Chapter 8 Personal Vengeance
PERSONAL VENGEANCE
“You’re exhausted,” Ford said.
Reenie had come out of his father’s office after having been in there for more than an hour.
Her eyes were red, her face was pale, and she was wringing her hands like she did as a kid when she was anxious.
As much as she’d shown signs of strength, the young girl was still lurking under her skin, clawing to get out no matter how much she tried to shove those demons back.
He knew it twenty years ago as much as he saw it tonight.
Just like his family had too.
“I am,” she said. “But I know you want to talk.”
He was an asshole for pushing this hard, and he knew it. But he had to ask himself, was it about justice for her, or was it just personal vengeance because someone he cared about was the one suffering?
They’d returned to the cabin and he’d unlocked the back door with the key he had. His father gave him copies of the front and back doors to have on him.
“I’d like to know what you said to Gale. If any of it was different. If you remembered something more.”
Her eyes told him the truth he didn’t want to accept.
She didn’t trust him enough to give it all to him.
“I just can’t tonight, Ford. The only thing I want to do is see if there is any news of me missing in Gainesville. Nothing more.”
“I already checked,” he said. “Nothing. Or nothing that they have released. That doesn’t mean someone isn’t looking into where you could be.”
He’d been watching and looking for anything on the local news he could find there. He thought it’d let him know who her ex-boyfriend was. They were always the first suspects.
“There will be,” she said. “Those who helped me know what they are doing.”
“You won’t talk to me about that, will you?”
“I can’t. If the police ever found out, they wouldn’t be able to help the next person. They did nothing illegal. I’m not a criminal. I didn’t want to break the law.”
“Meaning that they have in the past?”
“I didn’t ask and don’t want to know. Everything they helped me with was legal. They helped me buy a car and let me store it there so Oliver didn’t know. It’s registered under my name. You know that.”
He wanted to run the plates, but instead pulled her registration out of her glove box to assure it was in her name. Until he knew more, he couldn’t risk it.
“Why not take public transportation?” he asked. “Pay cash and take buses.”
“I can’t carry much stuff with me then,” she said. “And when I got to the border, I wasn’t sure where I’d end up. It sounds stupid, but I needed that freedom. And everything I’d been buying to leave with was in that car so I didn’t have to pack when the time came.”
“How much stuff do you have?”
“You mean you didn’t look when I was in the shower?”
She was challenging him.
“I glanced in the bedroom. There were some clothes hanging in the closet. I looked more to see if you unpacked.”
Keeping everything in her car meant it’d be easier for her to up and go.
“I did. What I had. Which isn’t much. I left everything else behind. Everything with me is new.”
“They might not think you’re missing with your purse and ID gone,” he said.
She blinked at him a few times. “I left them behind.”
She hadn’t told him that. “So you’ve got no ID on you?”
She walked into her bedroom and brought out the purse he’d seen she’d had in the diner this morning.
How had it only been this morning when she’d entered his life again?
Her wallet was out and her license and SS card were shown to him, even her Canadian passport.
“You had duplicates?”
“Yes. I knew the day would come that I might need to leave like this. I hoped not, but I had long since given up. I said I lost my license and paid for another. Did the same with my social security card. You’re the first person to know about my passport.
My mother moved us back to Canada for two years and she was dating some guy that she wanted to go on a trip with.
He’s the one who pushed for me to get the passport issued there. ”
Which would work in her favor to return to her mother’s birth country.
“Were you allowed to keep your own money in your job?” he asked.
“Not all of it. I had to pay for things with Oliver, but he paid the mortgage. It was his house. Everything was in his name, but I gave him the money each month or paid the bills myself. I bought groceries.”
So the guy wasn’t completely controlling.
“It allowed you to put money away then for this.”
“Not a lot. I’ve worked one dead-end job after another. Have nothing more than a high school diploma. I didn’t like school all that much. I wanted to escape home, but once school was done, then I had to leave.”
“Had to or chose to?”
She sighed. “Chose. Would you stay if every word that came out of your mouth resulted in pain? If one day the words were fine, but the next they weren’t? I was better on the streets than at home.”
Shit. “You lived on the streets?”
“No. I moved out at eighteen. There were some girls I talked to my senior year. Some in foster care, others with similar home lives. We all had part-time jobs and thought if we pooled our money we could get a place. That’s what we did. For two years it was a revolving door of roommates.”
“Which had to be hard for someone that doesn’t trust easily.”
She snorted. “I used to lock my bedroom door. I left nothing of value in there. Desperate people do desperate things.”
“Like trying to frame your boyfriend for a crime that didn’t happen?”
She’d been standing against the counter. She turned her back and put the empty coffeepot under the water to fill. “Do you want coffee?”
“Sure,” he said. “I’m sorry if that question was out of line.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You’re right. I’m not sorry I asked it. I’m sorry if it hurt you, but we’ve got to be learning from the same dictionary and I don’t believe that is happening.”
“No one reads a dictionary in one night, Ford.”
Which was the polite way of her saying he had to hit the brakes.
“As long as we get there, I’ll accept it.”
“We will.” The coffee was brewing. “Can we talk about something else? Tell me about you? You’re the Sheriff of Warren County. Somehow I’m not surprised by that.”
“Why?”
“Because you always oozed confidence and respect amongst your peers. You didn’t have to speak. Your actions said it all. You befriended me and all the bullying ceased.”
It ceased because even after he’d walked around with Reenie by his side the first few days, some girls still started their crap and ran their mouths. He told them to knock it off. There wasn’t much more he had to say because most of those girls wanted to be part of the groups he was in.
“What can I say,” he said. “I’ve got the touch.”
She laughed. The first laugh he’d seen all day. “You’re so cocky. Just like your brother, only different. Did you go to college?”
“I did,” he said. “Community college for two years and then went away to SUNY Albany. Close enough to come home on the weekends and work when needed.”
“Clay went into the Navy?”
“He did. My father broke his back almost two years ago. We were all helping, but it wasn’t easy. Everyone has a crazy life and career. Clay decided to come home. He’s turned everything around.”
As the years went by, the family orchard business was harder to turn as good a profit in and some poor harvests made it worse.
He and his siblings were keeping things together working as best they could.
“The hard cider?” she asked.
“That was all him. My father reluctantly gave up apple picking in the community.”
“Oh,” she said. “No one picks apples here anymore?”
“Last fall was the first year it didn’t happen.
The hard cider is bringing in more than those months of revenue did.
Clay uses those apples and then ships in the rest. The bakery is doing better than it ever did too, thanks to Clay.
We rehabbed the old barn, and we’ll host events and weddings there.
You name it, it’s going to be done. The grand opening for it will be in a few weeks. ”
“So no events have happened yet?” she asked.
“No. Clay will announce it soon. Gale said she’d help as best as she can. I’m not sure how Clay is going to do it all, but he’ll figure out a way.”
“I can help,” she said. “I enjoy doing those things.”
“That will be something you can talk to Clay about then.”
Her smiled dropped. He wouldn’t play peacemaker with the two of them. His brother wasn’t someone that changed his mind easily, but he was loyal and Clay would still protect Reenie.
There was a knock at the door. His hand went to his gun in the holster. His family was used to seeing it on him nonstop.
He moved the curtain aside and saw his brother Blaze’s SUV and opened the door.
“Hey,” Blaze said. “Sorry I couldn’t make it to dinner.”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “Mom and Dad filled you in?”
“Clay did,” Blaze said.
Which meant Blaze got the more detailed version.
“Reenie Dupree, not sure if you remember Blaze. He’s an ER doctor. I want him to look at the cuts on your arm or anything else you want him to check over.”
Her face was flushed just as much as it’d been when he picked her up hours ago.
The cabin was still warm, but he should build the fire in the stove for her while Blaze did that.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“I’m sure you are,” Blaze said. “But my brother is stubborn and you can save us all some time if you let me look at the cuts and dress them.”
His brother would know how Reenie got them too.
“Fine,” she said. “Do you want coffee since I just made it?”
“I wouldn’t mind a cup,” Blaze said. “Been a long day.”
“Tell me about it,” Ford said. “I’ll get it. Reenie, how do you take yours?”
“Light. There is some powdered cream that is good enough for now.”
He wanted to pick her up more food tonight, but everyone needed to just take a step back. His mother gave her a few things from the house to help, like an extra blow dryer for tomorrow. Reenie had said she was going to order what she needed to be delivered to the farmhouse in his mother’s name.
Blaze set the bag down he was carrying. “Do you want to do this out here or in your room?”
“Here is fine,” she said. “There isn’t anything else wrong.”
Ford wouldn’t push. She didn’t appear to have any other injuries.
He made their coffees and set them on the table, then went to the wood stove and got that started for the night. He’d show her how to adjust the temperature of it too so she didn’t wake up freezing her ass off in the morning.
When he was done with that, Blaze was putting some ointment on Reenie’s cuts and leaving it on the table with bigger bandages to replace the ones he’d put on her.
“You don’t need to have these on all the time, but it will stop the ointment from ruining your shirts.
The cuts look clean, but let’s keep them this way. ”
“I’ve been washing them and putting aloe vera on them.”
“That works too,” Blaze said.
His brother picked up his coffee and took a huge gulp.
“Jesus, you’re going to burn your mouth.”
“I drink like this all the time,” Blaze said. “I don’t get the luxury of sitting around sipping it and chatting or drinking it in my car like other people do.”
It was a shot at him for showing his face in the community and socializing. Picking up food and coffee.
“You chose your career and I chose mine.”
He cringed when Blaze downed the rest of his coffee. “That’s right. If you don’t need me for anything else, I’m going to bum dinner off of Mom. Is there any left?”
“Always,” he said.
“Nice to see you again, Reenie.”
Blaze left and the two of them remained standing there sipping their coffee.
“It’s hard to believe he’s a doctor,” she said. “He was always spying on us.”
“He wanted to catch me kissing you.”
Ford grinned as he said those words. More color filled her cheeks.
“You did once.”
“I wasn’t sure if you remembered.”
“It’s difficult to forget your first kiss.”