Justice for Willa (Police and Fire: Operation Alpha) (San Antonio First Responders Book 10)

Chapter 3

WILLA

Her eyes squinted at the bright screen in front of her and in her ears the soft strains of soulful bluegrass music. The soft melodies and delicate airs of violins, steel guitars, mandolins, and dobros kept her mood as high as it could be.

She was researching.

Delving into the past of the man she”d just spent the last three hours talking to.

Willa knew that it wasn”t enough to just have them tip their hats as predators. The fact that he was happy... maybe too happy... to hear that the person he was talking to online was an underage girl.

Now that they knew what his predilections were, they had to find out who he was and expose him for his deplorable needs.

Packaging the information she had into one of their online files, she turned in her office chair and looked at the other computer desk to her left.

One of the most dedicated members of her group had fallen asleep on his forearms.

Shaking her head, Willa laughed softly. ”Gus?”

He didn”t even move.

”Gus?”

He grumbled a little and using her toes, she pushed off of the hardwood floor, sending her chair sliding toward Gus.

She stopped short of bumping into his chair or coming anywhere near to running over his toes. Willa reached out and lifted his cup to find it incredibly light. She shook it and it was nearly empty, a little liquid swishing around at the bottom.

Tipping the cup to her nose, she recoiled, and her nose crinkled up at the smell.

It was some kind of energy drink. She had no idea which kind, but they all seemed to have that overly sweet, chemical smell that made her stomach twist.

Setting it down on the desktop by his elbow, she shook his arm. ”Gus? Hey, wake up.”

Another shake helped to revive him a bit.

His eyes cracked open, and his mouth pressed into a thin line before he opened it and yawned. ”Wass up?”

”Gus, you should go home. You”re exhausted.”

He started to sit up but winced and bent his back over to the side. ”I”m closer to being a pretzel. What do you need?”

She looked over at her computer on the table and shook her head. ”Nothing that can”t wait until tomorrow. You”ve been here for more than twelve hours. Go on home, okay?”

Gus leaned to look around her and almost fell right off of his chair. ”What”s that?”

Afraid of the exhaustion on his face, she gave him a pat on the shoulder. ”We”ll look at it tomorrow.”

”Issokay, boss lady. I can do one more before I go.”

She swallowed, trying to rid her mouth of the sour taste. She didn”t want to wait until the next day, but Gus had already done more than enough work for what she could pay him.

He slid his chair around hers and fixed his gaze on the screen like a laser. ”Oh... this one looks like a total creep.”

”Gus, really-”

”Do we have any coffee?”

He”d cut her off, but she didn”t mind. When Gus got into ”the zone” he didn”t really notice what was going on around him. He was just digging into the internet or whatever net he had access to.

”I”ll, uh... I think we have some instant stuff-”

Gus turned and looked over his shoulder with a grimace. ”Soda?”

”Sure!” She brightened up at the idea that she might have something to power him for the last search of the day.

Stepping into the kitchen area of her house, she opened the refrigerator and winced at the near empty shelves in the old retro style refrigerator.

”Uh, I have 7up?”

She heard him shuddering from the other room.

”Root beer?”

”How about whiskey?”

Gus must have heard her silence in the exact way that it was meant. He was barely twenty years old and knew how she felt about alcohol.

She crouched down a little and saw a few bottles on the back of the top shelf. ”I have a Dewberry, a Coconut creme and a Doctor-”

”Doctor Pepper? Sold, boss lady!”

Rolling her eyes, she pulled the soda out and popped the top using the bottle-opener on the side of the fridge.

She made it halfway across the room when she heard a knock at the door.

Willa felt a little pang of worry in her chest but kept walking. She set the bottle down into a little drink holder that was mounted to the top of the desk and set it inside.

KNOCK KNOCK

This time, Gus lifted his head and looked at her. ”You want me to go get it?”

She shook her head. ”No. Don”t. I”ll go and take a look.”

Gus grumbled a little. ”You need to let me set up a Ring cam for you at the door.”

She heard his words and knew that he was right. A close call a few days before had made it seem like an even better idea than it had been the first time that Gus had mentioned it.

”We”ll talk about that tomorrow. ”Kay?”

Gus gave her a thumbs up, but his gaze was fixed on the computer screen in front of him.

Willa walked over to the door and stopped short, looking through the panels of glass along one side of the front door. The man standing outside looked like the quintessential Texas Ranger.

He had one hand on his hip, pulling back the front of his suit coat to show his badge pinned above his left shirt pocket. The holster at his waist didn”t put her in fear. It calmed her.

As she straightened and reached for the lock, the ranger outside saw her and took a step back from the door.

She smiled, appreciating the gesture. He wasn”t going to crowd her in.

The door lock clicked, and she opened the door. ”Hello, sir.”

She wasn”t sure what she expected to happen, but she certainly didn”t expect him to stare at her as if he”d seen a ghost.

The ranger standing before her swept his cowboy hat off of his head and held it lightly against his chest. ”Willa.”

Then she felt it.

A kick to her chest that felt as hard and as powerful as a mule.

It felt like her heart had stopped.

For a moment, it felt like she couldn”t breathe either.

”I... I”m sorry...” That”s all that she was able to get out.

”Willa?” He took a step forward and she took a step back as if they were in some kind of dance class. ”I- It”s me, Landon-”

”Cooper.”

The name came out of her throat, but she lifted her hand to cover her mouth, shocked at the sound.

”Yeah.” His lips seemed to bend up in a tentative smile. ”Landon Cooper. I”m-”

”A Texas Ranger now.”

He nodded. ”I”m sorry to come over unannounced, but I was a little hesitant to call you.”

”Hesitant?” She blinked at him. ”I guess I can see why it would feel strange for you.”

”And you too?”

She wasn”t sure if he wanted her to agree or not, but she felt like she had to agree to ease whatever this odd tension was between them.

”Yeah. It feels...”

He looked at her and she stood there, unsure of how to end her sentence.

Then she didn”t have to.

”Hey, boss? Is this guy bothering you?”

Startled at the sudden sensation of heat at her side, she looked up at Gus, who was almost a head taller than she was, and stared at him.

”Gus?” She shook her head and started again. ”Gus, uh, this,” she gestured at Landon, ”is Landon Cooper. Ranger,” she interjected the correction as quickly as she could wrap her head around it, ”Landon Cooper.”

Then she looked at Landon. ”And this is-”

”Gus Eddy.”

Gus took a half step forward, putting himself between herself and Landon.

”What are you here for, Ranger?”

Willa expected Gus to step back to her side, but when he didn”t, she had to put a hand on his shoulder and push him to the side.

Landon hadn”t said anything in reply to Gus, so she turned to look at Landon.

He wasn”t looking at Gus.

He was looking at her.

”Are you okay?”

”Me?” She almost laughed at what felt like a strange question, but instead, she raised a hand and used it to cover her throat.

It started as an unconscious gesture, but even as she realized what she was doing, she couldn”t seem to stop herself.

And by the look on Landon”s face, she knew that he understood why she was hiding her neck from him.

He was there when she”d been cut.

Hell, he”d held her skin together and put pressure on the wound so that she didn”t bleed out in the parking lot of that old scuzzy motel.

But standing there with Landon on her doorstep, carefully watching her, she felt naked and exposed.

She knew she had to answer him.

She could manage the words.

She was a woman, full grown now instead of a stupid teenage girl, but instead of making it easier for her to come face-to-face with the worst night of her life, she was left standing there, afraid.

”Willa?”

She didn”t move until she felt a warmth against her arm.

She turned her head and saw that it was Landon”s hand on her.

Landon”s warmth bleeding into her bare skin.

”Boss? You, okay?”

Gus” question shocked her, and she took a step back, stumbling.

Landon caught her, moving her to the side so that he could sit her down in a chair near the windows.

She wanted to tell him to let her go, but as much as it galled her to admit it, her knees were weaker than she wanted to admit.

Once she was seated, she looked over at Gus. He was looking between her face and Landon, who was crouched down before her, but a step or two away.

She appreciated the space between them. Even though she hadn”t asked for it, she needed it.

And when she saw Gus pacing at the edge of her vision, she felt the room getting smaller around her.

”Gus?”

He tried to step in front of her, but Landon wasn”t moving, and if Gus did actually step in front of her, he might fall against the Texas Ranger.

She could trust Gus with her life, but Gus was a hacker who usually kept himself on the legal side of his talent, but she had a feeling that he might dip into the illegal side from time to time. Although he promised to never do anything illegal on her computers, she wasn”t a hundred percent sure.

It was probably a good idea to separate the two before Gus got a little too tense.

As if to prove her worries, Gus tilted his head in one direction and then the other, stretching his neck.

”Gus?”

He looked surprised. ”Yeah, boss?”

”You should go home, Gus. I”ll be fine with Landon.”

Gus didn”t look like he was a hundred percent behind the idea.

Leaning toward her, he spoke softly. ”You sure? You know this guy real well?”

How to answer that question?

Did she know him?

He”d had her life in his hands, and he”d saved it, but she really didn”t know him much beyond that.

She just didn”t want to upset or worry Gus.

”I”m good, Gus. Landon isn”t going to hurt me.”

She saw the look that passed between Gus and Landon as Gus saw himself out.

As soon as the front door clicked closed, Landon turned to look at the front door.

Tucking his cowboy hat under his arm, Landon moved to the door, tested the lock and slid home the bolt that was nearly eye level for her, but was just about shoulder level for him.

He took an extra moment to look at the door before he turned back to her. ”I want to change your locks.”

Willa waited for him to meet her gaze before she spoke.

”What do I need to change?”

He almost smiled. ”No fight?”

She shrugged. ”It”s not worth fighting the truth. If you say my locks aren”t good enough, they aren”t.”

He walked past her and into the kitchen, heading straight for the door to the mudroom.

While he was inspecting the other door, she sat down on her large captain”s chair and drew her legs up. She tucked one foot under and watched Landon as he moved through her house.

It was a strangely intimate feeling having him in her home.

It shouldn”t feel as easy as it did.

It had to have been seven or eight years since they”d seen each other last and she was pretty sure that she”d been in the hospital the last time, heavily medicated on pain killers.

She heard the tread of Landon”s boots across her hardwood floor and turned her head to look for him as he reentered the room.

”Well, long time no see.” Her eyes caught on his badge as he straightened his suit coat. ”Ranger Cooper.” She smiled and shook her head. ”Congratulations.”

He gestured at the chair beside her that Gus had vacated.

She nodded and gestured to it so he could have a seat.

Landon looked around the room before letting his gaze settle on her face. ”And my Headquarter Captain tells me that you”ve got quite a group of people helping you identify online predators.”

She smiled at him and then she looked at the bank of computers behind her. ”Small but mighty. We”re doing what we can to make the world safer.”

When he didn”t comment, she turned back to look at him.

”I know it”s not anything fancy, but we have most of what we need to find these predators. I”m guessing that you”re here to deliver the bad news.”

He looked surprised. ”Bad news?”

She wrapped her arms around her knee. ”That the District Attorney wants us to stop what we”re doing. That”s why you came, right?”

When he didn”t reply, she forged on ahead.

”He”s been threatening to do it since he found out what I”ve been doing. He doesn”t understand that I”m not about to stop doing something because he doesn”t think it’s safe.”

Landon leaned back in the chair, his gaze fixed on her. ”Why do I get the feeling that I”m missing a piece of the puzzle here? With what you”re saying, it sounds like you think the District Attorney is making this a personal thing.”

”Well, he is,” Willa forced herself to look right at Landon when she explained the issue, ”since he”s my grandfather.”