Page 159 of Daddy’s Fortitude

Maybe they thought they would burn the house down so she would get the insurance, and then she could pay them. Wasn’t a bad plan. Perhaps she should have thought of that herself. No, no, what was she thinking? She would never burn the house down for the insurance payout, that was illegal and dangerous.

But now she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to give up what she’d just found with Ammo. But she couldn’t tell him what was going on, could she?

Before she could figure it out, the doctor came in to check on her. He seemed pretty pleased with how she was improving, and told them both that she could leave tomorrow, provided everything looked okay overnight.

That was good. She didn’t like being in the hospital. However, what was she going to go home to? A burned pile of rubble?

“Hey, what’s going on? You look worried,” Ammo said.

“Just wondering about where I’m going to live.”

“Don’t worry about that,” he said, running his fingers through her hair gently. “You need to get some rest. I’m going to take care of everything.”

God, it would be all too easy just to let him do that, to let him take over, but there was more going on than he knew about, than she could tell him about.

However, she just nodded. She needed to think about this for a moment. They’d threatened to hurt Ammo if she told him the truth, but if she didn’t tell him, he could still get hurt.

Ammo was a tough guy, big. He could take care of himself. However, he was only one man against how many of them? She knew nothing about them, their numbers, their access to guns and weapons.

Fucking Charlie. He was the one who had gotten her mixed up in all of this. Why did she have to keep cleaning up his messes?

Before she could say anything, there was a knock on the door, and Sheriff Willoughby stepped inside.

Awesome.

He glanced over at Ammo with a sneer on his face. Behind him was another man that she’d never met before. He walked in and gave them both a nod and a smile.

“Hi, Ms. Charleston. My name is Special Agent Branson Start. I’m a part of the ASP Criminal Investigation Division. Is now a good time to talk?”

“Hi,” she said croakily. “Yes. Call me Aimee and this is Ammo.”

“We need to talk to you about your house,” the sheriff said. “Barry, the Fire Chief, said it was a suspicious looking fire and called the ASP. What did you do, hire someone to set it on fire for the insurance payout?”

Ammo stood suddenly, his chair crashing back onto the floor as he took a step toward the sheriff. “What did you just say to her?”

Sheriff Willoughby pointed at him. “Don’t you threaten me, boy. I’ll put you back in a jail cell.” He turned to Branson. “He was in jail recently, you know.”

“Under false charges,” Ammo said. “Because you listened to your niece’s lies and didn’t bother to gather any evidence or talk to the witnesses. My lawyer’s making a complaint about that, so I’d enjoy wearing that sheriff’s badge while you still have it.”

“That’s it! I’m throwing you back in jail and this time I have witnesses!”

Branson stepped quickly between Ammo and the sheriff. “Sheriff, I think it’s time you left.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do!”

“Actually I’m in charge of this investigation. I let you come along as a courtesy, but I’m starting to see that was the wrong thing to do. I’d like you to leave now.”

“This happened in my territory,” the sheriff said, his face turning red. “I should be in charge.”

“Well, you’re not. This investigation is under Arkansas State Police investigation and you need to leave. You just came in and threatened the victim, accusing her of lighting her own house on fire, in which she nearly died, without even asking any questions. That means I can’t rely on you to be objective.”

“He’s not the victim.” The sheriff pointed at Ammo.

“No, that’s why I said she. And I’m guessing he’s here as support for you, Aimee?” Branson asked.

“Yes,” Aimee said. “And at this point, it feels like the sheriff is harassing us. I would like him to leave.”

“As I said, you can leave now, Sheriff,” Branson said to him calmly.