“If you all will follow me, I’ll take you to the conference room and then we can get started with the questioning.”
Four hours later, I watched as the four guards on the shift responsible for making Sawyer’s life hell, were loaded into the back of separate police cruisers.
They were being taken to the police station where they would then be questioned further.
I’d planned on a different course of action when I’d arrived, but with so many witnesses, I realized that I’d never be able to get away with what I really wanted to do.
“Take it easy, Silas. I hope next time we speak it’s under better circumstances,” Walker said as he shook my hand one final time.
After he disappeared back inside, it left just the three of us standing there, waiting.
Kettle, Torren, and I were waiting outside the huge brick wall for Ruthie to be released.
“So what’d this girl do to get in there?” Kettle asked to pass the time.
“She killed her husband,” I answered.
There were a few moments of stunned silence while they digested that.
“And why are you trying to get her out early? Just because she’s your girl’s friend?” Torren asked.
There was no accusation in his tone, only curiosity.
They knew there was more to it than that, so they patiently waited for me to explain.
I took a bite of the sandwich I’d had Torren run up to the corner deli to get, chewed, and then explained.
“According to one of the conversations I had with Sawyer, Ruthann was beaten, nearly to death, by her husband when the cops finally showed to intervene. He was arrested, but arraigned less than two hours later, only to come back for her. She was able to get away once again, but the cops weren’t able to do anything from there until his trial. Trial date comes and the husband is let off with an ankle monitor and a slap on the wrist telling him to stay away from his wife. Ruthie was in jail because her husband tried to beat her to death, and instead of taking it lying down, she shot him while he was taking a piss.”
“Well fuck,” Torren said.
I nodded. “Fuck indeed.”
***
Sawyer’s eyes narrowed on me as I pulled up to the back of Berry’s house.
She was pissed, that I could tell.
Then again, having a woman on the back of my bike that wasn’t her had to look bad.
“Take your helmet off before my woman goes postal on your ass,” I ordered Ruthie.
Ruthie immediately complied, pulling the helmet that Sawyer usually used, off her head and shaking out her wild mane of red, curly hair.
Instantly, Sawyer went from ragingly pissed off to stunned.
Then she started to cry.
Her hand rose up to her mouth, and she covered it as a cry escaped her lips.
I pulled to a stop finally and shut the bike off.
With both feet on the ground, I smiled at Sawyer and held out my hand for Ruthie.
Ruthie used it to step free of the bike, then immediately started running full tilt toward Sawyer.
Sawyer caught Ruthie, and both women went down to their knees as they wailed and cried.
“Looks like you did well,” Kettle surmised.
“Looks like you are going to get some good hea…” I gave Kettle a glare that could wither his balls to raisins.
Needless to say, he shut up.
I got off my bike and walked up to the two women, stopping beside them to look down at them.
Sawyer was babbling about how happy she was to see Ruthie.
“Ruthie,” Sawyer wailed. “I’m so glad you’re here! How’d you get out? I thought you had two more months!”
Ruthie clung tighter to Sawyer. “Your man is what happened. He worked some magic with the Warden. They were able to move up my release to today. And you should see how crazy that place is right now after he got rid of four guards. They had to go into lockdown for an hour because they were questioning every single guard there about their involvement. It made the five o’clock news!”
Sawyer’s eyes widened, then she turned her face up to my accusingly.
“What’d you do?” She hissed.
When I didn’t answer in enough time, she stood up and crowded in close to me.
“Tell me,” she growled.
I had to contain my smile.
She was like a little housecat with her ferociousness that bordered on suicidal.
It was refreshing to have someone stand up to me.
Normally, they backed off before they could get too close.
“It took some doing, but I started doing some research after hearing you cry about this in your sleep a few weeks ago. Then the night before last, when you were asleep in my arms, you spoke. I got two names out of that, and from there I was able to talk to your friend and get the rest,” I explained.
“Had you asked,” Sawyer hissed at me, poking me in the chest with one long finger. “I would’ve told you that I was never raped.”
I narrowed my eyes at her.
“So you weren’t raped…were you ever touched inappropriately? Was something done to you that you didn’t want to happen?” I asked carefully.
She snapped her mouth shut, moving her face from me to Ruthie.
“I handled it…we handled it,” she finally decided on.