Dark Destiny by Avelyn Paige

Delilah

After piecing togethereverything about Chad and Rhett’s sister, I have no other choice. The sheriff and I need to talk, whether he has time for me or not. I don’t hesitate a single second before I push through the heavy doors near the back of the administration area. His secretary’s eyes widen when she sees me.

“I need to speak with the sheriff,” I demand of the blonde woman sitting behind the desk outside his office.

She looks me up and down from underneath her lashes, her judgment clear as day. “He’s busy. I can leave him a message, if you’d like.”

“I’m tired of leaving him messages.”

Leaning over, I strain my neck and see him through his office window. His feet are propped up on his desk, a cup of coffee in his hand. “Doesn’t look too busy to me.” Sidestepping her desk, I make a beeline for his office. Avoiding my emails and calls, he’s left me with no other choice.

“You can’t go in there,” his secretary scolds, her high heels clicking like a typewriter as she chases after me. She reaches for my arm, but I shake her off and turn the knob, throwing open the door. The sheriff’s eyes grow wide.

“What’s the meaning of this?” he growls, his frown heavy as he slams his feet onto the floor and glares at his secretary, who skids to a stop behind me.

“I tried to stop her, Sheriff, but she just pushed her way in.”

“It’s fine, Dolores,” he sighs, his words and expression full of fake sincerity. “Miss Walker must have something to say if she thinks she can just burst into my office without an appointment.”

“Do you want me to stay, sir?” she asks sheepishly.

“No. Close the door on your way out.” She does as he tells her, and the second the door clicks shut, he turns his authoritative stare to me. “You’ve got to either be the stupidest or bravest woman I’ve met to pull a stunt like that.”

“You gave me no other choice.”

“I’m a busy man, Miss Walker. I can’t drop everything to help with a voluntary program when I have bigger fish to fry. It’s an election year, you know, and I have to make my obligatory appearances.” He’s a jail sheriff, not some big shot like wardens at the state prisons.

He crosses his arms over his chest. “Well, you’re here now, so out with it.”

I don’t allow his rudeness to deter me. “Chad Elscher. I want him out of my program.”

Uncrossing his arms, he shifts his body and leans his elbows on his desk in front of him. “Dare I ask why you’re issuing such a demand?”

I consider telling him everything. The connection between Rhett and Chad, and what I fear may happen, but that would only put a spotlight back on Rhett. He didn’t deserve to be punished for something he didn’t do… yet. And besides, this guy’s an asshole. I don’t want to tell him anything, other than I want this guy gone.

“Chad is a problem,” I blurt out. “He has been since my prison program. I was working with the warden there to remove him before he transferred out.”

“I’m going to need a little more information before I put a mark on someone’s record that is up for parole.”

Shit. Chad wasn’t lying about the possibility of getting out. It’s real. I can’t let that happen, either. He’ll only hurt someone else’s family, and I can’t let what happened to Reba happen to anyone else.

“Chad has an obsession with me, Sheriff. He finds ways to put himself near me, and it makes me uncomfortable.”

“As men like him should. These men are thieves, drunkards, and in some cases, murderers. Being uncomfortable is to be expected, especially considering that you’re a woman.”

“My gender has nothing to do with the way he makes me feel,” I fire back. “He’s a danger to the entire program.” Not only to me, but to Rhett as well.

“Miss Walker, I understand your plight, but I’ve received no other reports from any of our guards, even our female guards, that would corroborate on what you’re saying. His records from the prison show he’s a model citizen.”

“A model citizen? He’s a murderer—a killer. As for reports, the guard on duty had to order him to step away from me last week.”

“If that really did occur, the guard didn’t report it, nor did you. I can’t make decisions if there’s no report filed.” His answer is so matter-of-fact, it takes me a second to recover from how nonchalantly he’s taking my complaint. I’m not looking for attention, I’m looking for action. “Nothing you’ve told me gives me any cause to agree to what you’re asking, Miss Walker.”

“I’ve been trying to report it for weeks. You just didn’t make yourself available to me.”

“You didn’t try hard enough.”

I have plenty of evidence to the contrary, but revealing it means putting Rhett in the crosshairs. Could I do that to him?

He’s just as dangerous as anyone else here, but there’s something about him. A piece of him locked away inside himself. I’m not even sure he knew it was there until now. Seeing him with Penelope was the start of it. His gentleness with her and understanding, despite his smart-ass comments.

He loves her, just as he loved his sister.

Someone who has that much capacity to love deserves to get his second chance, even if that path leads him away from me. He deserves it. I can’t put him in that position. You don’t intentionally hurt someone you love.

Love. I love him. The realization hits me like a ton of bricks. This isn’t just about me anymore, it’s about him, about us. That’s what brought me here today. Not protecting myself or getting Chad out of this program, but protecting him from repeating history. To protect him from himself doing the only thing I know to do, which is putting myself on the line to find some way to prevent it.

“If you’re not going to remove him, then give me extra guards. It’ll make me feel safer knowing I have extra eyes in the room.”

“My jail is safe, Miss Walker.”

“Safe? An inmate was killed here recently in a yard fight. That’s not what I would call ‘safe.’”

“And how would you know about that?” he inquires, arching his brow. “That information is not public knowledge.”

“I just know, okay? Chad’s been given the opportunity to get close to me on a number of occasions because the guard assigned to the kennel would rather play on his phone than do his job. I want him out. Today.”

“The answer is no,” he answers flatly.

“To which request?”

“Both of them.”

“So it’s fine with you that I’m at risk, but not those who signed up for this line of work?” Keep trying. There has to be some kind of leeway. Common ground to make sure Rhett is never alone, or has the opportunity to do what he thinks he wants to do to Chad. He can’t have that. It’ll ruin everything.

“Did you not yourself sign up for this program, Miss Walker?”

“I did, but—”

“Does this jail and the taxpayers who support it not pay you for your services?”

“They do,” I admit.

“Being close to inmates should be a given.”

A given? Oh, hell no. He’s not going to victim blame me for putting myself into this situation when it’s his own guards who are too lax.

“Until you bring me credible evidence that Chad Elscher is a danger to you or those in the program, he stays with no extra guards.”

“So that’s it, then? You’re giving me an impossible choice. Pull my program and lose the funding that helps keep my rescue running, or put my life in danger because you won’t take how that man makes me feel into consideration because you have no documented evidence from your guards. I’ll be sure to remember that when something does happen.”

“It seems that I am.” He shifts in his seat and reaches for a pen. “Though I do have one remaining question for you.” He sits straighter in his chair with a smug expression on his face. Bringing his hands up, he laces his fingers together. “I’ve been given reports of special permissions being granted to you to work one-on-one with an inmate. A Mr. Rhett Darby, from my understanding. It seems to me that one-on-one work isn’t an opposition to you as long as it’s with certain persons, so why does Mr. Elscher pose a threat to you when you’re willingly putting yourself into that position by your own request?”

My heart stops. He knows about us. Oh, God. How is that possible? No one should know. I didn’t even know until today how I felt about him. Not until I decided that protecting his future meant more than having one of my own.

“Unlike the other animals, Mr. Darby’s needs special care,” I answer with a half-truth. “A part of my job is teaching the care of animals as a method for rehabilitation and therapy. It’s the entire point of my program.”

“And who are you rehabilitating exactly? The dog or the man?”

Rage boils under the surface the more he throws out veiled accusations of my involvement with Rhett. Should I have assigned Penelope to this program in normal cases? No, but the way she’s bonded with him tells me I made the right choice, despite everything else. Did I mean to fall for him? Absolutely not, but it happened, and I don’t regret it at all. Yet the sheriff knowing about it is a major problem. He’s going to make trouble for me no matter what answer I give him, and he knows it.

“If that will be all, Miss Walker, I do have more pressing matters to attend to today.”

“I won’t forget this,” I warn, my disappointment and anger seething inside of me. Coming to him was a mistake. Men like him, they don’t understand what it is to be uncomfortable or scared around another human being who has more power than you do. He’s never been made to feel marginalized or dismissed.

Power corrupts even those with good intentions, after all, and it’s innocent people who pay the price for their self-serving decisions.

I guess it’s up to me to make sure it doesn’t happen, but how am I going to do that?