Full Circle (9 page)

"Am I walking funny?" Josie demanded over her shoulder as she walked across the yard to get to her vehicle.

Jack grinned from where he stood leaning against a porch post that was not too solid. "Only a little bit. You've got an extra hitch in that rump sway. Next time it will be worse."

"Why?" Josie demanded.

"Next time I see you, I might decide to fire up your ass, for all that sass you gave me when I was trying to be so nice to you," Jack teased with a cocky grin.

Josie grinned. "You'll have to catch me first."

"I've already caught you, Babe. It's too late for retreat, now."

Jack entered Riley's Tavern and took a stool at the bar. Riley brought over a beer without asking. Jack didn't drink a lot. He came in for the company and nursed a single beer the entire time he was there. He'd tried to drown his memories in liquor, but he had discovered that he couldn't destroy what was part of him. Now, he controlled what he put in his body the same way he managed and controlled everything else in his life.

He looked up at the television screens, checking out the sports, but nothing interested him. He didn't want to be in a bar. He wanted to be in Josie. Working around her full schedule between sheriff's duties and responsibilities to the boy, well, it interfered with his need to be with her. Right now, his need was not something he was controlling very well. Josie had responsibilities, and she took them seriously. Her job was a fact of life, and the town relied on her. Beyond that, she put Alex's needs first. She hadn't pulled any punches about that. She laid out the facts straight for him, and he had agreed to the terms. He respected what she did for the town, what she was trying to do for the boy. He liked the kid, but he liked Josie more. It was his problem, and he usually dealt with his problems better. His problem was he thought about Josie all the time—24/7 and he was walking around with a permanent hard-on.

Someone sat down on the barstool beside him, and he realized it was Buck Marshall.

The older man sat there for a while, and Jack could tell he was eyeing him, could tell something was on his mind.

"If you've got something to say, say it," Jack said gruffly.

"I do," the older man barked out. "I looked you up. Treat my kid decently, or I'll kick your ass."

Jack raised an eyebrow at the threat. "I looked you up, too. You dumped your kid damn near thirty years ago and let her fend for herself. Did you step back into her life now expecting a payout?"

"You bastard," Buck Marshall snarled out clenching his fists. "I didn't come here for that."

"What did you come for?" Jack asked.

"Because." Buck clamped his mouth shut and took a deep breath. "I didn't dump her. I didn't know where she was or even if she was still alive. I didn't know anything until about eighteen months ago, when she was caught up in a sting operation in Washington, D.C. It was big news, especially in the Tidewater region. I was stationed at Fort Belvoir, working at the Pentagon. The agency was playing coy, leaking tidbits of information each day. Someone got a photo, not a real good one, but still—it was her. Josie looks exactly like her mother. Later, someone released her name along with commendation details for an A. J. Raintree. It didn't take a genius to figure out the agency was trying to spin the details of the operation to the positive side. It struck a nerve since my ex-wife's maiden name was Raintree, and the details matched."

"How do you lose a daughter?" Jack asked skeptically.

Buck took a long swig of his beer. "By being stupid, by marrying for the wrong reasons and being too immature for marriage. I married Sue Ann, Josie's mother, when I was twenty-five, and she was a pregnant nineteen-year old. I'll admit that for twenty-five, I was pretty damn stupid. We lived in a little town in Arkansas where jobs were scarce and money even scarcer. I'd quit school at sixteen mostly because, in those days, I had a brain the size of a pea. I didn't have any schooling, or any skills to earn a living. I couldn't keep a job, not because I wasn't trying, but because I'd get one, and then get laid off. Last to hire, first to go. It got so bad that when a recruiter came around, the Army sounded like a square deal. I figured I'd be able to support my family and get some training. As it turned out though, Sue Ann didn't like living on military bases or moving around. I never understood it because the little scrap of a town we came from didn't offer much of anything to anyone.

"I was shipped out as part of the Army Delta Force's intervention in Grenada in 1983. Boy, I thought I was something special, but when I got back, Sue Ann was gone along with Josie. Josie was only three. I searched and searched for them, but never found a trace. You don't have to ask, because, yeah, I came to Rawlings looking for them. I knew Sue Ann come from here and only moved to Arkansas when her mother remarried. Rawlings was one of the first places I looked, and I returned several times over the years. Now I know Sue Ann dumped Josie off with her Uncle Mason Raintree a couple of years later and took off by herself. By that time, I was posted in Japan for a six-year stretch.

"I still don't know where they were in the years in-between. I came to Rawlings when Josie was ten and again when she was twelve, before I was sent to Greenland. I was stonewalled each time. I never got a glimpse of her, and the neighbors claimed they'd never seen a woman or a kid over at Mason Raintree's place."

Jack looked at the man who was only twelve years his senior. "Ever heard of the Missing Children networks?"

"Every single one of them," Buck Marshall said. "Research is a hell of a lot easier now with the Internet and social networks. There weren't that many agencies helping to find missing children back in the early 1980s, but I registered Josie with every one of them. Her picture was on milk cartons and posters at Wal-Mart. There was never a single hit. Agencies weren't cross-connected then, and smaller rural law-enforcement agencies weren't connected at all."

"Have you told her all this?" Jack asked.

"I've tried, but she won't talk to me or even listen to me," Buck admitted. "Part of me doesn't blame her. Sue Ann didn't do Josie any great favor by dumping her with Mason Raintree. Apparently, he was a drunk."

"He was," Jack agreed. "I don't think he was physically abusive, but he was certainly neglectful. She pretty much raised herself. I never gave it a thought when I was younger, but now I wonder why she wasn't removed and placed in a foster home."

"She blames me for it," Buck Marshall said bluntly.

Jack grunted. "If I know Josie, she doesn't sugarcoat that her mother dumped her, either."

"No, she doesn't," Buck agreed. "However, Sue Ann is dead, and I'm still alive. That makes me a convenient target for all her anger. I couldn't find her, but believe me I searched for years. I still want another chance with my daughter."

"That's Josie's business, not mine," Jack said. "From her perspective, she's managed almost thirty years without you. I guess she figures she doesn't need a father at this point."

"What about you?" Buck asked. "From what I figure, you've been gone from her life for twenty years."

"I'm not her father," Jack said bluntly. "I never tried to be a substitute for one. Don't look for me to smooth your way back into her life. I have my own problems trying to keep my foot in that door."

"Ready?" Jack asked.

"Ready," Josie agreed.

"One, two, three," Jack counted. They both grasped the massive marble fireplace surround and mantle, heaving upward and straining their muscles. Jack got his end on the wheeled dolly, quickly moved to Josie's end and heaved the massive weight up an additional six inches to stabilize it.

There was a low rumble and a thunk as a brick hit the old fireplace hearth and crumbled. A plume of black soot exploded into the room.

"Out," Jack ordered. He grabbed Josie by the waist and nearly dragged her out the front door. There was a continuous loud rumble and the house vibrated, as an avalanche of old bricks tumbled down the chimney, and an explosion of black soot followed them out of the house as they ran into the yard.

They were dressed for construction, wearing overalls, thick leather gloves, safety goggles and steel-toed boots. Josie pulled off her helmet and safety glasses as did Jack, while they watched the black soot continue to sift out through the open door and windows. They both turned as they heard a car drive up the lane.

"Crap," Josie muttered under her breath when she recognized the vehicle.

Jack gave her a mild look and a single raise of an eyebrow.

Mayor Aiden Roland got out of the car along with a tall man who looked to be in his mid-forties.

"Aiden," Josie said giving the mayor a nod.

"Josie," Aiden responded with a grin. "This is Charles Malone. He applied for the job of sheriff. Charles, this is our current sheriff, Josie Raintree."

"Acting and very temporary," Josie said. She stuck out her hand, but quickly withdrew it. "Sorry, I seem to be filthy at the moment."

Charles Malone looked over Josie and the man standing beside her who both resembled coal miners or chimney sweeps. "You've been cleaning out the chimney?"

"No," Jack said, introducing himself. "Jack Rawlings. We were removing a marble mantle and surround. The chimney collapsed."

"Is it safe for you to be in there?" Aiden demanded.

"The structure isn't that unstable, although apparently the fireplace was," Josie answered. "Good thing we're almost done salvaging what we can. It has been a treasure trove of architectural features. I've already laid claim to a bunch of millwork, stained glass windows, and library units."

"Sheriff Raintree has only been working part-time for the last couple of weeks," Aiden informed Charles Malone. "Josie, may I speak to you in private for a minute."

Josie followed the mayor off to the side of the yard looking back over her shoulder, as Jack engaged Mr. Malone in conversation.

"Are his credentials good?" she asked him.

"As good as we've seen so far, only he's not available until late August," Aiden complained. "I need you to stay on for a couple more months."

"That's a deal-breaker," Josie said firmly. "Alex is out of school at the end of this month and I need to be there for him."

"Damn it, Josie, why can't you give an inch!" Aiden exclaimed.

"Me? I accepted this job as a temporary three-month stint—eleven months ago," Josie reminded him. "I'm not the one who didn't keep a promise. Get someone to take my position at the end of the month, or you'll be without a Sheriff. I've already warned you that the state inspection is due soon. I didn't hire on for that kind of aggravation, and I'm not doing it. If Mr. Malone wants the job that badly, he'll rearrange his timetable. You have until the end of May to meet my deadline because I'm turning in my badge."

"I'll try," the mayor grumbled.

"Not try, Aiden. Do," Josie said firmly.

They watched the car leave and went as far as the front door threshold to survey the damage inside. The front room fireplace and a good portion of the wall had collapsed into a heap of old brick, dislodged mortar, plaster and lathe.

Jack cleared a path and rolled the dolly with the marble fireplace mantle out to the front porch, down the ramp, and across the plywood laid across the lawn to the large shed. He left it on a dolly and returned to the house. Josie was on a ladder removing the stairway railings.

"Come down from there," Jack ordered. "I don't want you working in here anymore." He glanced over at the fireplace implosion. "This place has become too unstable for you to be in here."

Josie looked down from her perch on the ladder. "We're almost done. We only have the stairwells, a few doors, and the windows left."

"I know what's left to do," Jack said irritably. "I said come down."

"Jack, if you're going to continue dismantling this place, the two of us working together will get the job done that much faster. We're only two or three days from being finished."

"I'll finish the rest," Jack said, getting a good grip on her arm, propelling her out and giving a swat to her backside for good measure. "I can take the risk; you can't."

"Hey!" Josie did not get to finish her protest of Jack's manhandling of her backside, because his cell phone rang. He took the call and from his expression—it was bad news. He replaced the phone in his pocket.

"I've got to head out and go to Tulsa for a few days," Jack said, looking distracted. "Can you lock the doors, and promise not to go back in there? Call Jimmy and have him send a crew over to board up the place again."

Josie nodded and watched as Jack sprinted to his Jeep and drove down the gravel driveway. Whatever had happened, he was totally preoccupied with it. He hadn't even kissed her goodbye.

With all the work they had been doing over the last couple of weeks, his house had become increasingly unstable. So much so, that Jack had moved the box spring, and mattress out to the steel shed where they had used it almost daily. He was always willing to stop working and switch his attentions to her for a few minutes or a few hours. She would not allow him to sleep over at her house because of Alex, but Jack came over in the evenings to visit and sometimes they could sneak in a little private time.