“Yeah,” Erin said, and walked forward to talk to him.
“Damn,” he said.
“Who’s that?” Pedro asked.
“A security professional.” They rushed forward when Jake backed out of his truck with his arms loaded with pizza boxes. Erin ended up leading the way, and by the time everyone entered there were dozens of people and at least twenty pizzas and as many wing boxes. Erin told everyone to help themselves, and they would get started as soon as everyone got themselves some food and drink.
CHAPTER 4
“Thank you all for coming,”Erin said several minutes after everyone started eating. “I know this meeting wasn’t planned, but we have a situation. Being a family, we rally around one of our own.” She saw everyone nod as they ate, and then turned to Jim, who nodded before he looked over at Myrna. At her nod, he stood.
“Most of you here know me, but if you don’t, I’m Sheriff Jim Faulkner.” He turned toward the couple in the back of the room, and pointed. “My cousin, our mothers are sisters, is Myrna Trenton. She, Myrna, called me earlier today to come to save her. When I got to her destination, she was with Pedro Alvarez.”
“Pedro is the new horse trainer for New Double,” Erin stood and spoke. “He is the one that found Myrna and her horse.”
“I’m going to ask Myrna to tell her story,” Erin continued, “As of right now, Myrna is under our protection, and this is the reason for this impromptu get together. We need to know what we’re going to be up against.” Erin looked around the room and nodded to Myrna. “When you’re ready.”
Myrna looked around at everyone staring at her, and just when she thought she would run from the building screaming, both Pedro and Jim reached over and gently laid their hands over hers. It helped, but what gave her the most courage was when Pedro leaned over, and whispered for her ears only, “You got this, and I’ve got you.”
She nodded, drew in a deep breath, and stood. With all eyes on her, she let out the breath and nodded. “As Jim said, I’m Myrna Trenton. I’m more embarrassed about my story because I’m in my fifties, and I got myself into this situation.” She shook her head, and ended up taking a sip of the coffee someone had put before her. Like a lifeline, she picked up the cup and cradled it to her chest as she began her tale, “I met Randy Godwin three years ago.”
“How do you spell his name?” someone called out and when Myrna looked around, he stood. “Jake Cogburn, I’m from Brotherhood Protectors and we…” he paused with a scowl, and almost everyone there called out, “Protect.”
“Yeah, that. Anyway, I run a protection agency. Iknow you will be well protected here, but what I also do is I can get information on people. I can go so far back that it will be before he even became a twinkle in his daddy’s eye.”
“Oh, okay. Randy, spelled normally, and his last name is G-O-D-W-I-N. We didn’t start dating right away. It was roughly a year after I first met him that we went out on our first date. I don’t know if he wore me down, or if I was just lonely.”
“No judgement here,” Pedro said in encouragement when she looked down at the floor.
“Oh, okay. Anyway, before I knew it, Randy was at my place all the time, then he lost his job, and he tried to move in with me, but I put my foot down on that. I wasn’t ready to take the relationship to that level. About a year into dating, he brother, Gus, arrived.” She looked directly at Jake. “Same last name. Anyway, I started noticing little things at first. My groceries that I had purchased a couple of days before would be gone, and I know I didn’t eat them. Again, Randy did not permanently live with me. I also never gave him a key to my home. I didn’t have one for his, and I never spent time at his place. Then I noticed money started coming up missing. It all happened whenever Randy was with Gus.” She sipped her coffee and started to walk about and ended up refilling her mug.
“I have a horse. Her name is Sally. I’ve had her for seven years. Because I don’t have any humanchildren, Sally was my baby. In the past, I’ve worked two jobs in order to pay for her feed, vet bills, and anything else she needed. I know I’m not making sense, but I’m telling you how much Sally means to me.”
“You don’t have to defend yourself about a horse to us,” Naomi said as she waved her hand around the room, and almost everyone nodded.
“Okay. After Randy lost his job, I never knew if Gus had a job, he, Randy again tried to move in with me, I refused. He’d see his brother more and more, and would show up at my home drunk. He expected me to drop everything and wait on him hand and foot. Again, I refused. I told him if he thought I would do that, and get nothing back, then we were done.” She sipped her coffee, walked around more, and shook her head. “I won’t get into the minute details, but he tried to control me. One of the ways was what I just mentioned, by demanding I wait on him, then he’d tell me I couldn’t spend so much time with Sally, he tried to convince me to sell her and give the proceeds of that sale to him, because in his mind, he deserved it more, because I spent more time with the horse than I did with him. I know, I know, it was fucked up logic, but that was Randy’s mindset at the time. When I absolutely refused and told him to leave, that was the first time he beat me. Not to put me in the hospital, but enough to make me stay inside for a few days.” She shook her head again, andlooked out at the crowd. “I broke up with him, but I didn’t stay inside the entire week for the bruises to heal. I went to the police and started a paper trail.” She was on the other side of the room and looked over at Jim.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call you, but I knew I had to do something. I didn’t press charges against Randy, but I wanted his abuse documented. The police officer I talked to, Detective Avery Mosher, suggested that I get cameras set up. I did that.” She sighed and sipped her coffee, still looking at Jim. “I knew you couldn’t do anything, because I didn’t live in your jurisdiction, so I took any and all advice from Detective Mosher.” She shook her head sadly. “Little did I know that blind faith in the law would come back and bite me in the ass later.”
“Where was this?” Jake called out.
“Lakewood, south of Denver. Still here in Colorado.”
“What happened next?” Jim asked gently. Everyone could see that his fists were clenched tightly and his knuckles were white.
“Randy didn’t come around for a few months after I reported him. I don’t know if the police talked to him or what, but it was fine by me that he ignored me, because in my mind, we had broken up. When he did finally come around again, he brought Gus with him. They were drunk, I suspect they were also high, but they started yelling and screaming that it was myduty as a female to wait on them hand and foot. I made sure everything was recorded, and I called Detective Mosher’s personal cell phone. She sent police, and though they were arrested, they were released once they’d slept off their drunk. I tried to get a restraining order, but…”
“But what?” one man called out as he stood. “I’m Jason Black, an attorney.”
“I was told I didn’t have enough history of his abuse. One beating, and one drunk and disorderly wasn’t enough to get the restraining order.” She jerked back when everyone in the entire room swore.
“What happened next?” Pedro asked gently.
“That arrest set up a pattern for the next few months. They showed up when they were drunk, and it was usually when they had lost at the track, whether it be horses, or dogs. Whenever they came, they demanded I give them money. Of course, I refused every time.” She turned to Jim. “All their visits are documented on that flash drive I gave you. Again, Officer Mosher said there wasn’t enough evidence to take it further.”
“Bullshit,” Jim said with feeling. “Did you press charges?”
“I tried, but I was told that they were just blowing off steam. I had stopped dating him all together by then. I changed the locks in my house, beefed up security on the barn, and did everything in my power to keep myself and Sally safe.” She set her mug downon the nearest table, and wrapped her arms around her middle. “One night, I had just come from the small barn I kept Sally in and was hit when I turned around. I never saw it coming. I remember the pain, the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital, three days later. They kept me for another three days. When I was released, I went home, and that’s when I found Sally missing. I looked at the security cameras and that’s when I saw Gus use an ax on my barn door, and stealing Sally.” She wiped a tear. “He beat her.”
