The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch - Maisey Yates Page 0,81
road that heads up to the lake and the beaches. On the weekends especially people get silly, and they drink. The very worst part of my job is having to tell someone that their son or daughter isn’t coming home because they went out with friends, drank too many beers on the beach and hit a tree. So I’m pretty vigilant about monitoring all of that, especially in the summer.”
He looked at her, hard. She kept her eyes on the road, on the yellow center line, but she could still feel him. The intensity as he looked at her profile. “I never thought about that part of the job.”
She pulled her lips tight. “It’s not a fun part.”
“Who told you that your father was dead?”
Tension crept up her spine. “I was asleep,” she said, “when Chief Doering came to the door.”
West nodded slowly. “He’s your boss now, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” she said. “He is. My dad was his boss, his mentor. He loved him. He really did. I remember... I heard that someone was there, and I got out of bed. I saw that it was Chief Doering, and I knew him, so I started coming down the stairs so that I could say hi, even though I thought it was strange.” The whole scene was tilted and fuzzy in her memory, but some pieces of it were so sharp and clear it felt like she was living them now. She thought she might have seen it that way even then. That the reality of the moment had faded in and out. But she couldn’t be sure.
“He said they were all gone. We were all there at the house, because we were all staying together while our parents went on that trip. I just remember... Ryder made a sound that I’ve never heard another person make before. Short and guttural. Like he’d been shot. And then he looked over his shoulder and saw me. And everything in him went straight and rigid. And he never shed a tear, not in front of me. He never made another sound like that. He told me to come down the stairs. I don’t remember anything else.”
“Nothing?” he asked, his voice rough.
“No. It’s like I woke up two days later. But I don’t think I did. I think I was awake that couple of days. I just don’t remember them. It’s all right. I don’t really want to.”
“Does it bring it back? When you have to go and tell someone?”
“Yes,” she said. “And for a while I thought that it wasn’t really fair that I had to live that out over and over again. But gradually, I’ve realized that there was no one better to deliver news like that. Because I’ve had that visit. I’ve experienced loss like that. That unexpected, jarring kind. The kind you think happens to other people and never to you. And you know, I never get used to it, but I realize that whether or not I’m the one to deliver the news, tragedy will happen. And I can at least be for someone what Roger Doering was for me. What he was for us. He was stalwart, even though it hurt him. And I admire that. You know the streets of Gold Valley aren’t mean at all, but the roads are a bitch. Every year we lose way too many people. And that’s...just part of my job.”
“It’s a crime,” he said. “The way the world steals innocence from people who deserve to hang on to it for a little while longer.”
A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “I’m pretty sure you’re the one who stole my innocence.”
He chuckled, and he didn’t challenge her, but they both knew it wasn’t true. The world had taken it from her a whole lot sooner than he had. He had just taken her virginity.
“You don’t have time to see to a little bit of personal police business, do you?”
She frowned. “Personal police business? What does that mean?”
“In that it’s somewhat personal to me, as it’s kind of a favor,” he said. “But I do think that it would mean a lot if you would come and talk to those boys. I know that you believe in a sense of community. I think we have a similar opinion on it. The way that Carl Jacobson dealt with Emmett mattered. Because he treated him like a person who still meant something. Treated him with respect. And I know that kids like Emmett, kids