Chapter 4
Ronnie sat behind the wheel of her SUV and pinched the bridge of her nose. Thankfully, Jack had an appointment this afternoon. Not that he told her what it was for, only that he had an appointment so they couldn’t go out after skips this afternoon.
Not that she planned to let that stop her.
After the not quite epic failure of trying to pick up Jennings, she and Jack had come back to the office because he needed to get to his appointment.
Unfortunately, that didn’t mean he didn’t have time to stop and tattle to her dad about her failure, tailing the wrong man through traffic before confronting him.
Of course, he didn’t tell the part that she had things handled.
Only that he’d ‘protected’ her while she’d discovered her folly.
The satisfied smirk he’d shot her way when he informed her that her father wanted to see her had made her want to scratch his eyes out or maybe cut off his balls and feed them to one of the wild javelina she saw sometimes early in the mornings.
That thought was the only upside to what had happened today.
After Jack left, she’d gone in to see what Dad had wanted, then had to sit through a half hour lecture on how she needed to listen to Jack.
He was there to make sure she didn’t get into trouble.
Blah. Blah. Blah. She tuned Dad out after that.
She’d heard this lecture before, at least a dozen times.
Ronnie was convinced the lectures were part of Dad’s plan to make her give up on her determination to take over the business.
No. He’d chosen Jack to be his successor as if she wasn’t capable of taking over.
She’d spent the last five years trying to convince him she could do it, and that she wanted it.
Had he seen her effort or appreciated it?
No. All he’d done was push Jack at her. She realized a few weeks ago that not only was he wanting to leave his bonds business to Jack, but he wanted to leave him her too. As if she was a possession.
The mere idea had steam rolling out her ears, but she hadn’t bothered to say anything. There was no point, and she knew it. He would dismiss any protest as her being overly emotional or that she was rebelling. No. she wasn’t rebelling she wanted to live her own life and choose her own husband.
If she ever got married that was.
And from the last half dozen men she’d dated, that wouldn’t be happening any time soon.
It wasn’t that she was giving up on the idea, but between trying to prove herself to her dad and the amount of time she spent trying to get better at her job, it didn’t leave much time for going out and meeting people.
The only place she really met people these days was as she picked them up to re-schedule their hearings.
She really didn’t see the people she dealt with in her job as people she might want to date.
Though, thinking back to this morning and her encounter with Demon, there’s one man she might not mind getting involved with.
Even if she had met him while doing her job.
It wasn’t like he was one of the people she dealt with on the daily.
People who’d done something wrong, gotten caught and tried to skip out on their bail.
Granted, some of them had likely genuinely forgotten the hearing.
Several she was sure hadn’t only forgotten that they had a hearing or when it was, but also what day it was, and sometimes what month or what year.
She took a deep breath and pushed the pointless thoughts from her head before starting the truck.
A quick double check of the address in the file of one Brenda Bittner, who had failed to make her hearing for shoplifting, and she was on the road.
If she could get Brenda back to court for re-booking, then she’d get a check.
Granted, it wouldn’t be as big a check as the one she’d been hoping for from Jennings, but every little bit helped.
At the address in the file, Ronnie sat in the car and watched the house for several minutes.
It was an older house, in one of the oldest neighborhoods in town.
Many of the yards of the surrounding houses had overgrown grass or cars parked in the lawn, grass growing up through the frame, but not this one.
The house where Brenda Bittner lived, at least according to the file Ronnie had and those weren’t infallible, was the cleanest, most well-kept place on either side of the street.
While watching, Ronnie saw the curtain in the front window move, so someone was home, though it didn’t look like someone was looking out then dropping the curtain back in place, but more like someone was brushing up against them.
Not willing to make excuses to herself any longer, Ronnie made sure she had her cuffs and got out of the truck.
Voices seemed to echo around her as she approached the front door, it took a second to realize they were coming from inside.
And there were a lot of them. But there was something off about it.
Something she couldn’t place right away.
Still, she was determined to have at least a little cash to show for today’s efforts, so she knocked anyway.
There was movement and scuffling on the other side of the door. She stood patiently, hoping Brenda wasn’t headed out the back door, but from what she could hear, she didn’t think that was what was happening.
There was the familiar thump of a lock being thrown, or maybe that was unlocked, then a couple more odd sounds that were maybe one of the old chain locks being removed or maybe put in place, she didn’t know.
It had been so long since she’d seen one of those that she wasn’t sure what it would sound like against a door.
After all that, the door opened a crack.
The first thing Ronnie saw was a tiny face a little above knee level. Then she realized there was something between her and the child, it looked like some kind of screen, but it seemed attached to the door somehow. How did that work?
“Can I help you?”
Ronnie shook her head and looked up from the round cheeked face into one that looked much older than the thirty-one listed in the file.
Even though her hair was pulled on top of her head into a messy bun and her shirt pulled to one side as the kid on her hip had a death grip of the cloth in one fist, Ronnie had no doubt that this was Brenda.
“Hi, I’m Ronnie Darq from Darq Side Bail Bonds. You missed your hearing and I’m here to take you in to get it rescheduled.”
Brenda’s eyes went wide. Ronnie wondered for a moment if she was going to run or burst into tears. She blinked several times. Behind her, it was impossible for Ronnie to miss that there were at least three more kids running wild from what Ronnie could see.
“Oh. Dear. Did I miss my court date? I guess I just forgot. Give me a minute. Can I make a couple of calls to get someone to come take care of the kids? Then I’ll need to grab my bag. Maybe five minutes? Can you wait for that?”
“Um,” Ronnie glanced around, wondering if she really wanted to get involved in this, but then she remembered she needed the money if she didn’t want end up sleeping in her truck. “Sure. Want me to wait here?”
“You’re welcome to come inside, it’s a bit of a madhouse, but you’re welcome if you want to brave it.” Brenda stepped back, holding the door open so Ronnie could come in, except there was still that weird netting thing blocking the bottom two or three feet of the opening.
“Um. I’ll wait out here, if you don’t mind.” She knew it was giving Brenda a chance to run, but oddly she didn’t think the woman was looking for a chance to escape being taken in. This was strange, even for her.
“All right. Give me a couple of minutes and then you can take me in to re-schedule.” Brenda swung the door closed, but Ronnie didn’t hear the lock click back into place, only voices on the other side.
She turned and looked up and down the street, noting that there was no one outside, despite the cool day.
Were there no other kids in the neighborhood?
When she was a kid, this time of day, no matter how hot it might have been, she and her friends were out with skates, bikes, skateboards, and whatever other toys they had making the most of every minute. Why were Brenda’s kids not out?
Ronnie tilted her head to one side and tried to remember if she’d seen a single kid behind Brenda that looked old enough to play with neighbor kids unsupervised and realized that she didn’t think she had.
All of the kids behind her had been small, as in not a single one looked old enough to go to school.
She shook her head and decided that wasn’t possible.
Well, she guessed it would be, at least physically, but mentally?
Who could handle five kids under five? And it looked like she was trying to do it alone.
Ronnie tried to remember what the file had said about her living arrangements and couldn’t remember.
Surely she would have remembered if it had said there were five kids. Wouldn’t she?
Behind her, the door opened again.
“All right. My mother-in-law is on the way over to watch the kids, but Hailey from next door will be here in just a minute to watch them until she can get here. I’m almost ready, okay?”
“Sure,” Ronnie said. She blinked and went back to watching the street as the door closed behind her again.
Five minutes after that she and Brenda were in her SUV, headed for the jail.
“Thanks so much for helping with this. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it,” Brenda said, as she sat beside Ronnie.
She’d been so easy going and willing, Ronnie had seen no need to cuff her.
She hated that some used them no matter what, but she didn’t see the need to steal anyone’s dignity unless she had to.
If they wanted to fight or run, then she didn’t hesitate to cuff them, but not when her skip was compliant.
That was just one of many points of contention between her and Jack.
“No problem.” Ronnie was silent for several seconds.
She wondered if Brenda would get pissed if she asked but finally decided to risk it.
“Your file says you were arrested for shoplifting. Can I ask what you stole?” She glanced over at Brenda from the corner of her as a she wondered why this seemingly nice, mostly put together, if a bit frazzled, woman had stolen something big enough to be arrested when she was caught.
Brenda took a deep breath and let it out in a rush.
“It’s embarrassing and stupid.” Brenda’s face went pink, and she turned to look out the passenger’s window. “Do you have any kids?”
Ronnie shook her head. “Nope. I’m not even married.”
“Do you have any pets?”
“A cat, but I’m not entirely sure I’m not the pet and Opie’s not the one in charge.” She couldn’t help but smile at the thought of her baby.
“Oh, a cat is a good example. Does Opie follow you around everywhere when you’re home, having to be in the middle of your business, no matter what you’re doing?”
Ronnie frowned.
“No. And it would be weird if he did.”
“Exactly. Now multiply that by five. All crying ‘mama, mama, mama’ and needing something. They always need something.” She sounded like she was about ready to laugh, or cry, Ronnie wasn’t sure which.
“Anyway, it was after a particularly rough day. I was trying to potty train the older twins, Hannah and Savannah, and they were having a hard time with it. I lost count of how many accidents we’d had.
On top of it, the younger twins, Tracy and Stacy, were teething.
I’d just get one boy down and the other would wake and start screaming.
And neither boy teethes easily. The screaming went on for hours.
And since they both get rashes when they teeth, I spent as much time doing laundry as anything else.
” Brenda took a deep breath and held it for a moment before turning to look at Ronnie.
“I was at my wit’s end. I didn’t know what to do, only that if I didn’t get a break, even a few hours, I was going to end up doing some thing I’d regret.
My sleep deprived brain saw two options.
Jail or the psych ward.” Brenda fell silent for a moment as she turned and watched buildings seem to pass them.
Ronnie didn’t know if she should give Brenda her sympathy or be in awe of her. Two sets of twins under what? Five? When do you potty train kids anyway? She had no clue and wasn’t particularly interested in finding out.
“Anyway, a grippy sock vacation is a minimum of seventy-two hours and I wasn’t sure if Manny could handle the kids that long so that was out.
That left only getting arrested. So, I walked into a store, found the most expensive thing I could that was small enough to fit in my pocket and walked out with it.
When the alarms went off, I denied it. I argued, I insisted something was wrong with their system until the police arrived, then I let them cuff me and I got in the car.
It was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in four years. ”
Ronnie glanced at her passenger again, wondering if maybe the, what was that again?
‘grippy sock vacation’ might have been the better option.
How desperate did you have to be to think a night in jail was the best night sleep in four years?
She wasn’t sure if that was normal or not, even with that many kids around.
“You seemed awful to eager to get out of the house today, even if its only to rebook. Are you having another rough day?” She didn’t know what else to call it. She didn’t think even on her roughest days that she’d rather go to jail than whatever was happening.
“No. Today wasn’t bad. Just normal. It was a good chance to get out for a few minutes without having to take someone with me.
” Brenda twisted around in her seat to face Ronnie again.
“You know, I don’t even get to pee alone.
I always have one or more watching me, staring at me, or insisting on being carried.
You never appreciate the small things like peeing alone until you can’t.
” She huffed a sigh and turned back to face the windshield.
She hadn’t been sure she’d ever want kids before today but this conversation with Brenda was making her even more leery.