Chapter 10
Around six the next morning, Kevin held a steaming mug of fresh coffee and stepped out onto his front porch.
He knew he shouldn’t, but his eyes were immediately drawn to the cabin across from him, thinking he might see Yvonne standing there.
After meeting her the day before, his thoughts hadn’t strayed from her.
He wondered what her story was, or if she even had a story.
Not that it mattered, not everyone was broken like he was.
Though, he wasn’t really broken, at least now that he wasn’t living every day with his ex-wife, he didn’t think he was broken.
He knew his destiny was out there somewhere, he just needed to get his head out of his ass and look for it.
As he sat in the chair on his front porch, sipping his coffee, he froze when the door in the cabin he had been studying opened, and his heart beat faster. He didn’t want to look like he was spying on her, so he called out.
“Good morning!” At her start, he rose to his feet, went to the top of the steps, and lifted his mug toward her.
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you sitting on your porch.”
“No problem, how did you sleep?”
“Like a log,” she laughed, and Kevin had to grit his teeth as it went directly to his cock.
Not knowing what else to say, and not wanting to shout across the drive and risk the others hearing them, he started down his steps, and walked toward her. When he was close enough that he didn’t have to raise his voice, he saluted her with his still steaming mug.
“When did you want to get together to take the tour?”
“Have you had breakfast?”
“Not yet, why?”
“Why don’t you join me, and we can go afterward.”
“Let me run back over and grab a few things.”
“Sure,” Yvonne said, and sighed heavily as he walked away and she caught sight of his fabulous ass again. She waited, sipping her coffee until he returned. She didn’t say anything, but only raised her brow at what he carried.
“Sorry, couldn’t let the coffee go to waste.” He held up a thermos he had poured his fresh pot into.
“Okay, but what’s in the basket?”
“Oh, eggs. My sister-in-law has chickens and she provides eggs for everyone.” He saw her shocked expression and grinned.
“For free?”
“Sort of,” he followed her inside and put the basket on the counter, then turned to her. “We all chip in a few dollars, enough for her to pay for her feed, oh, and the processing fees.”
“Processing?” She looked at him in confusion as she pulled out a package of sausage, and some vegetables. She looked at him directly. “I forgot to purchase bacon, so how about a sausage and veggie omelet?”
“Sounds good, let me cut up the veggies for you.” They worked in harmony, almost like they had been together for a long time. She looked up as she whipped up the eggs and frowned. “Your sister-in-law.”
Kevin sighed and shook his head. “It’s complicated.” At her look, and sudden stiffening. “Okay, not that complicated. Can I explain while we eat?”
“Sure,” she said and kept her opinions to herself. As she dished up the omelets, he buttered the toast. They didn’t speak until they were halfway through the meal, then Kevin nodded.
“Okay, Erin said she gave you the tour yesterday?”
“We didn’t get out of the truck at RRR or Broken Two. We did at Broken Wheel.”
“Did you see anyone at Broken Two? Or RRR?”
“No one at Broken Two. People were in the distance working at RRR. Why?”
“My son, Caleb works at Broken Two.”
“The physical therapist and chiropractor?”
“Yes. He’s been here for almost a year. I’ve been here for about two weeks already.”
“Okay.” She finished her meal, then sat back and cradled a fresh cup of coffee to her chest.
“I’ve been divorced for almost two years now. I’m not lying when I say I had a rough marriage. I’m not making any excuses, it is what it is. However, I can honestly say that Karen is exactly where she needs to be right now.”
“Pardon me?”
“When we get to the office tomorrow, the office we will be sharing, I can give you a case number. Since you’re former FBI, I’m sure you can access it.”
“What case?”
“Karen is sitting in a women’s prison in the state of Washington. She’s been there for almost two years. About a month ago, she killed another inmate.” He held up his hand and shook his head. “It was investigated, and the DA doesn’t think he’s going to charge her.”
“Why the hell not? No offense, Kevin, but what the fuck?”
“Yeah, see, Karen was an entitled bitch that thought because I worked for Seattle PD, she was above the law. My marriage had been dead for years, I was just too lazy to sever ties to it.” He shook his head as he refilled his mug and settled back.
“Truthfully, I was too beat down by her to want to face the hassle. I never cheated on her, but to escape her entitled bitchiness, I worked.”
“What changed?”
“Her brother.”
“How?”
“He was a SEAL, on a mission, he and his team were captured, tortured, and it was bad. The Navy contacted us saying he was MIA. Karen, being the entitled bitch she was, immediately started mentally and verbally spending his death benefits.”
“I take it that he wasn’t dead?”
“No, he and other teammates were held captive for twenty days before another SEAL team rescued them. He spent at least a month in the hospital because of his injuries. I can’t tell you everything that he encountered, it’s not my story, and I don’t know it all, only that it was bad.
I did see the scars on his body, and actually changed some of his bandages.
” He shook his head at her. “They also removed one of his eyes.”
“Shit.”
“Yes, anyway, the Navy failed to inform us that he had been rescued. He arrived at the police station, and I’ll be the first to admit that I cried like a baby when I saw him. He was rough around the edges, not at all like the man you’ll meet next Sunday, but a shell of his former self.”
“Why would I be meeting him next Sunday?”
“Because he works over at Broken Wheel. See, most of the men over there are all former SEAL teammates.”
“Ah, got it. What else?”
“When I saw him, I brought him home with me. Karen was there with these god-awful design books where she was mentally spending his death benefits to redo the house. The second she saw her own brother, she never asked how he was, never acknowledged that he was alive. She immediately started screaming that he had ruined everything for her.”
“Damn, that’s cold.”
“Yes, well, she was arrested after she physically attacked Ryan. Though she hadn’t ever been arrested before, there was a file with several complaints against her.
They added up when she went to court. Things happened at the court hearing that she had to stay in jail for thirty days.
She got out, was arrested again, then had to do sixty days.
” He shook his head and looked down at his cup. He didn’t look at her as he continued.
“While she was out on bail, she saw me eating lunch with a colleague.” He looked up then, and directly at Yvonne.
“I was a Homicide Detective with Seattle PD. I was having lunch with the Assistant DA, discussing a case. Karen saw us through the window. It took a couple of weeks, but one night when the DA was walking to her car, Karen tried to run her over. She dove just in time, but she was able to get the license plate number. The ADA ended up breaking her ankle, had to have surgery, and when I got to the hospital, the first thing she told me was that she was going to press charges against my wife. I told her that she would be stupid not to.”
“Christ, let me guess, because she attempted to run this other woman over, while on bail, her bail was revoked.”
“Yes, and when she went to trial for the attempted murder charge, the ADA was second chair. She tried to be the lead, but her boss said it wouldn’t look good for her to prosecute Karen.
One of the main factors brought into that trial were the numerous complaints the neighbors had made against Karen.
The were accepted as a pattern of her behavior. ”
“How much time did she get?”
“Eighteen to twenty-five.”
“What happened recently? The reason why she might not be charged for the murder of another inmate?”
“First, the last time I saw her was the day she was sentenced. Until two months ago, when my boss called me into his office. That’s when I learned what she had done. She did do one thing smart.”
“What was that?”
“As soon as the guards got to her, she refused to say anything except for my name. She said to get me there, then she would talk. The warden thought it would be best to put her into solitary confinement until I could be there. The DA went with me.”
“Was that legal? Did she have her own counsel?”
“She refused, and signed the waiver.” He went on to tell her what Karen had told him, and how they had handled it. He finished his tale with a grin.
“What?”
“I called Ryan and told him about the threat against my life. He didn’t hesitate to grab some former SEAL buddies and drive to Seattle to help me.
From the day I told them, to the day they knocked on my door was three days.
That very night several men attempted to break into my house.
It was the men who Strokes contacted. All seven of them had warrants out for their arrests.
Due to the nature of the warrants these guys weren’t getting out of jail anytime soon, bail had been denied, even if their threat against me didn’t stick.
Forgive me if I forgot, but I believe five of them already had three felonies, and had slipped through the three-strike law’s cracks. ”
“Damn, and they’re not getting out now, are they?”
“No. The other two already had two felony convictions. They had only been out of prison for less than three weeks when Strokes contacted them.”
“What happened to Karen after she told you why she killed Strokes?”
“She was transported to a different facility two hours outside of Seattle. It wasn’t a maximum-security prison.
More like medium.” He finished his coffee, set the mug on the table, and sighed.
“Ryan and I went to see her, and she apologized to him for her treatment of him over the years. The entitled bitch was gone, and she didn’t even want to get off easy for killing Strokes.
She openly admitted she did it, and why.
When I left that prison, I looked her dead in the eye and told her I was glad she finally decided to be a decent human being, but I was still done.
Not that she asked me for anything. She even refused when I asked her if she wanted anything put in her commissary. ”
Yvonne studied him for several moments in silence.
She didn’t know him well enough yet to know if the answer to her question was genuine.
“Do you think she’s playing you?” At his confused look, she clarified.
“About being a different person. I don’t know her, so I don’t have anything to judge, but you said she didn’t act entitled any longer, did she really change her spots, or did she just cover them?
Maybe thinking that if she saved your life, you’d forgive her and take her back when she gets out. ”
“First, she’s not getting out for at least another twenty years. Second, I was done with my marriage years before I severed all legal ties. I only hung around for Caleb.” He chuckled and shook his head. “He later called me an idiot for doing that.”
Yvonne nodded. “Like I said, I don’t know either of you enough to make any decisions that I have no say in. I will say this though. Thank you for telling me about your past. Now, I have a serious question for you.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you think any of those gang members that tried to break into your home have connections on the outside that might still try to come after you?”
“Honestly, I have no clue. I do know that I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. I didn’t even tell HR at my exit interview. Not even the DA. I just call him every couple of weeks to see what’s going on. I have no clue if I’ll be called back to testify if they decide to charge her.”
“I understand, one more question, then I should be done.”
“What’s that?”
“How bad of a person was Strokes?”
Kevin leaned forward to place his forearms on the table as he snorted a laugh.
“Karen was the Mother Superior compared to Strokes. She was doing life for her crimes, and according to the prison, she was Queen Bee, and let everyone know it. I’ve seen the records, she put several people in the infirmary over the years, including Karen. ”
“So, with her gone, I’m assuming no one in the prison is missing her? What about her family, because they could go after Karen for a wrongful death charge.”
“The only family on record was the gang she hung out with. The very people she contacted after reading Karen’s letter and telling them to come after me to mark off a square on some bingo card. Or some shit like that.”
“Shit,” Yvonne said as she sat forward quickly. She jumped to her feet, refilled their coffee mugs, and told him to wait, that she would be right back, before she walked away.