***Note*** This story is part of my Trouble Texas Style series that includes Night Walker's Woman (complete), Tight Fittin' Jeans, One Night Stand, and Goodbye Earl. These are interwoven stories and are being posted sequentially. It will make more sense when reading in conjunction with those.
***TRIGGER WARNING*** This story and Goodbye Earl, especially, deal with controversial topics, including racism/prejudice, the aftermath of rape, and human trafficking. While the language and situations are strong, it is my hope that they will incite self-reflection, civil discourse, and ultimately change at the personal level.
But as with any sensitive topic, please do not read if such things bother or trigger you. If you or someone you care about are a rape survivor, please seek support.
***
Will sat astride the Duchess, his true love, a Ducati Scrambler 1100. He was not sure what Sherriff Earl Kerr was doing at the Sebida County Library. The man did not seem the book worm type — more a cold-blooded killer and crook.
The man had been on the agency's radar since right after he retired from the military. If the hinky way that the former sheriff was shot on a hunting trip were not red flag enough, nor the surprise win of his former deputy, then the accusations of murder when a small-time drug dealer's car blew up would have been. And the man definitely raised suspicions when the local District Attorney who was prosecuting the case was forced to resign due to DUI charges.
But shit, as much as this man seemed to wallow in it, just would not stick to him. Even when Austin appointed a special prosecutor to the case, and moved it out of Sebida, Kerr had been acquitted of all the charges, except a misdemeanor. It seemed that witnesses would not show up to testify or changed their testimony of the stand. And with double jeopardy attached, the state had dropped the investigation.
That did not mean the man was innocent. The feds were confident that the Torreon cartel was running their drugs through the town. It was the other allegations, though, that brought Will to Sebida County. It seemed that while drugs might be moving north, east, and west out of the small town, people might be heading south — human trafficking.
That one anonymous tip in Bebe's file said that dozens of women and girls had disappeared from Houston, Dallas, and Austin over the past few years. And that most of them stopped in Sebida before being shipped south of the border. Prostitution, slavery, and worse. But as with the drugs and murder, Kerr seemed always to be just one step ahead of them.
Of course, that was because there was a leak in the agency. Will was pretty sure he knew who it was too. Or at least one of them. One look at Earl Kerr and he knew that the man was guilty of everything he was accused of - and more.
The discerning of spirits, his grandmother Etta Mae called it. One of the gifts of the holy spirit. If you bought such bullshit. But even before the spray of bullets that left his Grandfather Walt bleeding out on the altar of his church, Will had his doubts. That Saturday, what little faith he had left was killed on that altar with his grandfather.
But whatever it was, Will had given up looking for any logical or scientific explanation for how he just 'knew' what was inside the hearts and minds of others. Whatever you called it, there was no doubt that it had been the edge in his law enforcement career that had not only kept him alive through some tough situations but helped him to rise through the ranks of first HPD and then the agency. Being able to know which informants you could and could not trust had made all the difference.
It was also why he had done what he had. He had seen into that young girl's heart. Hell, in Callie's case, it almost went deeper. It was as if he could see into her future, or perhaps recognize in her untapped gifts that made her a kindred spirit?
But what had sealed the deal was that for the first time in the two and a half months that he had been guarding the McBrides, he saw some small, infinitesimal, shred of decency in Gerald McBride. Will knew that the man was telling the truth. This was not some attempt to escape justice. No, the man genuinely wanted to make sure that his wife and daughter did not fall prey to the same Fate that his son had.
After all the injustice he had seen, grandfather, Bebe, and finally his grandmother's death, how could Will deny McBride perhaps his one chance to make something right? He could not. And if it took his life's blood to protect Callie as he had not been able to Bebe, then it was worth it.
But none of that answered the question of the hour, what the hell was Sherriff Kerr doing at the library? And why had the man parked his police cruiser around back? Why not park on the street and go to the front door? What was the man up to now?
Then she stepped out the back door, marked 'employees and delivery only,' and Will's whole world shifted beneath the wheels of his bike. All he could think was his grandfather's booming voice, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby, some have entertained angels unawares."
***
Sherriff Earl Kerr was the last person that Mercy wanted to meet in a dark alley, especially with forty grand in cash, a Smith & Wesson handgun, and burner phone in her bag. She had spent the past five years, since the man returned to Sebida, doing every damned thing she could to avoid him.
'Why now of all days?' She asked the rhetorical question of the universe. But she knew. Like Mama said, 'chickens had come home to roost.' But dammit, it wasn't gonna be just Reynolds's chickens if she had anything to say about it.
"Hey, Sherriff, what you doing here?" Mercy smiled and used that same down-home tone she had with Miss Mable.
The man leaned against the back passenger door of his police cruiser. His hand was already on the holster of his gun. The strap was undone too. Mercy was glad that she had not fastened that pocket on the backpack.
"Where you heading, Miss Mercy?" The man took two steps away from his car, and she shifted the pack closer to her chest. First of all, to block the man's view of her tits. But it also allowed her to slip her fingers into the pocket and take the safety off her gun.
Mercy had never shot a man. Though she always wondered if she could. Mama had taught all of her girls to use a gun by the time they were ten. She knew loads of people would condemn Mama for it. But Mercy, more than anyone else, understood why Mama did it. And if there was ever anyone that she was almost sure she could shoot, the 'good' Sherriff was that man.
But as much as that part of her called for revenge; she knew that would only complicate things. No, this was one time when talking needed to come before shooting. "I had to close the library early. A bit of a family emergency. I'm sure you heard that Laura had her baby last night?"
The man nodded but took a couple more strides until his boot rested on the bottom step. His hand had not left his sidearm, and though she kept smiling and did her best to appear relaxed, this man's mere presence disturbed her as nothing else could. But she swallowed the fear and hatred that went with almost twenty-eight years of memories and self-loathing.
"I'm just heading to the hospital. Seems that Laura's had a bit of trouble with too much bleeding. Mama's left the baby with Elena while Laura's husband ran over to Madison for a couple of things. She wants me to meet him over the county line and pick them up. So he can head straight to the hospital to meet them."
She knew she was talking too fast, but she hoped that Kerr thought that was concern for her sister's health and not fear of him. She would not give the man that satisfaction.
