Chapter Twenty
Blake stopped brushing the horse and answered his phone.
“Denison.”
“Hey, it’s Grant.”
“Hi. What’s up?”
“We got the two guys that vandalized Hanna’s house, and they’re willing to roll on her sister.”
“That’s great. What do we need to do?”
“We’re going to pick up Shasha right now. If Hanna wants to talk to her, I’ll bend the rules and let her in.”
Hell. He didn’t want Hanna anywhere around her sister, but he wouldn’t take this opportunity away from her if that’s what she wanted.
Blake rubbed his hand down his face. “I’ll grab Hanna and bring her into town.”
“Sounds good.”
Blake found Hanna in the office that they now shared.
“Hi, honey.”
She looked up and smiled. “Hi.”
He walked around and sat on the edge of the desk. “Grant called. They got the two guys who helped your sister with the house.”
She sat back. “Really? I didn’t think anything would come of the DNA.”
“I’m not sure how they caught them. Maybe they bragged to someone or something like that. But the good news is they are willing to roll on your sister.”
Her eyes widened. “Good. She deserves everything she gets.”
“Do you want her gone for good?”
“Yes. You know I do.”
“I want to talk to Grant to see if it’s even possible, but I want to give her three thousand dollars to start somewhere new and far away.”
“I don’t think we should have to pay her anything.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I know. But I doubt she has the money to move.”
“She’ll just come back.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to Grant about. I’m not sure if it’s even possible, but we’d tell her that if she took the option to leave, she would be able to walk away with the money, but if she ever came back, she’d be charged and put in jail.”
He grinned when Hanna chuckled.
“She’d fall for it. I just hope Grant lets us do that.”
He chuckled. “I think we can talk him into it. Do you want to grab the money from the safe while I change?”
“Sure.”
****
She put the money in an envelope and stuck it in her purse. She waited for Blake at the front door.
Her thoughts kept circling in her head, and she was trying not to get her hopes up that they could get rid of Shasha for good.
Hanna had heard her going around town saying horrible things about both of them. She’d even brought up the baby, but didn’t tell the people in town that it wasn’t Blake.
“Are you ready, honey?”
“Yes.”
The drive into town was mostly silent, but Blake never let go of her hand, which comforted her.
He lifted her out of the truck at the Sheriff’s Department and retook her hand.
Blake cleared his throat to get the woman’s attention at the front desk. “Hi, Claire. Grant is expecting us.”
She smiled. “Yes. He said to go back to his office.”
“Thank you.”
Hanna saw all the heads turn as they went past. They had probably heard about her, but she and Blake always went to the bigger town less than an hour away because they had more restaurants and shopping options.
Now they were finally getting their first look at her, so she didn’t let their attention upset her.
They walked into Grant's office. She smiled and looked around at the chaos.
“Some things never change,” she said.
Grant laughed, and she saw he knew what she was talking about.
Grant looked at the confusion on Blake’s face and went on to explain.
“When we worked together in high school, Hanna was forever picking up my mess and organizing our projects.”
Blake grinned. “So, she’s saying you’re still a slob?”
“Pretty much.”
She rolled her eyes.
Blake pulled her into a chair next to his.
“We’ve got a proposition.”
“All right. Let me hear it.”
“We want to offer Shasha some money to leave town instead of getting charged, but we know how she is. She’ll keep coming back, so we want to be able to tell her if she comes back, she’ll be arrested.”
Grant nodded. “All she has to do is look up what she’d be charged with, and she’d find out she probably would get probation, and if we wait too long, the Statute of Limitations is only five years for vandalism.”
“My sister wouldn’t look it up. She’s not that smart.”
The men chuckled.
“I don’t think she’d do that either,” Blake said.
“I hope it works. I’ll have the guys put her into the conference room. She knows she has the right to a lawyer. We had to read her the Miranda Rights.”
“Just tell her he’s coming next week from another city, and she’d have to stay in jail until he got here,” Blake suggested.
Grant nodded. “That would work.”
After a minute, he got on the phone and nodded at them.
“They’re taking her there now.”
“Where did you have her?” Hanna asked.
“In a cell,” Grant grinned. “She didn’t like it, that’s for sure.”
Blake nodded. “Good. Giving her a taste of where she’d have to stay will help.”
Grant stood and showed them the way to the room.
Hanna snorted. She could hear which room she was in by the screeching.
Blake looked down at her. “Do you want to take the lead, honey?”
“Yes. It’s about time I fought back.”