Justice Healed

by Olivia Jaymes

  "Welcome back, Madison," Tanner said slowly. He seemed a little bemused.

  "Thank you. Now let's get this done so you can go home and rest."

  He barely flinched when she gave him a shot to numb the area and he sat perfectly still as she stitched up his forehead. He was going to have a scar there, but to quote her father when he stitched up young boys after a skateboard accident or a dirt bike spill, "Chicks dig scars."

  She printed out the instructions for caring for his wound and he folded it up and shoved it in his pocket where she was sure it would remain. Unread. She picked up her prescription pad, her pen scrawling on the paper.

  "I'll write you a prescription for the pain, Sheriff."

  "No, thank you." His eyebrows were pulled down.

  Her pen stopped. Was this some macho thing? He was being foolish. When that local wore off, he was going to have a whopper of a headache.

  "You can take ibuprofen, but you'd sleep better with some pain medication."

  "No." His voice was flat but firm. She ripped the prescription off and held it out to him.

  "Just in case."

  He shook his head. "No, thank you, Doc. I won't be taking it."

  Silence seemed to stretch between them until the deputy, who had been quiet the entire time, cleared his throat. She jumped at the sound but simply turned and held out the prescription to him.

  "Will you take it for him?"

  The deputy shook his head. "He's the boss. If he says no, then it's no. What do we owe you?"

  Madison placed the paper back on the desk. Stubborn men. She had an IQ of 140, but she knew little about the opposite sex. She'd learned plenty in medical school about the male anatomy, but the male mind remained a mystery.

  "I'll send you a bill. Does my father have your insurance on file?"

  Tanner nodded. "Thank you for seeing me so late. It saved us a drive into the next town."

  "Any time." She led them back through the tiny waiting room and to the back door. "If you have any problems, please call me. Day or night. I'm used to interrupted sleep."

  Tanner gave her a lopsided smile. "Me, too. Thanks again."

  The deputy tipped his hat and they walked out into the night. She heard an engine fire up and drive away. She shut and locked the door behind her, heading into the kitchen where Sherry was munching on the bowl of popcorn with a Cheshire cat smile.

  "What are you grinning about?"

  "Is Sheriff Marks going to be okay?"

  Madison shrugged. "He only needed a few stitches. He'll be fine."

  "Good." Sherry waggled her eyebrows. "I'd hate for him to be out of commission. He's become central to my plan."

  Madison felt that foreboding again. The kind she always felt when Sherry was planning something that was going to get them detention at school.

  "Plan?"

  "You know, I'm going to find you a man."

  "I thought we agreed to forget about that." She might as well save her breath. When Sherry decided on a course of action, heaven help them all.

  "I never agreed."

  Madison sat down heavily in a chair. "What does Tanner Marks have to do with your plan, I ask with stone cold fear in my heart?"

  Sherry grinned. "There's your husband."

  Chapter Two

  "Go home to Stacey and Annie, son."

  Tanner opened the cell door and looked down at Chris, sitting on the mattress, his body language defiant. He was full of hate and rage and Tanner didn't know what to do about it. While he was drinking, Tanner had been a happy drunk, the life of the party. He'd never missed a day of work or let his alcoholism affect his day to day responsibilities. Chris was a sullen, angry drunk who blamed everyone else around him for his own decisions, wandering from job to job and borrowing money from his mother.

  Did I fail him this much?

  Chris stood and walked past Tanner without a word. He wasn't done with Chris quite yet. Tanner caught Chris's arm, but his son didn't turn around, only pulled his arm from Tanner's grasp. That was fine. He could hear what his father had to say from a foot away.

  "This needs to stop. Annie's getting older and she's going to see what you do. Do you want that?" Tanner might as well have saved his breath. He already knew Chris's answer. "Come with me tomorrow night to my meeting. Just once. Please, Chris. Not for me or your mother, or even for Annie. Do it for yourself. You can't be happy like this."

  Tanner had lost count of the times he'd begged Chris to attend an AA meeting. It appeared this time wouldn't be any more successful than the last. Chris walked away without a backwards glance.

  Tanner stood there, his heart twisting in his chest, and watched his only son reject him yet again. With a sigh, he checked his watch. He needed to get on the road. He had a meeting at ten o'clock and it was an hour away.

  A drive that turned into an hour and a half due to snow covered roads. By the time he walked into the roadhouse, all the other area lawmen were there and, it appeared, waiting on him.

  "Shit, I'm sorry. The roads were bad. Hopefully they'll be plowed by the time we leave."

  Tanner was part of a group of six lawmen who met once a month to discuss what was going on in crime and law enforcement. It had started as just an idea, but it was now a powerful weapon in keeping the peace. They were able to share ideas, crime trends, and even help each other out when things got tough. Only a few months ago, they'd come together to help Seth Reilly protect a woman in witness protection. That woman was now Seth's wife.

  One look at Seth's face showed a happy, satisfied man. Tanner felt a twinge of envy. He'd give anything to be loved like that, but in all honesty, he wasn't sure he deserved it. He'd made so many mistakes in his life. Besides, he was content with what he had. The secret to happiness was to not want what you couldn't, or shouldn't have.

  Reed Mitchell waved off the apology. "We were all late. I just got here about five minutes ago. The roads aren't any better up our way. I didn't even know it was supposed to snow last night."

  Jared Monroe laughed and poured a cup of coffee, pushing it Tanner's way. "It's Montana in February. It's going to snow all the fucking time. That's why we all drive four-wheel drive SUVs."

  Tanner added a little sugar and wrapped his cold hands around the cup while Seth Reilly passed around an envelope of pictures from his wedding in Las Vegas. Tanner and the other men had been at the ceremony last month. Seth and his lovely bride, Presley, had been married by an Elvis impersonator with dozens of friends and family in attendance. Even the Marshal who had placed Presley into Seth's protection had been there.

  It had been a fun wedding but Tanner was a traditional guy. If he ever married again, he would want a traditional wedding. His first marriage had taken place with a justice of the peace and a fifty dollar gold band. The reception had been a barbecue in his in-laws' backyard.

  Logan Wright pounded his fist on the table like a gavel. "Can we stop acting like teenage girls at a sleepover and get this meeting started?"

  Griffin Sawyer chuckled. "All the marital bliss making you nervous, Logan? Think a preacher's going to magically appear and make you marry your latest lady?"

  All Logan’s women seemed to have two things in common. They were sexy and they were only out for a good time. Logan Wright had a reputation in half a dozen counties for being hot between the sheets and was a love 'em and leave 'em type. He attracted a certain kind of woman but few dared to think they could change him. To Logan's credit, he made sure he didn't spend time with women who had expectations.

  Logan refilled his coffee cup. "Doubt the lady I was with last night had marriage on her mind."

  Tanner sipped at his coffee and grimaced at the bitter liquid. He loved nothing more than a good cup of coffee and this sure as shit wasn't one. "Can we get started? We're already running late."

  Reed nodded. "I'll start. Tanner, are you seeing a rise in violence in your area? My town is the closest to yours and it's been bad lately. I think we might be in for a full-on drug territory w
ar."

  Tanner nodded. "I am. I think it's time we called in the DEA and get their take on this. My hands are full with trying to stop kids from getting hooked on meth. But the trafficking on our roads is getting worse. Much worse. With budget cuts, my request to hire two more deputies was turned down."

  Griffin scowled. "I had to lay off a deputy due to budgets cuts. Then they bitch about response time and crime rates. Shit, my men can only do so much."

  Reed nodded. "I had to cut two deputies back to part-time. I wasn't exactly flush with manpower before, but now? Fuck. We just don't have the resources to do the anti-drug education in the grade schools and check on the probation violators."

  "And now it looks like we have a drug war on our hands," Tanner said. "I had another John Doe turn up dead a few weeks ago. That makes four in the last six months."

  Tanner didn't mention out loud that the deaths lined up from when Fenton Jacks bought a small ranch and settled in the area. Tanner had his suspicions regarding Fenton, but so far he'd only mentioned it to Logan and Seth. It didn't help Tanner's ex-wife, Abby, was planning to marry the guy in the spring.

  "I've got some contacts in the DEA, an old Navy buddy. I'll give him a call," Reed offered.

  "Sounds good," Tanner agreed. "Has anyone had a visit from our vigilante?"

  Griffin raised his coffee cup with a grim smile. "I'm the lucky recipient this month."

  Jared shook his head. "Sorry, it's not an exclusive club. My town as well."

  Seth's eyebrows shot up. "Twice in one month? I thought we'd heard the last of him a few months back."

  "Maybe he took the holidays off," Logan said. He wasn't as against the vigilante as the rest of them were. He turned to Griffin. "Who did he get in your town?"

  "An accused child molester."

  "Looks like he did the world a favor." Logan's expression was hard.

  "He was accused. It wasn't proven. Shit, you are one tough bastard, Logan. Do you even care about the law?" Jared asked, his eyes narrowed. Jared was all about law and order.

  Logan leaned forward so he was out of his chair, and pressed his hands to the table. "I care so much about the law that I want decent folks to be able to live their life without fear of their kids being assaulted or their property being taken. I think young girls should be able to walk the streets at night unafraid and families should be able to leave their doors unlocked. I think people should be able to send cash in the fucking mail. That's how much I love the damn law."

  Tanner put his hand on Logan's shoulder, pressing him back into the chair. "We all feel the same, Logan. We're all balancing keeping the peace with protecting people's rights."

  He felt Logan relax so he turned to Jared. "Who did he get in your town?"

  Jared gave Logan a hard look. "An alleged drug dealer. But I had my doubts about the man's guilt."

  Reed reached for the coffee pot. "But you arrested him?"

  "I brought him in for questioning. But after talking to the guy, it just didn't feel right. I didn't arrest him due to lack of evidence and was going to keep my eye on him. He turned up with a bullet in his brain two days later."

  Tanner tapped the table with the coffee stir. "You know what bugs me about this? How does he know? Our towns are spread out in a three hundred mile or more radius. How does he fucking know? And what else has he done that we don't even know about?"

  Griffin's lips twisted. "I think we need to face the fact we may have people in our own towns who are feeding him information."

  "You're saying they know he's a vigilante?" Reed asked. "If so, that's a major weakness for him. The more people that know about a crime, the harder it is to keep the perpetrator a secret."

  Griffin shook his head. "I don't think they know or we would have more evidence. I think they're being duped into giving him information."

  The meeting droned on with each man giving his update. Tanner felt antsy today and wanted to get back to town. Normally, he loved hanging out with his cop buddies but now he simply wanted a meal and some decent coffee.

  When the meeting ended, Logan followed Tanner to his SUV. "What does the other guy look like?"

  Tanner chuckled, touching the bandage on his forehead. "Better than me. I broke up a fight in Patty's last night. Needed a couple of stitches."

  Logan grimaced. "Ouch."

  "It wasn't too bad." Tanner shrugged, remembering how gentle Madison Shay had been. Even the numbing shot hadn't hurt too badly. He'd been impressed with her calm, professional demeanor and amused at the SpongeBob T-shirt she'd been wearing.

  Without a bra.

  "Man, I hate doctors," Logan declared. "Of course, every time I see one they're trying to fix up something I've broken."

  "That might have something to do with it. You okay?"

  "Why wouldn't I be?" Logan leaned against the door of the truck.

  "We were giving you a pretty hard time in there."

  Logan grinned. He was a cocky son of a bitch, but one of the best friends Tanner had ever known. "I can take the heat. We seem to have a basic disagreement, that's all. If I have a chance to get the vigilante, don't worry, I'll bring him in. I'm not condoning what he's done. But he makes it hard to hate him when he picks the victims he does. That's all I'm saying." Logan's smile fell. "You seemed in your own world in there. Still thinking about Abby's new man?"

  The thing about best friends was you couldn't fool them worth a damn. "Actually, I was thinking about Chris. It was his fight I broke up last night."

  Logan shook his head in sympathy. "You need some tough love for him, man. It's not your fault."

  "It is. They say alcoholism is hereditary. Besides, I spent half of his childhood drinking."

  "And the other half making up for it. You never did the stupid-ass shit he's doing, either. If it's your fault he's an alcoholic, who is to blame for you? Your dad? Your mom? Who's the lousy asshole you can blame?"

  Tanner's parents were church-going people who only drank on Saturday night. They might have imbibed a lot, but it was only one night of the week. "My parents don't have anything to do with this."

  "And Chris's issues don't have a damn thing to do with you. As long as you let him blame you, he gets to do whatever the fuck he wants."

  "Abby blames me."

  "Abby and Chris are two peas in a pod. They both blame everybody else for their piss-poor decisions. It sounds like this Fenton guy is another sign of Abby's bad judgment."

  Tanner sighed, tightening his collar around his neck. It was fucking cold out here. "According to her, her first bad decision was marrying me. Things went downhill from there. Luckily, we manage to be friendly most of the time now. She's a good person."

  Tanner wasn't sure why he was defending Abby. She was more than capable of defending herself. Perhaps it was because Abby's personality and behavior didn't reflect well on Tanner's judgment. He'd married and had two children with her after all.

  "As long as you don't need anything from Abby, she's great."

  Tanner exhaled, his breath turning to steam. "I just want Abby to be happy. If Fenton Jacks can do that, well, more power to him."

  "Have you checked him out?"

  "Not really." Tanner had been wrestling with this. He wanted to dive into Fenton Jacks's past and see what he found. If not for Abby's sake, then for his two children. But if he found something, Abby was going to hit the roof that he checked on her fiancé. It was a case of damned if he did, and damned if he didn't. Abby mad was something Tanner had learned to avoid like the plague when she controlled how often he could see his own damn kids. Now they were older and she didn't have the same power, but old habits died hard.

  "You waiting for a sign or something?" Logan asked. "If you don't do it, I will, for fuck's sake."

  Now there was an idea.

  Tanner smiled. "That's true. If you decided to check up on him, I couldn't stop you."

  Logan was grinning again. "Damn straight." He slapped Tanner on the back. "Looks like I have an assignment. Pure
ly because I want to do it, not because you want it done." Logan turned on his heel and headed to his truck.

  Tanner waved. "Let me know what you find."

  Logan climbed up in the cab of his truck. "You'll be the first person I call. Drive careful, man."

  Tanner hopped into his own SUV, firing up the engine and turning the heat on full blast. It had been a cold winter already and there was still more to go. He pulled out onto the road, glad to see the plows had been through while he'd been inside. He pointed the truck toward Springwood, his stomach rumbling with hunger. It looked like he would be making a stop somewhere for a late lunch.

  * * * *

  Madison shrugged off her heavy winter coat and slid into the booth. "Why are we here again? I thought we were going to head to the mall."

  Sherry sat across from her and handed Madison a menu. "The roads are too snowy to drive into the city. We can get some lunch and chat."

  Madison looked around the dimly lit sports bar. The walls were covered with over a dozen flat screen televisions, and most of the diners were men. Even the menu seemed to cater to the male appetite with several flavors of chicken wings and an entire page of artery clogging meals including chili cheese fries and a steak the size of a pot roast.

  "I'm going to need to check our cholesterol after this meal. It's not good to eat too much red meat or cheese."

  Sherry gave a long-suffering sigh. "You're eating unhealthy today. No lectures." Her finger wagged in Madison's face. "I mean it. I want to enjoy my meal of poison. Got it?"

  "Got it. What's the worst thing on the menu? We should get two of those."

  Sherry laughed. "One extra large order of chili cheese fries coming up. Then we'll move on to the entree. Oh, and don't forget dessert. They make a great chocolate cake here."