Chapter 26 #2
I locked it up tight and spun the dial on the combination after closing the door.
“Ryder!” a panicked male voice called out from the other room.
“Fuck,” I groaned, staring up at the ceiling for all of two seconds. I was never gonna get out of here.
Michael Parker rushed into my office, his face filled with panic. He didn’t even say anything as he shoved a paper in my face.
Emergency court hearing.
“For Wesley,” I said to myself.
“Someone just shoved that in my face and said I’d been served. What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means you have to appear in court in two days at ten o’clock with Blake.”
“But what the hell is this? It can’t be the parents. They don’t give a shit about him!”
I scanned through the paperwork again, this time catching the name…Simmons… “It’s his grandparents. It looks like they’re going to sue for custody.”
“Can they do that? They haven’t been in his life for fucking years!” he said, his voice laced with panic.
“They can, but that doesn’t mean they’ll win. Look, this is just an emergency hearing.”
“But for what? Why so soon?”
“Has anything happened recently that would lead the grandparents to believe that you’ve put Wesley in danger?”
“No! Of course not—” His face paled as he turned, running his fingers through his hair. “Shit.”
“What? What is it?”
Cursing under his breath, he turned to me. “About a year and a half ago, there was a little girl missing. The whole town was looking for her. Wes followed Blake out to the Callahan ranch. Remember John had a twin?”
“Jim, right?”
“Yeah, and everyone thought his wife died, but John and Jim faked her death. It’s a long fucking story, but this woman was basically insane. She kidnapped the girl because she thought she was her daughter.”
I was going to need more details on this case, but for now, I needed the bullet points.
“Okay…”
“Wes was there when everything went down. He stormed into the cabin with Blake’s spare gun and—”
Sighing, I spun away from him. This was really fucking bad. “Where the hell did he get her spare gun?”
“It was under the seat of the truck.”
“Did he fire it?”
“No,” he snapped. “He was just trying to protect Blake.”
“Alright, what else happened?”
“John had a gun, and when he pointed it at Wes, Blake attacked him.”
This was getting worse by the second.
“The woman had the little girl with a knife to her throat. When I showed up, I shot her.”
“Fuck,” I laughed, not finding any of this funny. “You really know how to step in it, Parker. No wonder the grandparents are suing for custody! You let him have access to a weapon!”
“I know!” he shouted. “But lots of people around here let their kids use guns. They go hunting and—”
“But he’s not your kid!” I retorted. “He’s a minor in your custody, and the court will scrutinize every fucking move you make. Especially the fact that you’re a deputy, and somehow, you didn’t secure your weapon!”
“It wasn’t my gun!”
“Do you think that fucking matters to the court?” I shook the paper at him. “The grandparents could easily take this kid from you!”
He scrubbed a hand over his face, slumping down in the chair across from my desk. “Fuck, I can’t let that kid go.”
“You may not have a choice.”
He looked up at me with pleading eyes. “Ryder, you have to help me. Whatever it takes, you have to make sure we don’t lose custody of Wes. He can’t go back to where he was.”
“He wouldn’t,” I sighed, taking my own seat. “But he could end up in foster care.”
“What?”
“If the judge finds neither party fit to care for Wes—”
“No. No fucking way.” He shoved out of his seat and paced the room. “Then we’ll leave.”
“Leave?” I barked out a laugh. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going to go? You can’t flee with a kid!”
“Better than returning him to those people or shoving him in the system!”
“And what the fuck do you think is going to happen to Wes? What are you going to do when he’s old enough to be on his own? Are you gonna come back and hope that no one arrests you for kidnapping? Your life will be over!”
The man was falling apart in front of me. I had to get a handle on this quickly. “Listen, go home. Give me tomorrow to figure out something. I have to research all of this. I’ve never actually handled a custody case before.”
“But you can do it, right?”
“You might be better off finding someone who deals with this, who knows how—”
“No. I trust you.”
That was bound to be a fucking terrible idea. “Alright. Go home. I’ll call you tomorrow after I’ve gone over the case.”
“Right,” he nodded. “Thank you, Ryder.”
I tossed the paper on my desk, rubbing my hand over my eyes.
This day couldn’t get any fucking worse.
I would have to find a lawyer familiar with family law.
There was no way I’d put Michael and Blake in front of a judge when I didn’t know the ins and outs of the court process.
I didn’t have enough time to do the research necessary to win on my own.
I finished up the contract, then shut everything down. In the morning, I’d have to send the contract over to the city council for review. I added that to the mountain of shit I had to do, then turned out the lights and headed to Ellie’s.
It was already eleven o’clock, and knocking on her door felt wrong. As I sat in her driveway, I considered going in, but waking her up didn’t feel right, even if all I wanted to do was slip into her bed and shove my cock deep inside her pussy.
So, instead, I backed out of her driveway and headed back to the ranch. Sleep wouldn’t come easily without my nightly vice, but at least I wouldn’t be the asshole who kept her up when she had to work the next day.