Bounty (Walk the Right Road) (17 page)

“Probably some you don’t want to see,” Zac said as he stood behind her chair, his arms crossed, watching her.

“Probably not, but I’ve seen worse. Did any of you ever ask yourself why she was dressed like that? Could be a dozen reasons, none of them having anything to do with her being from a polygamist family. Jumping to that conclusion…” Her face paled, and she seemed to freeze as she stared at something on Zac’s phone.

“What is it, Dorothy?” Ray slid forward and stepped over beside his wife. She held up the phone for him to see what she was looking at. Zac didn’t seemed bothered at all, as if he had wanted her to see that image.

“Keep sweet?” It was Ray who muttered the words.

Sam glanced at Diane, and she understood why. Zac had really crossed a line; that was the one piece of evidence they weren’t releasing to anyone.

“I think you want to be looking across the border, a small community, a town named Bounty.” Dorothy handed the phone back to Zac. “It’s where I’d start. I’d also ask myself, if I were you, how she ended up way out your way. Now, if that’s all, I have an early morning and need to get ready for bed.” She took in Diane and Sam with light green eyes, but the expression she wore was all business. She was a strong-minded woman, and Diane wondered, if she hadn’t already judged this woman for who she was, whether they couldn’t be friends. She really liked Dorothy, who was similar to her in some ways but so different in others.

“There’re two sects up there. One has broken away from the FLDS, but the other is still very much a closed community, secretive. I’d start there,” Dorothy offered and then stood up. They all took the hint. This strong woman was so much in charge. All the women in this family were a force.

Ray stood up as well and slung his arm around Dorothy’s shoulder, hugging her. “You should get ready for bed—you have to be up early. I’ll walk them out.” He kissed her on the cheek and then extended his hand to Zac, Diane, and Sam, showing them the door.

“Thank you, Dorothy. I appreciate your help and your cooperation. You’ve been very helpful,” Zac said as he gestured to Diane and Sam. He was handling this very well, better than Diane was, apparently.

Ray led them to the door. Dorothy gazed at Diane as she stepped past her, and from the look Dorothy gave her, Diane almost wondered whether the woman knew about her and where she’d come from.

At the door, Ray stepped outside with them and closed it behind him, glancing back, maybe to makes sure no one was listening. “Listen, whatever you may think of us, don’t judge us, and don’t link us to that. We aren’t that. We chose this. I chose this, my wives chose this. Our children are raised to make up their own minds, and we’ll support them in whatever lives they want to have after they’ve gone to school, gotten an education. I hope you find out where she came from, but don’t come back, and don’t mention to anyone that you talked to us.” He crossed his arms and held them tightly to his chest. He was an average man, wouldn’t stand out in a crowd, but very appealing the more Diane was around him.

She found herself stepping back and onto Zac’s toes. He gripped her waist and pulled her against him, extending his other hand to shake Ray’s. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Ray, and your family,” Zac said, and Diane didn’t miss the way his other hand tightened around her waist. Ray noticed and glanced at Diane, then Zac, but she couldn’t figure out what was hidden in his expression.

Sam, too, extended his hand. “Ray, it’s a difficult case. We won’t say a word. We knew, coming in…well, let’s just say you helped a lot. Take care of your family.”

Zac turned Diane away before she could say one word and helped her into the passenger seat. His hand lingering on her arm, he offered a gentle squeeze before shutting the door. Sam climbed in the backseat, and Zac started the engine and pulled out, driving down the dark road to the highway. It was only then that Sam broke the silence.

“I didn’t expect that.” He let out a deep sigh.

“A nice young family that resembles any other suburban family, except you have three women with the same man, living under the same roof, sharing his bed, and they all seem to care about each other. Wonder if the judge she works for knows?” Zac muttered.

“What happened to those women that they’d choose this life?” Diane said. “I don’t get it. But I stopped trying to figure people out long ago.”

“Should we call Child Services, make sure the kids are okay?” Sam said.

Diane couldn’t help herself when she slid around and stared in the dark at him. “Why would you even consider that?”

“Just to make sure. Do we ever take the word of the parents? They said they give the kids a choice, but how do we know? How do we know those kids are getting proper healthcare, an education? Come on, Diane, I thought you’d be the first one banging down the door to put a stop to what they’re doing.”

Sam didn’t get it, but then, she wondered if even she did. She stared out the windshield, and it was Zac who said, “Leave it alone, Sam. They didn’t have to talk to us. The deputy knows them, tried to hide them, too. Guarantee the chief is probably friends with them. This isn’t some random family on the county’s radar. If you didn’t notice all the kids yesterday when we showed up, creating a mess with all the yard waste, running, jumping, playing, having fun… Those aren’t kids living in fear. They’re happy kids. Let’s not start causing trouble for those folks. You may not agree with their choices, Sam, but who’s to say it’s wrong?”

Even Diane had to slide around in her seat and take a second look at Zac. “Seriously, Zac?”

“Diane, I’m not condoning it, but I’m not condemning them, either.” He glanced over at her. “It’s not my place. Just leave them alone. They don’t need someone starting trouble for them. They didn’t have to talk to us, and what you two may not have figured out is that they’ve helped us understand where we need to go next.”

“And where is that, exactly?” Sam asked from the backseat.

“Tomorrow, we’re heading up to Bounty,” Zac said.

No one said a word after that, and Diane, for the first time in years, was paralyzed as an icy, excruciating ache raced through her and threatened to choke off her next breath.

They’d just pulled in to the motel when the short, balding clerk who’d checked them in wandered from around the back, keys jangling in his hand. He waved as they climbed out of the SUV. “Howdy, folks.”

“Any messages?” Sam asked as the man unlocked the front door.

He hesitated for a second as if thinking and then shook his head. “No, sorry. Hey, how’d it go today?” He flicked on the light, holding the door open with his foot. His polyester pants, short-sleeved shirt, and brown tie looked even tackier in the light. Dated, thick glasses that looked as if they needed a good cleaning kept sliding down his nose.

“Fine,” Zac said. “We’ll be checking out in the morning.” He slid his hand over Diane’s lower back, turning her toward her room.

“Oh, okay. It was nice having you. Heard you went to see the Quinns? Nice family.” He smiled, showing off his crooked teeth.

Zac stopped Diane by gripping her waist when she turned with every intention of stalking over, grabbing the man’s shirtfront, and shaking the jerk for having lied earlier. Or maybe she would track down Wally or the chief and give them a piece of her mind, instead.

“Leave it alone,” Zac said as if reading her mind and urged her to keep going.

She gazed up at his expression and stopped herself from saying,
Why don’t you go over and kick his ass?
She realized he was holding back his annoyance, and if he went over there, he’d most likely grab the clerk and shove him against the wall. Maybe he remembered, too, how upset she’d been when he caved in and fought Sam on the side of the road. He urged her forward, and she realized he was prepared to toss her over his shoulder and carry her if she didn’t move, so she started up the concrete steps, Zac right beside her. She didn’t know what made her stop and look, but Sam was still standing at the bottom, holding the rail, glancing over his shoulder as if thinking and not really seeing all the cars that filled the parking lot.

She touched Zac’s arm. “Sam, you coming?” she asked.

He glanced up at her as if pulled from his thoughts and then ran his hand awkwardly up the back of his neck. “I need to make a call, if you don’t mind. I’ll come up when I’m done.” Sam didn’t wait for them to say anything, as he walked away and around the corner to the room he shared with Zac.

“What’s that about?” Zac asked.

“I don’t know. I’m hoping he’s going to call Marcie.” Diane pulled her key from her pocket and shoved it into the lock. She opened her door and flicked on the light. The maid had been in the room, as it was neat and tidy, the bed made. Even the clothes she’d left lying in a heap had been neatly folded and stacked.

The door clicked closed, and she watched Zac as he leaned with his hand pressed against the door, obviously thinking some pretty dark thoughts, by the expression on his face. Diane tossed the key on the end table, slid off her jean jacket, and unclipped her sidearm from her belt and set it on the nightstand.

“Hungry?” she asked him as she sat on her bed and went to lean back, but his dark eyes lingered on her in a way that made an awkward feeling rise inside her. She slid her legs back over the edge of the bed.

He shook his head as he stepped toward her slowly, watching her in a way that was all wolf, and she swallowed. The man was so large, and she could feel every part of him before he even touched her.

“Are you scared of me?” he asked, stopping right in front of her.

She had trouble swallowing and then wanted to kick herself as she started thinking what an idiot she was being. But she couldn’t help the way he made her feel. One minute her heart would be racing, and she couldn’t breathe, and the stupidest things would leap from her mouth. She needed to be irritated with him, furious, because that helped her focus, and she really enjoyed the sparring that sizzled between them. But, as he stood right in front of her, another step closer to her space, she was having trouble making sense of what he wanted and why he was asking.

“No,” she choked out, her voice raspy.

He sat beside her, and the bed dipped as his leg touched hers. Her hands were now sweating, and he reached over and took hers in his, turning it over and staring at it. She wondered what he saw: her small, plain hand, clipped nails. Her hands were serviceable, uncluttered, nothing pretty.

“We should talk about tomorrow, driving into your hometown to see your family.”

Diane yanked her hand away and ran it up the back of her neck, ruffling her hair. She stood up and then paced, because she hadn’t allowed her thoughts to go there, not once, not yet. “That’s not my family. Jack was my family.”

Zac was right behind her, his large hands around her shoulders, kneading, pressing into her tight muscles, massaging. “Diane, you have to think about it. We have to talk about it.”

“Why now? Do we have to talk about it now?” she snapped and tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her, as he continued to press into the muscle stretching across the back of her neck, determined to work away everything she was holding on to.

“I don’t want you walking in there and falling apart. If you see your family, your father…well, we need to talk about what could happen. The last thing I want to worry about is whether you’ll pull your gun, jam it in your dad’s face, and do something really stupid.”

“What the hell do you take me for?” she snapped, trying to turn around, but he held tight, digging into an especially tight knot, and she leaned her head back and groaned. “I’m a good cop, and I know how to distance myself, stay professional. If I recall, it wasn’t me who was pounding the crap out of Sam, rolling around the side of the highway, landing us on the wrong side of the chief here to begin with. I kept my cool.”

“Diane, knock it off. I know what you’re doing, and it won’t work.”

This time, she managed to step away and turned to face him. Zac allowed his hands to fall to his side before letting out a frustrated sigh and stepping into her space again, setting his hands on her shoulders.

“I’m not doing anything, Zac.”

“Bullshit. You’re trying to push me away, make me angry, turn the tables and stir things up so you don’t have to think about what we’re walking into. This has got to hurt you badly. Anyone else would be going out of their mind, worried about facing their past.”

“I’m not. I’ll be fine,” she snapped and crossed her arms over her chest as he stepped closer again, sliding his hands around her shoulders, pinning her in.

“No, you’re not fine. You’re coping. You’re getting through, but this is pushing every one of your buttons. Even with the Quinns, you struggled. I could see it, how you were with the wives, with him.” He slid his hands up to her cheeks and ran his thumb over them in a loving caress. “Sam and I can go without you, do this for you. You stay here or check in to a room at a local motel and wait for us while we go talk to your family.”

For a second, she considered how much easier that would be and almost breathed a sigh of relief. “No. I can’t let you do that.”

He didn’t say a word, just watched her with an expression she couldn’t make out.

“I have to go,” she said. “This is my case, and how would it look if I was passing off this investigation to you and Sam to handle? Questions would be asked by Green, and the other cops would never let me live it down. They’d say it was too much, sending a woman in to do something that only a man could handle. Even the DA and Casey would be wondering, too. Do you have any idea how hard I have to work to be a cop? Everyone would know, including my entire OPNET team, that I had personal issues with this case. You know this, Zac.”