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Little did I know, the call was coming from inside the house.
Chapter 34
Otto
Otto,
I found you in the barn today and thought I’d never seen anything more beautiful than your face. Touching you, kissing you, going down on you… all of those things were both familiar and new, comforting and exciting as hell.
Until I fucked it up.
The ring. The goddamned ring. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you first. I’m sorry when I saw you, my brain went completely off line so I could touch you. But know this: you are mine Otto Wilde. And I’m done with trying to do the right thing. From this moment forward, I will do everything in my power to give you the life you always wanted and the love you always deserved.
You’ve waited ten years for me, baby. And you shouldn’t have to wait a minute more.
I am yours forever,
Walker
(Unsent)
When morning came, Honovi was able to spring me from the pokey. At least that’s what I kept calling it. Hon wasn’t quite as impressed with my lingo as I hoped he’d be. Instead, he was cursing me up a storm for “cavorting with the enemy,” which I was pretty sure was his way of saying the sheriff.
“I think you mean ‘sleeping’ with the enemy,” I mumbled while he signed some paperwork at an empty desk near Walker’s in the main office area.
“Zip it,” he said.
Walker had gotten up to get me a cup of coffee now that I was no longer in the cell. I was, however, handcuffed until the final whatever had been completed.
It was the handcuffs that led to my freedom in the end.
I was holding them up and joking about my fancy new jewelry when Hal Walker came racing through the front doors ahead of his parents.
“He didn’t do it! He didn’t do it! I did! I set the fires.”
The entire office went still, and I heard the sound of a ceramic coffee mug biting the dust. I looked back to see Walker with his jaw open and coffee stains on the lower part of his uniform pants from where it had splashed when the mug hit the cement floor.
Hal’s eyes were riveted on my cuffs, and it was obvious to me the reality of his actions had finally thrown him for a major loop.
“Hal, shh,” I snapped. “Beth, John, get him out of here.”
“Wait,” Seth called from behind me. “Wait a minute. What are you guys doing here?”
Hal rushed forward, pulling out of John’s and Beth’s attempts to wrangle him back through the front door. Clearly they hadn’t known what he was going to do.
“Uncle Seth, he didn’t do it,” Hal said urgently. His voice was shaky and hoarse and his eyes were red-rimmed. “You have to believe me. He didn’t. He wouldn’t have.”
Seth looked up and around at all of us sitting in the sheriff’s office before realizing what needed to be done.
“Hal, stop talking right now for just a minute, okay? Honovi, can you give me the name of a guardian ad litem or family attorney who can handle this for us?”
Hon nodded and pulled out his phone. In the meantime, Doc and Grandpa walked back into the sheriff’s office with armloads of pastries and coffees from Sugar Britches.
“What’s going on?” Grandpa asked Doc.
“Don’t know. Something is, though. That’s for sure.”
They made their way to the front counter and handed off half their spoils to Luanne, who accepted them as if this was all part and parcel of her regular workday.
Which, in a way, maybe it was.
I shook my head at them as a way of telling them to sit tight and not interfere. They took their seats in the reception area in two waiting chairs and began drinking their coffee.
“But, Uncle Seth,” Hal began.
Seth held up a hand before using it to tilt Hal’s chin up so he could lock eyes with him. “If you never listen to another word I say, Harold Covington Walker, listen to this. Do not say another word. Nod your head to agree.”
Hal’s eyes shifted to me, and I nodded emphatically at him. “Listen to Seth, Hal. He knows what he’s talking about.”
I ignored Hon as he shot me a dirty look for opening my own mouth.
Hal nodded at Seth and took a seat in a chair next to Shayna, who had resumed her reports at her desk in the open office rather than the jail area in the back.
Once my own paperwork was completed, I was free to go. They hadn’t charged me with a crime in the end. Their intention had been to question me, but Honovi had arrived and put a quick stop to that instead. Now it looked like maybe I wouldn’t get charged after all. But did that mean Hal would?
I didn’t stick around to find out. Honovi basically booted my ass out of there as fast as possible and told me to go home to the ranch and sit tight.
