Page 10 of Hunter or Hunted

When we got to the ranch, Simone asked if I would come down to legal with her. I wasn’t sure if she wanted emotional support or someone to keep an eye on Junie while she filled out paperwork, but I agreed. I didn’t have much energy left, but I could manage sitting in the legal building for a while.

On the way, I had texted Rhiannon and asked her to meet us there. When we pulled up, her car was parked in the driveway. Together, the three of us trudged up the barely shoveled path to the front door. Colleen greeted us with a nod, as friendly as she seemed able. She turned on some cartoons for Junie while Rhiannon brought us into her office. Simone explained what had happened with Angela.

Tongue in her cheek, Rhiannon propped her hands on her hips. “That bitch doesn’t have a damn thing. She’s not going to take your baby, Simone.”

“She’s going to try.” Leaning against the bookshelf at the edge of the room, Simone rubbed a hand down her face. “I don’t think you understand what we’re dealing with, Rhiannon. David’s a piece of shit, and he got it from her. Honestly, I think he was a milder version. She might not be as physically strong, but she’s not above violence. I have so many stories about that woman, and they’re all awful.”

“Believe me, I’ve dealt with the piece-of-shit mothers-in-law.” Rhiannon leaned against her desk. “They can do just as much damage, if not more, than their prick sons. But I’m not afraid of them. You don’t need to be either.”

Simone gazed out the window, lifting and lowering her shoulders with a huff. “There are so many angles she can come at this from. Taking Junie, for one. And she might have a case. At least the start of one. I did violate the custody order when I came here, and⁠—”

“And we handled it,” Rhiannon said. “You don’t have any warrants out against your name, Simone. You⁠—”

“Jess does.” Simone turned to better face her. “Simone might not, but Jess broke the law to get here.”

Rhiannon’s eyes narrowed, but not with anger. In an oh, you sweet child sort of way. “No, neither name has warrants against them. Jess and Simone are both clear names. We took care of the custody case. David didn’t know that because he was subpoenaed, and he didn’t show up to court. My lawyers handled it. You were awarded sole custody, and he never filed again. Once you were gone, when he didn’t know how to get ahold of you anymore, he stopped trying to get Junie. If he were to show up, and he were to file a petition for custody, maybe a judge would award him visitation. But even that’s unlikely. We know he’s not going to show up either, because then he’ll go to jail. Mothers-in-law can be a pain in the ass, sure, but you are safe, Simone.”

Throughout most of this conversation, I had zoned in and out of consciousness. But that last bit had my interest piqued. “Wait. We’re not committing identity fraud?”

Blinking hard at me, Rhiannon sputtered a laugh. “What?”

“When I got here, Simone told me not to ask too many questions about how the ranch is run.” Stifling a yawn, I sat up in the chair in front of Rhiannon’s desk. “I mean, she didn’t say it, but she sort of suggested that there was some nefarious business going on behind the scenes. I never had to go to court to get my name changed or anything. So I just assumed that the name changes we go through here, they weren’t… you know. Completely legal.”

Rhiannon crossed her arms. “Some things are morally ambiguous. All the donations we make to the local cops. The obscene amount of donations we give attorneys and law enforcement all around the country. But mostly, the legal side of what we get done here is through the system. It’s just carefully executed, with the right budget, the right loopholes, and the right connections. But no, I sure as shit do not give hundreds, thousands, of women fake identities, Gwen. There’s no way I could get that done on the scale we have here. It’s done through the system, it’s just done carefully.”

Mouth dropped, I furrowed my brows at Simone. I wanted to say, So I could’ve just called the cops? I could’ve claimed self-defense and gotten away with it?

At the time, my primary reason for covering up David’s murder was that it would endanger the ranch. It would expose all the women inside, for the crimes we’d committed when we left our husbands.

And I hadn’t needed to?

Then again, it was still for the best. A murder at the gates would’ve brought too much attention to this place. And even if I had gotten off on self-defense, I still would’ve wanted to do it again. At least now, I had no criminal record that would make my future endeavors more difficult.

“Wait, I don’t understand either.” Simone shook her head. “I didn’t go to court. Wouldn’t I have been required to go to court? The other times that I filed for emergency custody, I had to show up in person.”

“Remember the stack of paperwork you filled out the day you got here?” Rhiannon asked. “One of the papers you signed was for the emergency custody. Next to your testimonies about the abuse that you’d endured at David’s hands, in addition to his criminal record, with a kick-ass, seven-figure attorney presenting it? We didn’t need you in the courtroom. I wasn’t even there. Honestly, it’s kind of bullshit how much power you have when you’ve got the kind of money the ranch does, but that’s the world we live in. When you’ve got enough money, you can buy anything. Even freedom.” Rhiannon shrugged again. “Judges too.”

Damn.

Rhiannon had mentioned this before. The day Simone had filed the report for David’s assault, I mentioned Simone getting into trouble for taking Junie against the custody agreement, and Rhiannon had only shrugged it off. She still wouldn’t tell me much, but she’d alluded to the fact that she paid off the local cops. I thought that was where the connections ended.

But this made more sense. With a billion dollars, or a few billion—I still wasn’t sure on the exact number—and Rhiannon’s connections to shelters all around the country, all this stood to reason. Money ruled the world. With that level of it, being among the top five thousand richest people on the planet, came exponential power.

If only all the billionaires used that power to help rather than exploit.

“Okay,” Simone said. “Alright, that’s good. It’s good to know that I haven’t broken any laws.”

“It’s going to be fine, sweetheart.” Rhiannon managed a dry smile for her. “I understand why it got you so worked up. But you don’t have anything to worry about.”

Simone harrumphed. “Maybe not on the legal front. But she’s insane, Rhiannon. She’s violent. She and I once got into a fistfight at a cookout, while I was holding Junie. She was only a couple months old, and Angela insisted that I let her try this spinach dip. I told her no, because she would choke on it, and she started swinging at me. This woman is batshit.”

“So we start taking precautions.” Rhiannon crossed her ankles, leaning against her desk still. “Your salon is already run on an appointment basis. Lock and unlock the door with each client that comes in. She can’t touch you in here, we know that. With Junie and school, we’ll talk to the bus driver, and to the secretaries, and we’ll make sure that she can’t pick her up. But let her try. If she gives us a reason, we’ll get you a restraining order. Then we’ll lock her ass up if she violates it.” Rhiannon paused. “Come to think of it, I think we could get you a restraining order now. She’s your ex-mother-in-law, and she’s been violent with you in the past. If you want, I can get a lawyer on the phone, and we can try to get ahold of the judge.”

“That’s gonna be too complicated with the holiday.” Simone glanced at her watch. “The judges are going home for the day, if they’re not already, and they probably won’t be back until the new year.”

“Then we’ll make it through the new year,” Rhiannon said. “But would it make you feel better to give my attorney a call? Go over the process?”

Blowing out a calming breath, Simone nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, maybe. If that’s not too much of a burden.”