40. Ledger
Ledger
When I get back into my vehicle, I radio into the station and resume my patrol.
Once I’ve made five circles of town and multiple county roads, I park myself at TJ’s and relax for a minute. I check my phone, hoping Shiloh texted me, but of course, there’s nothing there. A text from my mom, but I’ll deal with that later.
Tomorrow is a big day, and I can only hope I’ve thought of everything.
I’ve done everything I can from my end of things.
Lawrence will have his team ready to go.
But I worry for my people because I have no doubt that the Kensingtons will not go down easily, and maybe that’s what I’m more afraid of than anything.
This family can’t be allowed to take anymore from this town.
“Dispatch to sheriff.”
My phone rings and I don’t recognize the number, so I send it to voicemail.
“Sheriff Hayes, do you read?”
“We got a call about a possible domestic disturbance,” Sidney says.
“10-4, location.”
“962 Eleanor Drive, apartment D.”
My heart drops into my stomach, my blood runs cold, and I’m already pushing the accelerator before my brain has the chance to keep up. That’s Shiloh’s address.
“10-4 ETA in five minutes.”
“Message received,” Sidney says.
I hardly register her voice as I struggle to make my brain stop thinking about the what if’s and focus on what I might be running into.
With lights and sirens blaring, I speed down the road to Shiloh, and a few blocks before I reach her street, I see a woman running.
I’d know that hair anywhere.
Skidding to a stop, Shiloh pulls up short, standing in front of the headlights barefoot in her PJs.
I throw the door open and run around the hood. “Shiloh!” My voice breaks, and so does my heart, as I take her in, blood running down her lip, and a nasty cut on her arm.
“Who did this to you?” I ask, voice on the edge of hysteria.
I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there.
A sob bursts from her lips, and she throws herself into my arms.
I hug her tightly, while her heart beats so fast I swear I can feel it through my vest.
“I got the call for your apartment. What happened?” I ask her.
She leans her head back to look up at me. Quiet tears fall down her face as she inhales quickly, trying to catch her breath.
“Tell me right now, Shiloh. What happened?” I say forcing myself not to yell.
“Two men broke into my apartment. I think I shot one of them in the arm. I fought them as hard as I could. I think … I think he sent someone for me. I don’t know,” she says between breaths.
I knew this was a bad idea. I should never have let her leave. I should have picked her up, thrown her over my shoulder and told her where she was going to stay.
“Come on, get in the truck.”
She winces stepping on something with her bare feet, so I pick her up and set her in the truck.
I get in and radio the station, telling them I didn’t answer the address, but I found the tenant of the apartment.
“Sending units to the location,” Sidney says.
Instead of radioing back and forth, I call Sidney directly. “Sidney, call whoever is on call and send them to the location. I have the tenant with me. She’s okay, but have someone document the break-in, and take me off duty. I have to take care of something,” I say, staring at Shiloh.
“Um, okay, are you alright?” Sidney asks.
“I will be,” I mutter, and hang up.
The notification of the missed phone call sits there, but I ignore it, facing Shiloh.
“Do I need to take you to the clinic first?”
She sniffles, wiping the back of her hand across her nose. “I don’t know.”
I gently grab her chin, hating the busted lip and bruise forming on her cheek. Whoever did this will regret it.
“I’m taking you to the clinic to check you out.”
“No, Ledger, please just … take me home.”
I grab her hand and kiss her knuckles. “Please, for once, let me take care of my wife. Don’t argue, please,” I beg.
She searches my eyes and finally nods.
I head to the clinic, and when we get there, the night shift jumps up, helping us. They don’t tell me to wait in the waiting room, probably because of the don’t mess with me look on my face.
Standing in the corner of the room, I watch the nurses and doctor on staff inspect her.
My gut is churning like a washing machine while I listen to my voicemail.
“Hi there sheriff, I wanted to let you know I saw our … friend arrive home. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”
I know that voice, Ms. Maisie. Grey must be back. The voicemail stops, and I immediately dial my brothers.
This night is about to get worse.
“Hey Ledge, are you okay?” Fletcher says in a sleepy voice. I glance at the clock on the wall. I didn’t even consider what time it was.
“I need your help. I can’t explain why, and it’s … outside the rules,” I mutter.
“What is it?” he asks, his voice dropping into a serious tone.
I try to find the words to say it.
Fletcher whispers something to Tatum.
“Get Cooper and meet me on the corner of Horses Way and Pine.”
“You got it,” he says and hangs up.
Then I dial Sterling.
“Hey man, late night, you alright?” Sterling asks.
“I need your help.”
“Tell me when and where,” he says, sensing my tone.
I tell him where to meet me and hang up.
“Shy, I need you to stay here while they check you out, okay? I’ll be right back.”
Her hazel eyes widen in fear, and it rips me up inside. I don’t want to leave her, but I have to. I have to do this, and I’m done waiting on process. Some things have to be handled outside the law.
“Please don’t leave me,” she whispers.
I gently clasp her face and kiss her forehead. “I’ll be right back. Let these people make sure you’re okay. Promise me you’ll stay here.”
She bites her lower lip.
“Shiloh, I need you to say the words.”
“I — okay,” she says.
“Thank you. I’ll be back.” I kiss her forehead again, brushing some of her hair back, and leave the woman I love more than anything in this world while I take care of business the way it should have been months ago.
Spotting my brother’s truck and Sterling’s right behind it. I pull in behind them and park it. We don’t need a police vehicle pulling onto the street or tipping off the target.
Locking the truck, I grab my personal firearm and a baseball bat. Shiloh left it at my house, and it feels poetic, taking me back to the place it was originally from.
I knock on Fletcher’s window, and he rolls it down. Sterling hops out with a shotgun in his hand and meets us on the sidewalk. “Are you going to clue us in here?” Fletcher asks.
They all look at me seriously, and I take a deep breath.
“You both have families. You can turn around right now if you want to. I won’t take it personally. Sterling and I can probably handle it.”
“What do you need, Ledge?” Cooper says seriously.
“He sent two men after my wife. I don’t know if they were there to kidnap her, kill her, or beat her to a pulp.
But she was able to clip one of them and fought her way out to get away.
She’s at the clinic now, getting checked out.
The last thing I want is for this to fall back on my family. But I’m done with this bullshit.”
“I’ve been waiting for this,” Sterling says. “We’ve got your back.”
They all nod. Fletcher and Cooper get out of the truck, and we jog to Grey’s house. “Let me check it out to make sure he’s actually there.”
They fall back while I peek around the corner into the window.
Sure enough, the dumbass is sitting in his chair with his feet propped up, a beer in his hand, and it looks like he hasn’t shaved for quite some time.
I blink my flashlight twice, giving the guys the signal, and they meet me by the steps.
We move in sync as if we’ve done this together over and over again. We haven’t. We did get into fights over girls, but nothing like this.
The moment I kick that door down, I’m risking it all, including what’s happening tomorrow, but the only way to kill a cockroach is to make sure it can’t get back up.
I climb the stairs with my brothers behind me and kick down the door. Grey startles, reaching for the gun on his side table, and Sterling comes up behind me, shotgun pointed at his face.
“I wouldn’t,” he says.
And I grab Grey by the neck and toss him onto the floor.
He winces quickly, gathering himself, backing up towards the fireplace.
Fletcher starts tearing up the house, and Cooper stays on the front steps keeping watch.
“I should have done this a long time ago. But she asked me not to,” I mutter, swinging the bat in my hand and nailing the flat screen. It cracks from the center out, effectively ending his football game.
I stalk toward him, and Grey glances at the bat. I swing it at him, and he flinches. Chuckling, I hit everything sitting on the mantle above his head. Glass and wood fall around him, but he doesn’t move a muscle.
“Honestly, I’m surprised you don't have a thing to say to me. I was expecting some catty remarks. But that's okay, you'll do plenty of screaming.”
And I swing, hitting his left kneecap. He howls like a baby, and I don't give him the chance to stop screaming before I hit the next one.
In the back of my mind, I feel a bit of pity for him.
But not enough to stop.
He screams and cries as I grab his shirt, hauling him up. I’m sure his knees hurt too much to stand, so I hold most of his weight, digging my thumb into the healing bullet wound in his shoulder.
“You sent someone after my wife.” I wrench my fist back and sucker-punch him.
“Hopefully, I got my money’s worth,” he groans.
I punch him again.
Blood bursts from his nose, and he moans weakly, trying to fight me off.
“I really thought you’d put up more of a fight.”
He groans and glares at me. “At least I’m not the one married to a whore.” His voice is all nasally.
“Oh, man. You really are dumb, aren’t you?” Sterling says.
I nail him in the gut a few times, and as he kneels on the floor, I grab the back of his head and drive my knee into his face.
Grey collapses and his eyes start to close, but I pat his face a couple of times. “No, no, I want you to hear me first.”
Grey’s eyes peel open.
I get down on my knee, and fist his shirt, bringing him closer so there’s no confusion. “If you ever look, think, or say my wife’s name again, I don’t care what laws I break. I will end you. Are we clear?” I whisper.
He blinks, moving his hand towards the sofa, and Sterling presses his boot on his wrist. He cries out because Sterling probably broke it.
“Are. We. Clear?” I ask him strangely calm.
Sterling moves his foot and lifts the edge of the sofa, where a gun lies. He kicks it out of Grey’s reach.
I huff. “You couldn’t fight me like a real man, so you figured a bullet should do the trick?”
His only response is moans. Reaching for the blanket on the couch, I empty the gun without leaving fingerprints and release the magazine, slipping it into my pocket.
Leaving Grey to rot in his own blood, I search the house for any other weapon and find a shotgun. I take the shells out and remove the firing pin.
Fletcher, Sterling, and Cooper are already outside waiting for me.
“You have a good night now.” I slam the door behind me, and we walk back to the trucks.
I assumed someone would have heard us, but I wonder even if they did, they would say anything. Everyone knows what Grey did and his impact on this town. No one is okay with it.
“Thanks, guys.”
Cooper claps my back. “We’ve always got you brother. No questions asked.”
“He had it coming, Ledge,” Sterling says.
I nod, and we stand at the corner. “Fletch, Coop, keep an eye out. This might stir things up, and what I have to do tomorrow could make things worse. Promise you’ll call if something happens,” I say vaguely.
Fletcher and Cooper glance at each other. “Yeah, not a problem, man. Oh, they’re almost finished framing your house, by the way. You haven’t been by in a while, figured you’d want to know,” Fletcher says.
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Call us later, let us know how Shiloh is doing?” Cooper asks.
“Tell your wives thanks for letting me borrow you.”
They both huff. “We would like to keep our balls where they are. They don’t need to know anything,” Fletcher says.
“Dude, you and I know June will find out from Sterling, who will inevitably tell her. Then she’s going to tell the girls and Mama. This is all about minimizing the fallout, and hope we live to see another day,” Cooper says.
Fletcher sighs and rubs his face. “I have to say, this was fun, felt like we were kids again.”
I huff. “We never did this as kids.”
He shrugs. “We definitely got into fights, close enough. See you later.”
They get in the truck, and I watch them leave.
Sterling leans against my truck, arms crossed. “I have to ask you for one more thing.”
Sterling nods. “Name it.”
“I’m going to bring Shiloh up to Dallas’s house. I need you to stay with her in the morning … just in case.”
“In case of what? What’s going on tomorrow?” Sterling asks.
I sigh and rub the back of my neck. “It’s … law business.”
“I can help you with that,” he says.
“No, brother, you’re helping me by protecting my future.”
Sterling grins widely. “I knew you had it bad, but your future? Since when are you Mr. Romantic?”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but she’s the only future I want. I need to get back to the clinic.”
“Alright, I’ll be there,” Sterling says.
I nod, trying to ignore the swell of emotions building in my chest. My family showed up for me in a way I should never have asked them to. But they did, and that proves family is more than blood.