Chapter 6
Ronnie rolled over and opened her eyes. A furry face sat six inches away, staring into her soul. Ronnie blinked and groaned before rolling onto her back and stretching.
“Mreow.” Opie’s plaintive meow drew her gaze back to him.
“I know, baby. Give me a minute to pee then I’ll feed you.” She eased out of bed, not bothering to even try to hold back her groan as her muscles and joints protested.
Since she had things to do today, she'd deal with them eventually as she had to shower before going out, but first she had to feed Opie before he decided she was breakfast, or he got really pissed and shit in her bed.
Plus, she needed coffee. Coffee first, then a hot shower would go a long way to making her feel human again.
After she finished in the bathroom she shuffled in to the kitchen, put a fresh pod in the coffee maker and hit start.
It started whining and she realized she hadn't put a cup under there.
Her body flashed hot as she grabbed the first cup in the cabinet and stuck it under the spout just as the machine hissed and coffee began streaming out.
After a few breathes to let the panicked feeling fade, she pulled out a can of food and fed Opie. By the time she'd finished and washed her hands, her coffee was ready.
She took a few sips, changed out the coffee pod and checked the water level in the machine, then dropped a couple of slices of bread into the toaster.
When it popped she slathered on a thick layer of peanut butter the sprinkled on a dusting of sugar before taking it to the tiny kitchen table and watching as Opie sauntered in and went to his bowl while she ate and finished her coffee.
After eating, she put her cup back under the spout and hit start again, then headed for the bathroom.
Ronnie had just gotten out of the shower, hadn't even gotten the towel wrapped around her when someone knocked on her front door.
She wasn't expecting anyone, and Dad called before he stopped by. She frowned when they knocked again maybe twenty seconds later.
"Impatient much?" she muttered as she grabbed a towel off the rack and wrapped it around herself.
At the door she glanced at the framed photo sitting on a shelf next to the door that hid the lockbox where she kept her pistol, but decided she probably wouldn't need it and looked out the peep hole.
Seeing who was on the other side of the door, she leaned back and stared at the door for several seconds. What was he doing here? She adjusted her towel as the knocking turned to pounding. She kept herself behind the door, as she unlocked it and opened it a crack.
“I was in the shower. I don’t have any clothes on yet. I’ll leave it unlocked, but give me a minute before you come in. I’ll throw on some clothes and be right out.”
“Okay,” said a voice she hadn’t heard in way too long.
She pushed the door until it touched the jam then hurried back into the bedroom.
As soon as she knew she was out of sight of the door she pulled off her towel and scrubbed it through her still dripping hair.
In the bedroom, she closed the door and hurried to throw some clothes on and make herself presentable.
Thankfully, once she had clothes on, her hair didn’t take much.
A quick squirt of mousse worked it through, and she was done.
She didn’t bother with shoes but went to the kitchen to check on her guest.
In the kitchen, she leaned against the door jam, watching the tall man that she hadn’t seen in nearly a year move around her kitchen.
He’d pulled several things out of the fridge and was now opening cabinets, looking for something.
From what was stacked on the counter, she assumed he was looking for a skillet.
“Other side of the stove,” she said.
He looked up, eyes wide.
“Oh. Hey. I didn’t know how long you’d be, so I thought I’d start breakfast.” He looked her up and down.
“I know how you are before you’ve had enough caffeine and I suspect that’s your second cup, so drink up.
” He tilted his head toward the coffee maker and her cup sitting next to it.
He must have set it to the side before making his own cup.
Ronnie ignored the coffee and instead went to him. She waited until he set down the skillet, then she moved in and wrapped her arms around his middle as she pressed herself against him and held on tight.
“It’s been too long, and I missed you.” She buried her nose against his chest and took a deep breath.
“I missed you too, munchkin,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight for several seconds. After a moment he released her.
Ronnie stepped back, looked at him a moment longer then backed out of his way and back to the coffee maker and her waiting cup of happy juice.
“How come I didn’t know you were coming home?
” She leaned one hip against the counter and sipped her coffee as she watched her brother move around her kitchen.
Her brother that had been so desperate to escape their overbearing and controlling father that he’d insisted on going to college in another state. That had broken her heart at the time.
At fourteen she hadn’t understood. She thought she’d done something wrong, that he had been leaving to get away from her. Now, at twenty-five, she got it. Dad was more than difficult and even as a kid she’d noticed that while he was rough on her, he was harder on Gavin.
“It was a last-minute decision, then once I was coming, I decided I wanted to surprise you.”
“You surprised me.” She tilted her head as she watched him crack eggs into a bowl, then let them sit for a moment as he chopped and stirred the sausage he’d dumped into the skillet before turning on the heat.
“Why’d you come?” Since he’d left ten years before, Gavin had only been home for a few days a year, and those always had a reason.
A holiday, a death in the family. He’d never come just to visit, and she wondered what had driven this trip home.
Hell, he almost never took time off, he seemed to love his job with the DEA.
He glanced over at her. There was something about his expression that told her she wasn’t going to like what he was about to say.
“Just spill it. We both know I’m not going to let up on you until you tell me.”
Gavin stirred the sausage once more then left the wooden spatula propped on the edge of the skillet before moving back to the bowl of eggs.
He didn’t look at her as he added seasoning then grated a little cheese into the bowl before putting the cheese back in its zipper bag and back into the fridge.
Ronnie drank her coffee in silence, waiting for him to give in and tell her.
It wasn’t until he’d mixed the sausage into the eggs and had dumped the entire mixture back into the skillet that he took a deep breath and let it out in a rush.
She knew the signs. He’d finally decided he wasn’t getting out of it and settled on how he was going to put whatever was important enough to make him travel across three states at the last minute.
He dropped the wooden spatula he’d been using in the sink with the egg bowl and ran water in it for a few seconds before pulling a clean silicone one from the bowl next to the stove and moving the eggs around the skillet.
“You know Dad’s trying to push you out, right?” He glanced over as if he was trying to read her mood from her expression, or maybe her posture.
“I know he’s trying to make me give up, make me run away.
He doesn’t know that’s one way to make me never give in.
I will not let him tell me the job is too hard for a simple little girl.
” She knew she sounded bitter. It was hard to hide after having never been good enough for him, never that she could remember at least.
She drained the last of the coffee from her mug and set it on the counter so she could make more in a minute, then went to the fridge.
Gavin was silent as she pulled out the tortillas, pulled several out and put them on a plate in the microwave to warm up.
Then she went back, refreshed the coffee maker, and started a new cup.
“He’s got a new tactic now. Now he’s going to try to scare you out.”
“What do you mean?” Ronnie asked with a frown.
Gavin still stirred the eggs, but they were almost done. When the microwave beeped she pulled the plate out and set it next to the stove before pulling out a second plate and setting it next to me.
“You warm enough tortillas for me?”
“Yep. Do your thing. How’s Dad planning to scare me out?” Why wasn’t she surprised Dad would do something so underhanded? Because he’d always been ruthless in his pursuit of what he wanted. To hell with the rest of the world, to hell with the rest of his family and what might be best for them.
No.
To Randy Darq, the only important person was himself. All that mattered was what he wanted and what he thought was best. And there was no amount of evidence or facts that would change his mind.
Gavin didn’t answer right away. Instead, he finished the eggs, portioned them onto the tortillas, and rolled both plates into burritos. He handed Ronnie hers, then picked up his plate and his coffee cup and went to sit at the bar.
“One of the skips he’s given you this time is dangerous.” He finally spoke, then took a bite of his burrito.
“So? I’ve picked up dangerous skips before.
I’m not too worried about it. Do you know which one?
” She was determined not to let this scare her, but thinking about the half dozen files she had in her bag right now, she knew more knowledge was better than less.
If she knew who her father thought would scare her away from bond recovery, then she would be better prepared to deal with them.
Gavin took a couple more bites, she didn’t know if he was that hungry or if he was giving her a chance to get more in her before he told her.
Or did he possibly not know which one? Gavin didn’t speak to their father, at least not if he could help it.
She didn’t know where he was getting his information, but she didn’t doubt that wherever he’d gotten it, it would be accurate.
“I don’t know which one,” he said after a moment.
“All I know is that the skip is dangerous and that you don’t have all the pertinent information.
The asshole who calls himself our father is so focused on getting his way that he either doesn’t care that you could be hurt or killed, or you are less important to him than his ego.
” She noticed the muscles in his jaw bulging as he clenched his teeth to keep from saying more.
“Then what’s the point in telling me? Are you trying to get me to give up too?
” That wasn’t fair and she knew it as soon as the words were out.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I know you’re not like him.
And I know you don’t understand why I want the business. Hell, I’m not even sure why anymore.”
Gavin reached over and covered her hand, where it sat on the counter between them, with one of his.
“No. I’m not trying to get you to give up. I came to help.” He squeezed her hand with the one still covering it. “How about you go get your files, I’ll grab my laptop from the car, and we’ll take a look and see what we can find.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean let’s figure out who the dangerous skip is, then we’ll do our best to figure out exactly how dangerous he is and why.”
She watched him a moment, frowning. “Why are you helping me?”
“First and foremost, because I don’t want you hurt. Not as pressing, but still worth mentioning is that Randy is an asshole and I want to show him that he’s wrong.”
She started to protest, assuming that Gavin didn’t think she could bring in whoever it was, but Gavin held up one hand, stopping her before even a single word made it out of her mouth.
“I know, he’ll never admit to being wrong, or worse yet, that someone else might have been right. But I need to do it. I’d do it if my only reason to was to make sure you didn’t get hurt.”
“I’ve been hurt before, Gavin. I’m not made of glass. I can deal with a lot.”
“I know, munchkin, but from what I was told, this guy is serious bad news. And the hurting he’s likely to do is the kind that you don’t come back from.
It’s the kind that if you survive it, then you will never be the same.
” He met her gaze, and she saw worry hiding there.
More than she’d ever seen aimed at her, at least from him.
“All right. Go get your laptop, I’ll get my files.
” She slid off the bar stool. “We might as well be comfortable while we do this. Meet me in the living room.” She wondered where he was getting his information, but remembered he had worked for their dad before she had.
All the staff that had been with them for years was still there and it probably wouldn’t be a stretch to think someone there was giving him information.