These women, these wonderful, loving women, didn’t realize that a stinking, dirty piece of humanity lay in wait just across the street.
Her fury grew and swirled until it became a righteous anger so huge, she knew it had to be a gift from above. She was done being afraid. She was done being a victim. And she was, by God, done with Deke Walters.
“If you’ll excuse me. I have some trash to deal with.”
Ginny didn’t stop, and she didn’t look back. She simply set down her pad and pen, slipped off her apron, and headed outside and made a beeline for that parked Toyota.
Chapter 19
Jake recalled once, when he’d been about six years old, Morgan—a bossy ten at the time—had gotten mad at him when he hadn’t followed his orders in some game or other. In retaliation Morgan pushed him into down into a mud puddle.
Without raising his voice or making any kind of threat, his brother Adam—a much older seven—stepped forward and looked Morgan in the eye.
Their eldest brother had apologized, helped Jake up, and snuck him into the house to get cleaned up before their mother found out.
He hadn’t seen another display of that powerful aura of Adam’s, until today.
Jerry Stone had tried to hold his own, but clearly the little shit was completely outclassed. He sat in a chair in the small motel room, sweat covering his brow and looking as if he wished the floor would open up and swallow him whole.
“So, let’s recap, shall we?” Adam said, sounding calm and reasonable. “You’re about to be charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive escaped from a county facility; assault with intent, since your buddy wailed on his guards; assault with intent on Margaret Morrison—that charge being laid by the Wildwood Crest police—aiding and abetting a fugitive from justice to cross state lines; and providing false identification documentation to a suspect for the purposes of said suspect obtaining an airline ticket.”
Jake looked at his brother. “I’ll bet we could get the feds to cop to a terrorism charge on that last one.”
Adam’s grin looked positively Machiavellian. “You’re right, we could. You’re a lawyer, Jake. Any idea what kind of time we’re looking at for Mr. Stone, here?”
“Add in the terrorism charge, and it could be
decades
.”
“Decades. That’s what I thought. How does that sound to you, Stone?”
“You gotta be fucking shitting me. You don’t have squat. I didn’t know Deke had escaped custody. I was an innocent dupe.”
“Actually, we do have evidence. You visited him in lockup and were scheduled to testify at his trial. So much for being a dupe. Then, you dropped Walters off at the bus depot, where he got on the express bus for the airport. Don’t deny it. We have
that
on a security video.”
“Shit.”
Jake had thought that Jerry Stone couldn’t look any worse, but he’d been wrong.
“Look.” Stone fidgeted and then straightened in his chair. “I’ve got some info for you. I know where Walters is, and I’m willing to deal.”
“Really? Maybe I don’t believe you. Maybe I think that was just a line you used in your piss-poor attempt to try and extort money from the duly-appointed Magistrate of Lusty, Texas.”
“Magistrate? I didn’t talk to no magistrate. You’re full of it.”
Jake grinned. “Yeah, actually, you did. Mother’s been the magistrate for the last five years.”
“And before that, in the courtroom?” Adam shook his head. “She had the reputation of being a real shark—one that’d eat fish bait like you without batting an eyelash.”
“Oh, shit.”
Jake wondered if Stone had any other curse words in his repertoire. The little prick looked even worse now.
“Look, you gotta help me. I’ll tell you where Deke is, and”—he seemed to brace himself—“you really don’t have a moment to lose if you value that bitch, Ginny Rose. But I want a deal.”
Jake felt it, the sense that Stone wasn’t bluffing this time. And then it hit him that with him, Adam, and Matt here, no one was left in Lusty on duty, on alert.
Well, shit
.
“Best I can do”—Adam drawled the words as if he had all the time and not a care in the world—“is to promise to talk to the prosecutor about cutting you a deal. That’s the only offer you’re going to get. Take it or leave it.”
Stone looked at Adam, then at Jake. Jake kept his features blank, but it felt as if time ground to a halt while the miserable worm considered his options.
“Okay. Okay. He’s there, right there in your town, right now. He plans to stake out the restaurant where that bitch works, and grab her when she comes off her shift. But he looked…I don’t know, he looked kind of cold. Who knows what he’ll do? I’ve seen him lose it before, and it ain’t pretty. You better get back there.”
Adam took one step toward Stone, and the man cringed. “Did you give him a gun?”
“A gun? Hell, no. I’m not
that
stupid.”
But there was no guarantee, Jake knew, that Walters didn’t have a gun anyway.
Adam shot a pointed look at Jake then turned and headed out the door. Matt, who’d been standing just outside, had obviously overheard the entire exchange because he was already racing to his cruiser, likely going to try to radio for backup.
As they left the motel room the state boys entered, ready to arrest the sleaze ball.
“Are you actually going to speak to the prosecutor about a deal for that little pissant?” Jake hustled around and got into the passenger side of Adam’s cruiser.
“I keep my word, so of course I am. I’m going to speak to the prosecutor and tell him that I’m against any deal he might want to make with that bottom-feeding scumbag.”
Jake grinned. “I should have known better. Forgive me for doubting you.”
“Get calling. Morgan, Jordan, Peter—anyone you can think of. See who’s in town and can get over to the restaurant, fast. As long as Ginny stays inside, she’s probably safe. I hope.”
Adam started the car, threw the shifter into gear, and peeled out of the parking lot.
“We’re only thirty minutes away,” Jake said as he pulled out his cell phone and began to hit speed dial numbers.
“Thirty? Fuck, Jake, we’ll be there in ten.”
* * * *
Righteous anger carried Ginny Rose out the door of
Lusty Appetites
. She didn’t stop to consider, or think, or even take a breath. Playing in her memory was the fear she’d somehow let Deke Walters breed in her, fear so huge she’d abandoned her baby boy to strangers to protect him, to give him a new life as she prepared to face her own death.
How well she recalled that day! That night Deke had gotten drunk and taken his belt to her with an anger and a vileness she’d never felt before.
She’d managed to get away from him, to run though fields and pastures, not sure if he would catch her, not sure if she would survive. And then she’d somehow managed to come here, to this town, to this haven.
My God! If I hadn’t left Benny here that night, Deke would have killed him then.
Ginny knew that was true down to her soul. Her vision turned red, the color of fury, the color of blood. Ginny approached the car and had a split-second view of dark hair as the bastard scrunched down further, trying to hide from sight—as a coward would hide. Red-hot rage gave a strength to her arms she’d never felt before. She reached out for the car door handle, grasped it, and gave a mighty yank.
Deke spilled out of the car, clearly caught off guard. Ginny guessed the last thing he ever expected was for his old doormat, Ginny Rose, to come after him.
He recovered quickly as he fell to the ground, turning that fall into a roll as he got his feet under him, ending in a crouch.
He glared at her, meanness in his eyes, his mouth curling up in a snarl. “I’ll teach you your place, bitch,” he said as he began to rise from his crouch.
Ginny knew one moment of satisfaction when his stare waivered, when she read confusion in his expression as she refused to tremble in fear before him. And then she stepped forward fast, her small hand clenched into a fist, and punched him hard, right in his face.
Walters screamed, both hands covering his nose as he reeled back slightly from the shock. “You bitch! You broke my fucking nose!” Still, even dripping blood, he stepped toward her, clearly not deterred.
So she kicked him hard, square between his legs. Deke Walters went down, one hand flailing out as he tried to break his fall, just managing not to crack his head on the street. He curled into a ball, clearly unsure what needed his hands the most—his nose or his gonads.
“How do you like that, you son of a bitch? I hate you! I hate you for what you did to me! I hate you for what you did to my aunt!”
She kept kicking at him, though she really didn’t connect more than once or twice more. With each charge she screamed at him, her foot lashed out, and while she aimed only at his legs and arms, the threat must have been enough to keep him down.
“You threatened my baby! You humiliated me! You beat me! You’re nothing but a bully! Let’s see how you like being beat on, you snake, you coward!”
Walters curled into a tight ball, his hands and arms protecting his face and head. “You crazy bitch, get away from me! Get the fuck away from me!”
“How do you like it? How do you like being beat on? How do you like being hurt? You’re nothing but a yellow-bellied coward, you know that?”
A squeal of tires pulled Ginny’s gaze up, and she blinked as she recognized Adam’s cruiser. Adam fairly sprang from the car, his gun drawn. Jake bolted from the other side of the vehicle, unarmed, but with a look of deadly intent on his face.
For one insane moment she thought they were going to arrest her. And then Jake scooped her up, carrying her away from Deke while Adam kicked the man flat, straddled him, and cuffed his hands behind his back.
“Arrest her, officer! She assaulted me! She’s a crazy woman! Everybody saw! She just attacked me for no reason!”
The sound of applause, whistles, and her name being cheered pulled Ginny completely out of her haze.
“Are you all right, honey? Let me look at you! Did that bastard hurt you?” Jake turned her around, his hands going up and down her arms, his gaze scanning her, clearly trying to assure himself that she was all right.
“I’m fine!” Ginny inhaled then softened her voice. “I’m fine, I was just mad! I looked out the window, and there he was skulking lower than a snake’s belly, hiding in that car just waiting for someone he thought was weaker ’n him. And there was all the family right there in the restaurant, and I just got so damn
mad
when I thought of everything he’s done and all the trouble he’s been causing!”
“You saw him from inside the restaurant, and you got mad?”
Ginny wondered what was wrong with Jake’s voice. She didn’t think she’d ever heard quite that tone before. Of course, she’d never noticed that he had a twitch above his right eye, either.
A snicker drew her attention, and for the first time she realized that the women of Lusty had come out of the restaurant and were standing right there, in a huge semicircle around her.
It was Susan who had snickered, and even now, she looked as if she wanted to laugh.
Matt’s cruiser had pulled up, as had several other cars. Matt wasted no time coming to Adam’s aid. He took hold of the handcuffed prisoner, pulled him up off the ground, and perp-walked him toward the cruiser. Car doors slammed as Morgan and Henry, Jordan and Peter, and Colt Evans and Ryder Magee arrived and headed over toward Adam. Another few doors slammed, and Ginny realized that the Senior Benedicts—Kelsey’s fathers-in-law—and the senior Kendalls, had also arrived on the scene.
Those men slowly formed a bit of a cadre behind Adam—almost like the women had done behind her.
Matt stood with his arms akimbo beside his cruiser, staring at her. It was the first clue Ginny had that she’d actually done something extraordinary.
Adam came toward her, and she realized that he wore a similar expression to the one Jake had. She turned so that she could face him, and Jake, and tried very hard not to let them see that she was shaking.
“Let me see if I have this straight, in my mind.” Adam spoke very precisely. “For the official report, you understand. You, Ginny Rose, were over there, inside
Lusty Appetites
?”