Page 71 of Reclaim
After we’d exchanged I-love-yous, Ramsey and I hung up. I took the chicken on the counter and put it back in the fridge. Tuscany could wait for another time. Thea and I were officially going out to celebrate.
It was so close to being over.
Ramsey could be free.
Thea could be free.
Maybe then I could be free too.“This isn’t legal!” I yelled from the wrong side of the bars of a Clovert jail cell.
So, remember that “maybe then I could be free too” horseshit?
Yeah, things didn’t exactly happen like that after Ramsey got out of prison.
What did happen was Officer Jonathan Caskey found new and unique ways to torture my entire family.
The day Thea and I had picked Ramsey up from prison was a dream come true. Sure, it had been hard for him to adapt to his new life of freedom—well, at least partial freedom since he was still on parole for the next three years. He and Thea… Well, that was a challenge to say the least. But, eventually, everyone got on the same page.
It only took a week before Jonathan Caskey showed up at our door, claiming he had information about Ramsey selling drugs out of the back of Thea’s father’s barbershop.
A fucking week. Of course, the cops found nothing, but that didn’t mean Jonathan didn’t get off on fucking with us.
We decided right then and there Ramsey would never be safe to finish his parole that close to the Caskey family. He requested a transfer from his parole officer and he and Thea moved upstate to Dahlonega. It sucked on epic levels. I’d just gotten my brother back, and thanks to the fucking Caskeys, I’d lost him again. But it was okay. He was happy and safe with the woman he loved. That was all I’d ever wanted for him.
Thea sold our place in Thomaston so she and Ramsey could buy a little cabin in the mountains. Living alone for the first time was a definite change, but I found a rental house closer to both work and Joe. Who needed a roommate when I had a class of thirty smiling six-year-olds to keep me busy?
My newfound loner status worried Joe. Emotionally, I was way past needing someone to check in on me, but he knew all too well how much I missed Thea. Misty was Joe’s receptionist, but every Friday morning, he had her drive him past the barbershop to drop him off at my place. I thought it was sweet. To hear him tell it, he just liked chatting over coffee while I got ready, but I knew he was really just keeping an eye on me. It was fine. I liked the company. I’d drop him back off at the barbershop on my way to the school.
This was exactly how Joe and I ended up in the car together when Jonathan Caskey not only pulled us over at seven thirty in the morning, but also searched my vehicle and purse and then arrested me for the possession of marijuana that was absolutely not mine.
There. All caught up. Welcome to my hell.
“Hey!” I shouted at a uniformed officer as he approached my cell. I’d been cuffed behind my back all day, blisters rubbing on my wrists, my shoulders aching.
It was getting late and the drunks were starting to roll in. Slurring and stumbling, some of them flat-out belligerent, yet they were totally free inside that relic of a holding cell.
My head was pounding and I was pissed beyond all belief. It was a Friday, but shockingly, not a single judge had been available all damn day to set my bail. Cop after cop had told me it was out of their control, but the grin on Jonathan Caskey’s face each time he went out of his fucking way to pass my cell said otherwise.
“I have the right to an attorney, you know. It’s the law!”
Clovert’s very own Barney Fife stopped at my door, and after a quick unlock routine, he slid it open. “If you would shut up for once, I’ll take you to him.”
My back shot straight and relief crashed over me. Finally, Joe must have been able to find me a lawyer in town willing step on some Caskey toes—and hopefully Caskey skulls too. Jonathan’s minion roughly grabbed my arm and slammed the door shut behind me.
I winced. “Could you take it easy?”
He swung an icy gaze my way and lifted a bandaged hand in the air. “Did you take it easy on me when I was processing you?”
It was safe to say I had not. I’d bit this guy and kicked Jonathan in the shin. It was a real miss because I was aiming for his balls, but at least I’d made contact.
“You’ll survive. I don’t have rabies or anything.”
“So you say.” He hauled me down the short hall before stopping at an open doorway.
