Safe from Harm (Protect & Serve #2)(80)

*

Jeb Monroe led his daughter by the arm, holding her gently, as if she might break. He didn’t miss the way the deputies he passed on the way into the sheriff’s department looked away, as if they might be considered guilty by association.

So the story was already out…

Good. It was the first nail in Deputy Dawson’s coffin. And, by extension, that of his father. The Dawson family was about to feel the fury of his wrath as demanded by the judgment of the Great Almighty himself.

Jeb had realized the night before that it was time to act, time to make his move on the Dawsons and their whore in the prosecutor’s office. And what he had planned would be just the sort of incident that made the papers, galvanized other righteous people like him who prepared for the revolution that was coming. They’d know it was time to act, time to take up arms and declare independence from tyranny.

“I can’t do this.”

He halted abruptly, his daughter’s cowardice snapping him out of his dreams for the future. He sent a quick glance around and jerked her arm, making her whimper and shrink away from him. “You can do this,” he growled. “You will do this. Is that clear? You know what’s at stake.”

Her chin began to tremble. “But it’s wrong.”

He narrowed his eyes at her, his grip on her arm tightening until she cried out. “Is rising up against tyranny ever wrong? Is following the will of God to rid the world of hedonists ever wrong?”

She didn’t reply, merely stood there trembling. And well she should tremble for fear of the world and how Satan had sunk his claws into the godless. She should be very afraid her own soul was at risk. But soon she’d be delivered of the horrors of this world. She would serve as a martyr for the cause and be forever spoken of with reverence among the righteous. It would be his final gift to her. He would save her from turning her back on the cause before her betrayal was known to any others.

But first she had a vital part to play.

Jeremy stood off to the side of the door, hands in his pockets, his head hanging. Jeb had yet to determine what to do about his son. The boy had betrayed him as well, had called him crazy. But weren’t many of the great men of history considered crazy until they were proven right? Jeremy was misguided, led astray by his traitorous mother. But he would soon have him back on the right path.

“Get inside,” Jeb snapped, dragging Sandra forward. “Now both of you remember what I told you. You say exactly what we rehearsed on the ride here.”

When Jeremy nodded, Jeb pulled open the door and strode straight to the front desk. “I’m here to see Sheriff Dawson,” he announced. “You can tell him Jeb Monroe is here with his daughter.”

*

Gabe felt something in the air shift and the hair on the back of his neck prickled. His instincts told him Monroe had arrived even before he turned in his seat to see who his father was glaring daggers at.

“Here we go,” Mac ground out. “You can listen in, in the observation room.”

Gabe nodded and waited until one of the deputies ushered Jeb and his children to the conference room, then squared his shoulders and strode out of his father’s office, not bothering to meet the curious gazes of any of his colleagues. But just as he was entering the observation room, his phone began to buzz.

His heart leaped up into his throat. Expecting it to be Elle finally calling him, he snatched it from his hip and answered without even checking the screen display. “Hey, I’m sorry—”

“Is it true?”

Shit.

“Jessica,” he said, slipping into one of the other conference rooms instead. “How are you and the kids?”

“Pretty damned pissed, Gabe,” Chris’s widow hissed. “Is it true you screwed up the investigation? Is Derrick Monroe getting another trial? And did you assault some woman? I know you’ve always been a player, but did you seriously stoop to something so brutal?”

“Jesus, Jess,” he interjected when she finally paused to take a breath. “You know I didn’t! I would never treat anyone that way. It’s all bullshit. How did you even find out?”

“Are you serious?” she laughed. “It’s all over the news.”

Gabe’s head suddenly felt like it was about to explode. He pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to focus on something other than the pounding in his head. “Of course Monroe would go to the press. Why am I surprised?”

“And the trial?” she continued. “What about that?”

He heaved a frustrated sigh, wishing he could give her such an emphatic denial on that one. “I don’t know. We’re fighting it. Dad talked to Judge Murray, but with the climate not being particularly friendly to law enforcement right now, Murray’s treading lightly.”

He heard her mutter a curse. “That man cannot go free, Gabe. He just can’t. I can’t go through that again. The kids can’t go through that. Teddy’s old enough now to understand what’s going on. I don’t want him to hear all the details of how his father died.”

“You know we did everything by the book in Chris’s case,” Gabe assured her. “You know we did right by him, Jess. I loved the guy like a brother.”

“Yeah, well, what would you do if it was one of your real brothers, Gabe?” she demanded. “If you cared so much about Chris, then you make sure that son of a bitch sitting in prison for his murder doesn’t get out.”