Chapter 2
LANDON
The office meeting was a shock. The instant they sat down, Landon was given a folder to read. The picture clipped to the front of the report was Willa.
Older. Yes.
But still Willa.
He flipped up the picture to read the report, his heart in his throat.
”Calm yourself, Cooper.” Headquarter Captain Watts” voice was calm and almost soothing. ”She”s alive.”
Landon didn”t lift his gaze to meet the other man”s eyes. He was too busy trying to hide from his own feelings. He didn”t know if he could keep them to himself if Captain Watts were to look into his eyes.
”We”ve been asked,” the way Captain Watts” voice hung on the word said that it was a forgone conclusion that they were going to do whatever the ask was, ”to participate in a task force to catch online predators.”
”And how is Willa involved?”
The look on the older man”s face held its own measure of amusement. Landon was normally able to hold his tongue. He was normally as stoic as the captain was when it came down to business.
Nodding, Captain Watts folded his arms across his chest and leaned back in his office chair. ”This is why I called you in this morning. The group is meeting in full tomorrow. Today, I need you to do me a favor.”
”A favor? Sure. Anything.”
Captain Watts raised a brow at him. ”I need you to go and see Willa and explain that her group is going to be a part of the task force or we”re going to find a way to shut her down.”
”Excuse me?” Landon looked at the other man, convinced that he must have misheard him. ”What do you mean?”
Although the Captain pointed at the folder in Landon”s hands, he continued to speak.
”Willa has formed a rather... dedicated group of volunteers.”
Landon felt his stomach clench in his belly. ”Captain?”
”I don”t know exactly the best way to describe it, but she”s turned into a bit of a Robin Hood and collected a few merry men to get these online predators to tip their hats.”
”Merry Men? Tip their hats? You haven”t been dipping into your whiskey during the day, have you?”
The look that Captain Watts gave him could have stripped paint off the walls.
”Don”t piss me off, Landon.”
Landon bit the inside of his cheek. When Captain Watts called him by his first name, he knew he was getting close to the edge.
”So she”s tracking down predators? You don”t mean that she”s going out and finding them?”
Just the thought of it made him feel nauseous.
”No. At least we don’t think that she’s done that. We know that some of the men she works with have been pushing for a more direct route than what she currently does.”
Opening the laptop on his desk, Captain Watts turned it around so that Landon could see it.
As he watched, a conversation unfolded on the screen.
He recognized the look of the chat screen from a local chat app that had become popular over the last year or so.
ABBY_GRL: So funny! OMG YR so cute
HotRacer69: I”m not trying to be cute
ABBY_GRL: (eyeroll) what then?
HotRacer69: want to be yours
ABBY_GRL: ...
The three dots flashed on the screen for what seemed like forever.
ABBY_GRL: TBH not 18
It took Landon a minute to remember that TBH meant ”to be honest.”
Captain Watts sat up and leaned his elbows on the edge of the desk. ”She goes in these groups and sees which men approach her to chat.”
Landon managed to blow out a breath through his lips, trying to calm himself. Thinking about men approaching her on dating sites.
He”d seen and felt the hell that she”d gone through trying to help her friend. The last thing he wanted to have her go through was another dangerous situation.
”There.”
Landon looked up at the captain and saw him pointing at the screen.
”Right there.”
HotRacer69: I can show you how to have fun no matter what.
There was a pause.
ABBY_GRL: I dunno.
HotRacer69: I”ve got a hot car and lots of $$
ABBY_GRL: ...
HotRacer69: Buy you clothes. Make up. Whatever you want. I just want to see you look pretty.
ABBY_GRL: pretty?
HotRacer69: sexy
HotRacer69: in and out of those pretty clothes
ABBY_GRL: wish I could, but PAH
Landon tilted his head to the side and felt something pop in his neck.
PAH - Parent at home
Captain Watts turned the computer back around and shut the laptop.
Landon was relieved. He didn”t like looking at those kinds of conversations for evidentiary reasons but knowing that Willa was the one playing the underage girl, he barely held back the bile rising in his throat.
”And you say she doesn”t meet these guys?”
”No.”
”Thank god.” Landon shook his head. ”What does she do with the chats?”
”So far, she”s been sending messages to their homes. Including images from their webcams.”
Landon winced at the images in his head. ”How has that been working out?”
”We only found out when a wife came down to the Sheriff”s office in San Antonio. She”s printed out the information and turned it in as a complaint against her husband.”
”I”m surprised that she”s the only one.”
The captain nodded. ”Some of the men may have intercepted the information before their wives saw it but suffice to say that this wife did.”
”I bet she”s seeing a divorce lawyer.” It didn”t feel good to say the words, but it was probably an accurate statement.
”That and DFPS.”
Landon felt a shiver go down his spine. ”Family and Protective Services? They have underage kids?”
The captain nodded and held up a hand with his three middle fingers in the air. ”None of them over fourteen. One of the deputies had to make it clear that they”d be checking up on the family and that included making sure that the husband was still breathing.”
Landon shook his head. ”I doubt that they”ll be living together for long, if he made it to the next day.”
”You guessed it. He moved into a motel that night. We couldn”t arrest him for anything. He hadn”t propositioned the girl in any real terms, and we don”t have a complaining witness.”
”Then what”s going on with this task force?”
The captain drummed his fingers on the desktop. ”It”s a bit of being in between a rock and a hard place, Cooper. The wife made a big deal about meeting the woman who”d gathered the information together. She wanted to thank the person who had sent the information to her.”
Landon nodded. That seemed just fine.
But there had to be more than that.
”Well, we didn”t really know who was doing it and that”s what we told her. But Missus Morales wasn”t going to let it go.
”She went to a friend of hers at KTSA-”
”Channel Six?”
”Yep.” The captain nodded. ”It turns out that one of the reporters was way ahead of us. Dana Zamora.”
Landon snapped his fingers as his mind wrapped itself around the name in his head. ”She”s the reporter that does all the investigative stuff. The one who got to the bottom of the City Council funds going missing.”
”The very one.” The captain tilted his head to the side, nodding. ”She already knew who it was and was kind of a liaison between Willa and the Sheriff”s office. The sheriff,” Captain Watts” tone was a little tense, ”you know how he feels about citizens sticking their noses in where they don”t belong.”
Landon nodded. ”I doubt he”d want her help.”
”You”re kind of understating the truth on that one.” The captain continued. ”He called up the district attorney”s office to try to get her brought up on charges. We can”t use the information she gathered-”
”Because she”s a civilian acting on her own.”
Landon lifted a hand and rubbed his hand over his mouth and chin, feeling the scratch of his beard against his palm.
There was a moment where he wondered if she”d even recognize him or remember him without recoiling in fear.
”Are you sure that the two of us should be working together, Cap? The last time she saw me was the night her friend died. Hell, she almost died.”
Captain Watts looked down at the top of his desk and then lifted his gaze to meet Landon”s.
”Son, you held her life in your hands. Literally. And you never let go until the EMTs were breathing down your neck. I don”t think she could find a better person to work with than you on this task force.”
The captain”s words built up his confidence, but it was still shaky.
”If she... I mean, if seeing me brings up bad memories- If seeing me makes her afraid, who do you have to take my place?”
”This task force is crossing a lot of lines as far as jurisdiction goes. We have locals from the sheriff”s office-”
”He wasn”t going to let that slip through his fingers.”
Captain Watts barely hid his smile.
”No, he wasn”t. But he did send us a bone. Deputy Hayden Hatcher is on loan for this.”
Landon nodded, almost smiling at the news. ”I”ve crossed paths with Hayden quite a bit. She”s top notch.”
He paused for a moment and gave Captain Watts a curious look. ”We should see if she”d be willing to cross over to the Rangers.”
Captain Watts nodded thoughtfully. ”Go ahead and feel her out while we”re working with her. I wouldn”t mind poaching a good officer like Hayden.”
Landon eased back into his chair. ”What about the feds? Do we need some alphabets in this task force?”
”The local Feds are in on this. I think that Vicente Bravo is joining us. He might bring along another Fed with him.” With a smile, the captain continued on. ”As far as the Rangers, you and I have been tapped for this, but I”m hoping to pull Jake McGowan in if he”s available.”
Landon approved, and his eager nod told Captain Watts the same. ”Vicente and Jake are basically brothers-in-law. Vicente married Sloane King... now, Bravo, and Jake married her best friend.”
Captain Watts” expression twisted a bit. ”Thank goodness me and the missus have been married for nearly thirty years or I”d be worried someone was going to try to marry me off.”
Landon tried to school his expression, but he didn”t do it quickly enough.
”What?”
He lifted his hands in a helpless gesture. ”What, sir?”
”You... what”s with that face you pulled?”
”Uh... I-”
”You have a problem with me being married for that long?”
Landon winced at the tone in the other man”s voice. ”Sir? Are you asking me seriously? Or...”
A paper clip flew across the room and bounced off of his dress shirt.
”Can”t you take a joke, Cooper?”
Landon was beginning to wonder.
That, or Captain Watts had gone long past the Dad Joke and was just making some one-sided comments that he thought was funny.
Oh wow. Talk about a rock and a hard place.
”I, uh... I should go and talk to Willa.”
Captain Watts bounced a loose fist against the top of his desk. ”Good idea.” He pointed his fingers toward the door. ”Now go... and maybe bring the woman some flowers.”
Landon paused, halfway out of the chair.
When he straightened up to his full height, he gave the captain a side-eyed look. ”Flowers?”
”What? Thirty years of marriage has taught me that flowers are good.”
”Flowers? You want me to talk to the woman who is getting dragged into a task force and bring her flowers?”
Captain Watts sighed a little bit. ”I didn”t know you back when you met Willa, son, but we”ve talked about that case from time to time.”
Because, Landon”s teeth ground together, I never did catch the bastard that almost killed her.
”And I know you”ve got a sweet spot for her. It”s about time to fess up and ask the woman out.”
Landon”s mouth dropped open a fraction of an inch as he stared at the older man. ”What about ”TASK FORCE” is escaping you at this minute? This isn”t the time to ask her out.”
Captain Watts shrugged, lifting up his hands in a gesture of surrender. ”Why waste more time, son? You never know. Maybe you”ll end up like Bravo and McGowan, tied down and having babies.”
Landon snapped up the folder he”d been given and went to the door, pulling it open. ”Hey, Captain?”
The other man sat up with a smile. ”Hmm?”
”Maybe you should bring Marie some flowers when you head home today.”
Captain Watts” face took on a thoughtful look, and then he nodded, smiling. ”I think I will. Good advice, son.”
Landon stepped out into the hall.
Just before he shut the door behind him, Landon heard one last verbal push from the captain.
”You should try it yourself.”