Dangerous Defiance Page 4

  “Go on.”

  “Hanson was an associate director at that point. He was promoted, jumped a few steps even, right after the Larimer case was closed. There were rumors, Ben told me, but no real evidence of anything, any bribery or cover-up. I wasn’t there at the time so I can’t say for sure, but Ben never forgot that.” She looked off for a moment. “He was a good guy. He was doing the right thing and he always put others before himself. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. He shouldn’t have died like that.”

  * * *

  Jackson listened to her, his every suspicion growing as he did. But along with that suspicion came a new reason to worry. If the FBI was involved in a cover-up, this would be bigger than even he had imagined.

  As for Ben’s story, well, he could relate to that. He hadn’t always been a small town sheriff. But now wasn’t the time for that and that wasn’t a time he liked to discuss anyway.

  “Did you talk to him at all once he got down here?”

  She shook her head and reached for her cell phone. She pushed some buttons and set it on the desk on speaker. “This was the last message I had from him: I’m on my way to the site now, Jess. I would have waited for you but there’s too much at stake. Give me a holler when that baby is born and don’t worry about me. Go take care of your family, kid. And remember, don’t talk to strangers.”

  Jackson took the phone, pushing the button to play it again. He watched her this time, watched her eyes redden.

  “He always called me kid and told me not to talk to strangers,” she said, turning away for a moment. “Silly old man.”

  He gave her that time and didn’t miss it when she reached to wipe her eyes.

  “That was a few hours before the dam collapsed,” she said once the message ended.

  “Well,” Jackson said, “he had only managed to meet with three residents before he was killed. Two of them were killed along with him, but Jensen’s wife was there during their meeting. She was at the store when it happened. I spoke with her but not at any length. She was too upset, as you can imagine. She took her kids and went to stay with her parents in Orlando the day after it happened.”

  “I was hoping to talk to the rest of them this week but I’d love to get back to the site, get some more photos. Have a closer look at the dam, if that’s possible.”

  “We can do that,” he began, but she cut him off.

  “Sheriff… Jackson, look, I know you mean well but I’m not sure you should be getting involved. I don’t feel right about it, I’d never be able to forgive myself if anything went wrong, if you were hurt… or worse.”

  This was a change.

  “Well, don’t worry about me. I’m a big boy. I can take care of myself.”

  She clearly did not believe him and her arrogance grated on him a little. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you what,” he said, leaning in close, setting his elbows on the desk. “The only thing you need to know is that if you’re going to be involved in this at all, and that’s a big if, it’s going to be at my side, assisting me. This is my town. These are my people,” he said.

  Her face was already turning red with anger. She too leaned forward. “Sheriff,” she began. “Just what kind of experience do you think you have that I will be assisting you in this investigation? I mean, I could always report you for spa… for what you just did to me.”

  He raised his eyebrows at that and sat back in his chair. When one side of his mouth went up into a smile he tried hard to control, she too sat back, fisting her hands, her face even more angry. It was, in a way, cute. She was small, her hands tiny, her face even prettier when she looked mad. But all of that only fueled his resolve. She was too emotional. She couldn’t be involved, not in any capacity other than to assist him far from the action.

  “What did I just do to you, Ms. Manning?” he asked, leaning his elbow on the arm of his chair, setting his chin in his hand.

  She narrowed her eyes and he could see her gritting her teeth even as her face turned a pale shade of pink. “You know what you did!” she said, standing, her hands balled up at her sides.

  “You mean when I spanked you earlier?” he asked. “Is that what you’re going to report to your superiors? Mine perhaps?”

  That pink of her face deepened now into a pretty dark rose. “Yes!”

  “And how will you explain your presence here to begin with? I mean, I know I’m just small town folk, but even to me, I am thinking that might cause some problems.”

  She didn’t break eye contact, the opposite instead. She tried to stare him down.

  “Sit down, Jess,” he said, his tone changing, his expression serious but not cruel.

  “No!”

  “Sit your butt down. Now. Unless it still hurts too much, that is.” Why had he thought she might be easy to convince?

  “It doesn’t hurt and…”

  “Sit!”

  “Fine.” She sat, or more plopped herself down on the chair. “Brute,” she muttered.

  “Thick-headed.”

  She only glared at him.

  “I will take you back up to the site to have a look around and we can go talk to some of the residents together tomorrow, after I’ve made some calls. After what happened, everyone is still a little shaken up. I’m sure you can understand that.”

  “We can do it today. We’re only wasting time by waiting.”

  “Any evidence that was at the dam has either been collected or swept away by the water. Talking to the people who lost their homes; that can wait. It has to, I’m not willing to upset them further and most definitely do not want to scare them.”

  She shook her head and once again stood, walking around the chair to pick up her crutch. “You are unbelievable.”

  “Where are you going?” he asked, rising when she went toward the door.

  “To my hotel. I’ve got some work to do, obviously.”

  “Jess, if you try to go around me, I will find out. If you try to do this on your own, I will spank you again.”

  She pulled the door open. “Is that your answer to everything? Spank if you don’t get your way? Is that how you do things in these backwards little hick towns?” she spat.

  “Be careful, you’re crossing a line.”

  “Or what? Wait, let me guess. You’ll spank me again.”

  “Ma’am?”

  Jackson had seen Bill come up the stairs but she hadn’t. Her expression was absolutely priceless in that moment, every inch of her turning bright red from her neck up to her hairline.

  “Excuse me,” she said, pushing around him.

  “Remember what I said, Jess,” he called out after her.

  She muttered something as she went and although he couldn’t hear it, he could imagine the choice words she was calling him. Jackson sat back down and pulled the file in front of him. She was stubborn. Well, he would just need to get her under control before she got herself into trouble. But he had always enjoyed a challenge.

  He stood and collected his keys. “I’ll be at the shelter for a while, Bill,” he told the deputy.

  Jackson had a feeling today’s spanking was only the beginning of a long series of spankings to come.

  * * *

  Jess fumed all the way back to her hotel. How dare he talk to her like that? How dare he try to keep her from this investigation? Who the hell did he think he was?

  The memory of her earlier chastisement made her blush red again and she knew she wouldn’t be reporting him to anyone. First of all, she would be too embarrassed to admit he had spanked her and second, to whom would she report it? She herself wasn’t exactly here on official business. Quite the opposite. And if anyone found out before she was able to break this case, she would lose her job at the very least. And he knew it.

  Well, she would just stick to her plan.

  Before going back to the hotel, she stopped at the local Starbucks, grateful to find one here at all. She ordered a Venti Americano, grabbed some packets of sugar and went back to h
er car. It only took her another few minutes before she pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and gathered her things. The stupid crutch slowed her down but she wouldn’t need it past tomorrow or the next day. At least she hoped not. She went inside and set her cup on the desk. She then retrieved her own file on the case and sat down. Before she opened it though, she picked up her cell phone and dialed a contact back at the office. Thankfully, voice mail picked up so she wouldn’t be expected to carry on a long conversation. She just left a brief message, calling in a favor, asking for background on one Jackson Montgomery, sheriff of New Hope, Georgia.

  She then got busy with her list of names and addresses, mapping out her route before she headed out to truly begin her investigation into Ben’s death and get to the bottom of the water contamination claims.

  Chapter Five

  Out of the eleven families on her list, three were out of town living with family indefinitely, six were not home and the three who were staying at the shelter wouldn’t talk to her. They had been polite enough, but given the fact she was an outsider along with what had just happened, they were simply unwilling.

  By the time she got back to her hotel room, Jess felt defeated. When the tip had come in, Ben had made a lot of calls. He had talked to a few of the residents before coming out here. He had established at least some connection. Problem was, she didn’t have the luxury of time. Not that Ben had, really, but maybe he had approached it differently.

  She slipped her key into the slot and pushed her hotel room door open, carrying with her the burger she had picked up from a fast food place. Once inside, she set the bag down and sat on the edge of the bed, thinking. Maybe she had gone about this all wrong. Maybe she should have waited for the sheriff.

  She stood, annoyed. Nope. She wasn’t going to do that. This might be his town and he might be thinking along the same lines as far as sabotage vs. dam failure, but he wanted to take things slowly. She didn’t have time for that.

  Jess booted up her laptop and sat down at the desk. She unwrapped her burger and ate a few fries as she logged into her e-mail, hoping at least for the information about Jackson’s background, but there wasn’t anything yet. She was about halfway through her sandwich when the knock came at her door. She looked at it, knowing exactly who stood on the other side. Really, it could only be him.

  He knocked again and she rose, one hand absently touching her bottom. She wondered if he knew what she had been up to. Actually, what would surprise her would be if he didn’t know.

  “Sheriff,” she said in greeting, pasting on a fake smile and standing in the doorway so he could not enter. “What a nice surprise,” she said, her tone flat. She wished he wasn’t so tall or that he wasn’t standing so close.

  He shook his head. “Woman, you are a pain in my neck.”

  She wanted to tell him he was a pain in her ass but it was too close to the truth.

  “We need to talk,” he said. “Inside. Now.”

  She moved to block him when he made to walk into her room and he paused.

  “Whatever you have to say to me, you can say it out here.” She wasn’t even sure why she was so angry with him but a part of her simply resisted.

  He grumbled something, then physically picked her up, walked into the hotel room and kicked the door shut behind him before setting her on the edge of the bed.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked, rising.

  One look from him and she sat back down before her mind even registered that she’d done it.

  “Have you got something to prove, Jess? Is that what this is about?”

  He was not about to lecture her. Uh-uh. She opened her mouth but he held up one finger, silencing her.

  “Did you really think no one would mention to me your visits today? Did you expect them to just open their doors and welcome you into their homes after what happened? Did you even consider for the tiniest second what these people have lost? What they’re mourning?”

  That last part stopped the dialog she had going in her mind: the preparation of her response to him before he had even finished.

  “Did you?” he asked.

  Ok, she was starting to feel like shit. “I…”

  “No, you didn’t. You are so caught up in your own stuff, in breaking this case, in making it up to Ben…”

  * * *

  That was it. Jackson watched as, the moment he said it, her whole posture changed. Her shoulders slumped and her expression went from cocky fool to plain old hurt. He wondered if she even knew it herself.

  He exhaled and sat down next to her, patting her knee gently.

  “Look, Jess, I don’t know what you’re thinking but what happened to Ben was not your fault. What happened that day was not your fault. It had nothing to do with you. I already told you I’d help you, you just have to let me.”

  He watched her as she struggled to get herself under control. Her face contorted, but what finally won out wasn’t the hurt he had just glimpsed. What he had felt for her in that moment vanished and was replaced with something else when she turned her face back to his, the cocky expression the same as what had been there when she had first opened her door.

  “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me and you didn’t know Ben. You think you know better than me. Why, because I’m young? Is that it?”

  She went to stand but he grabbed her wrist, pulling her back down. There was only one way this was going to go and his palm was already itching.

  “No, Jess, your age has nothing to do with this.”

  “What, did you tell those people not to talk to me? Is that it? You want to be the hero who solves the case?”

  That was enough. More than enough. He didn’t talk this time. Instead, he pulled her face down across his lap.

  “Hey!”

  It was easy to hold her while she struggled, gripping her wrists at her back from the start, one leg over the backs of hers.

  “You cannot do this again!” she yelled.

  “Watch me,” he said. She was wearing a skirt which he flipped up over her back to reveal a pair of lacy white boy shorts that displayed her pale, plump cheeks perfectly. She had a good ass for spanking. “Nice,” he said, taking hold of the top of the panties and pulling them tight into the split between her cheeks.

  “Ow!” she squealed.

  He struck her bottom hard, his big hand covering both cheeks. “It almost makes me think,” he said, spanking each cheek in turn without pause, watching her pale skin redden beneath his hand, “you were expecting a spanking.”

  “I was not!”

  “We’ll make it a good one this time,” he said. “Make sure the message hits home so you don’t find yourself over my lap again tomorrow.”

  “Let me go, you… you… ow… you big bully!”

  “Although I must admit, I don’t mind one bit,” he continued. And he didn’t. The rigidity of his cock was evidence of that.

  “I bet you don’t! Is this how you treat your girlfriend?” she yelled between gasps and struggles.

  “No girlfriend,” he said.

  “That’s a surprise!”

  He spanked without speaking and the only sound in the room was that of his hand on her bottom and her groans. Once her bottom was a bright pink, he moved to work on the tops of her thighs.

  “Jess,” he said, pausing, his hand resting on her bottom, his finger now tracing the lace tucked between her cheeks. “We just had this conversation yesterday,” he began, fingers taking hold of the waistband of her panties.

  She whimpered, surely knowing what was to come.

  “But I obviously didn’t get through to you then,” he said, slowly, very slowly, dragging her panties down to her knees, exposing her fully. “I’ll try to make this one more memorable,” he said, his eyes feasting on her luscious, round, red bottom. “And if we have to do it again, I’ll warn you now I won’t be using my hand.”

  “What?” she asked, turning a little. She had been completely still
while he had been taking down her panties.

  He met her eyes to find they had gone soft again, the expression on her face almost sweet, no hint of her earlier resistance on it. Maybe he was getting through to her because what he saw in this moment, hidden behind that cocky ‘I’ve got something to prove’ exterior, was her vulnerability.

  There wasn’t a hint of jest in his tone when he next spoke and as little as he enjoyed the idea of having to physically punish her to get through to her, he knew he had to and that he had to make it, as he had told her, memorable.

  “I said if we do this again, it won’t be with my hand.” He paused. “I’ll use my belt.”

  Her eyes traveled to the thick leather and she swallowed. Yep, she was catching on.

  He turned his attention back to her bottom but could see from the corner of his eye that she remained watching him. He swallowed, becoming fully aware of the intimacy of their position, of his power over her and of her surprising submission to that power. She had stopped struggling altogether and was simply waiting now. Waiting for him to spank her. He decided before beginning this next round to push her a little. See how she would react to him then.

  He released her wrists and legs.

  “Lay your torso on the bed and keep your feet on the floor,” he said.

  Something between them had changed; it was almost palpable.

  He helped shift her position and, without speaking, she did as he said after first tucking the strands of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear.

  “Keep your feet on the floor and your hands out of the way, Jess, understand?”

  She nodded and was otherwise silent as she waited. He looked at her lying over his lap, her panties down around her ankles, quiet, waiting to be spanked.

  “Push your bottom out,” he said, his voice sounding tight.

  She glanced back at him, her expression also different than it had been, her eyes darker, the pupils dilated. She faced forward after a moment and hollowed out her back to lift her bottom, offering herself for spanking.