“There are a hell of a lot more than one or two rotten apples in Little Rock,” she said in disgust.
“That’s not my concern right now,” I said, keeping my voice even. “Not that I have any plans to notify them of anything. I need to handle this on my own. If I involve anyone, it will likely be the state police and possibly Mason Deveraux.”
“So you did call him,” she said, satisfaction creeping into her tone.
“I did, but by the time he called me back, I already had the answers I was looking for.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing. And I hope to God you’re not placing your trust in the wrong people.”
“I’m going with my gut,” I said softly. “It’s worked for me in the past. I have to believe it will work for me now.” Especially since I was beginning to trust it again.
“If you need me for anything, let me know,” she said. “I’m guessing you called from a burner.”
“Yeah.”
“Tell me if you change your number again. I need to be able to get ahold of you.”
“Yeah. Okay.” James wouldn’t like it, but I suspected there were quite a few things I was getting ready to do that he wouldn’t like.
“Promise me one thing,” she said, her voice hard.
“What’s that?”
“When you’re ready to take down the LRPD, you’ll let me help you.”
I noticed she’d said when not if. And she was right. A month ago, I’d been ready to crawl under a rock and hide from what had happened. Not anymore. I was going to take down Keith and anyone else who was dirty, but I had to deal with this first.
But I knew this was personal to her too.
“When I decide to go after Keith and his fellow assholes, you’ll be the second to know.”
“Who’s the first?”
I let out a short, humorless laugh. “I don’t think you want me to answer that.”
She paused a beat. “I really hope you can trust him, Harper.”
“I have a small circle, and I trust that circle implicitly.”
“I hope I’m included in that circle.”
“That’s a given.”
“Then go get ‘em, Harper.” She hung up, and I wondered if I’d said too much or too little. Either way, I’d just dragged Louise closer to the fire.
Time would tell.
Chapter 3
I leaned against the car and studied the parking lot, trying to decide my next move. If my father was about to file a missing person’s report on me, I needed to get in front of it. The last thing I needed was the Lone County Sheriff’s Department putting me into their system as a missing person.
Which meant I needed to pull up my big girl pants and talk to my father.
A shot of whiskey sure would take the edge off.
The entrance to Walmart was only about fifty feet away. I could get a few of those little plastic bottles. What harm would one shot cause?
I shook my head, bitter disappointment flooding me. Would it be this hard to stay on top of my cravings for the rest of my life?
