crossed his face before he could chase it away. Sorrow, guilt? “I think you and I need to have a long talk. You aren’t being an ass to Ransom just for kicks, there’s something else going on that you haven’t told her. Why?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
There was more drama going on behind the scenes in this small town than one of those cheesy day time soap operas. It was all giving Victoria a headache.
She left Roy’s office with a lot more to think about.
“Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” Victoria asked Ransom.
“Sure, but I really need you to tell me if you recognize this guy.” Ransom looked over Victoria’s shoulder, but Roy was nowhere to be seen. Something wasn’t quite right, Victoria was way too calm after her little chat with the Sheriff. “Let’s go outside, I could use some fresh air.”
At the least, they’d have some privacy if Victoria needed to let off a little steam. God knows she’d left that office more than one time ready to beat the snot out of her training dummy.
Once they reached the parking lot, she expected Victoria to go off on a tirade about Roy, not get hissed at like an angry cat.
“What the hell are you pissed off at me for?”
“You haven’t told Roy about your PTSD, have you?” Victoria kept her voice low, but her eyes blazed. She wasn’t just pissed, she was furious.
“No, I didn’t. It’s none of his damn business. Besides, the VA gave me a clean bill of health two years ago.”
“Excuse my French, but screw the VA. They’re good people, but if they’re anything like the rest of our governmental agencies right now, they are overworked and all too eager to send people on their way out the door. Especially if that person knows exactly what to say and not say.” The weighted look she gave Ransom left no doubt who she was talking about.
“Why are you doing this now?” Ransom growled. “Because Roy cornered me and made me his Deputy? That’s stupid, it’s a done deal, whether I like it or not.”
“Oh? And if I marched in there and told him that you weren’t ready for that badge, what would happen then?”
In a voice as cold as ice, she put an end to Victoria’s empty threats. “I warned you from the beginning. Do not try and analyze me. March in there if you want, say what you want to Roy, I will deny everything categorically.”
Ransom took a step back, from Victoria and from her anger. “Why are you doing this now? I don’t get it. Everything was fine between us. Now we got some guy sitting in a holding cell and all of a sudden you’re back to questioning my freaking state of mental health.”
“I’m not, I mean, that wasn’t my intention,” Victoria cried out after Ransom’s retreating back. “I just thought…”
“Just thought what?” Ransom asked, poised at the door, ready to go in and do her job with or without Victoria.
“I just thought that if Roy knew, he wouldn’t push you so hard. I know you only did it for me, not because you wanted to,” Victoria admitted. She knew taking that badge from Roy was the last thing Ransom wanted for herself. “I thought, maybe, if I told him it wasn’t a good idea, he’d listen to me rather than keep on with this ridiculous promise to your father.”
Ransom closed the door and returned to Victoria’s side. “What promise?”
“He promised your father that you’d follow in his footsteps.”
“Roy’s been pushing me to join the department so I can take over as Sheriff when he retires?”
“That’s about it,” Victoria said. “He told me that’s all you ever talked about, before…well, you know. Before.”
Ransom closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Fool ass man. “I know. Before I came home busted up and scarred.”
“He showed me your application, the copy of your degree. I didn’t know you had a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice.” Victoria laid a gentle hand on Ransom’s shoulder. She could feel the scars Ransom mentioned hidden beneath her shirt, hard ridges of tissue that would never heal smoothly after being burned so thoroughly. “He’s been holding onto that badge for a long time.”
“It was an old dream, Victoria. A youthful one. My father was my hero. All shiny and full of purpose. I didn’t want to disappoint him, so I did exactly what he did at my age…I joined the service for the experience even though he didn’t want me to. Going out into the real world opened my eyes. I realized my father’s dream for me was never going to happen.”
“Why?”
“You said it yourself, Victoria. Johnsonville is a tiny little podunk town. We’re out in the middle of nowhere. Being called a liberal is about the worst insult you could hurl at someone. You’ve met Mrs. Johannsen, that’s how they treat people like us around here.”
“Then why stay?”
“Because I don’t give a shit
what they think.” Ransom smiled evilly. “And I enjoy being a thorn in their side far too much to leave my home. They don’t know what to do with me. On one side of the coin, I’m their latest and greatest war hero, someone they’re supposed to feel pride over. But when you get right down to it, I’m still Sheriff Greathouse’s lesbian daughter, the one they talk about on Sunday when Pastor Jones really gets rocking at the pulpit about sin.”
“Jesus, Ransom, I knew this town had its share of drama, but wow.”
“Oh, don’t be surprised. There’s nothing to do in towns this size but gossip, which is why I kept you up at the farm as much as possible. By now, half the town probably knows I’m wearing this badge, the other half knows there’s a beautiful woman with me, and they’re all sharing what they know with each other.” Ransom grimaced. The cat was literally, out of the bag. “I truly hope this is our guy, because if it isn’t...I can’t guarantee they won’t find you here after today.”
“I won’t say anything to Roy.” Victoria’s heart skipped a beat when Ransom mentioned the stalker, fueled by a surge of adrenaline urging her to run from danger. She wondered how long the fear response would last after all this was over, or if it would ever go away. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Ransom pulled Victoria into her arms, not giving a damn if everybody within sight of them saw her do it. “You didn’t want to see me forced into doing something I didn’t want to do, and you tried to use what you knew to help me out of it. Your heart was in the right place, and I love you for it.”
A quick kiss was all she got before Ransom returned to the business at hand. “Now, are you ready to get a good look at this guy? We’ve wasted enough time already. I want to go home.”
“God, yes.” Victoria practically raced Ransom to the door. Worry free, uninterrupted sex outside of a locked safe room was at stake here. That, and so much more.