Dangerous Defiance (4 page)

* * *

She stared at him with those big eyes, their emerald green softer now that red accentuated them. She was going to be bawling in a minute and he wondered if she needed that actually. He wondered if she had even truly mourned her friend’s death. He had only died two weeks ago.

He turned his attention to her bared bottom. Her cheeks were more fleshy than he imagined they would be for as thin as she was. Her hips were nicely rounded and soft as pillows beneath his touch. They were slightly pink already but he planned to turn them a bright red before he would let her off his lap today. A good, hard bare-bottom spanking would teach her a lesson. He hoped so at least. And it might just keep her safe.

He raised his hand and brought it down harder than he had when he had begun. She resumed her struggle instantly, shrieking with the slaps. He kept her pinned to him, alternating cheeks, not giving her a moment’s reprieve between spanks. He covered every inch of her gorgeous ass and moved to her upper thighs. His own hand hurt but he kept going, watching her skin redden, listening to her cries, which had turned from shrieks to full-on sobbing now. She no longer yelled profanities at him and in time, she stopped struggling and let her body go limp. He released her wrists for the last ones, wondering if she could feel the length of his engorged cock at her belly, hoping she could not. He was, after all, teaching her a lesson. There was nothing erotic about this.

“Ten more, then you’re done. If you’re good.”

She sniffled and nodded her head, her hands on the ground, fingers digging into earth.

“Don’t clench your bottom,” he said.

He was surprised when she didn’t put up a fight but did as he said instead. He rubbed her bottom for a moment, not long enough to rub out the sting though, and when he began, he delivered the hardest ten smacks yet. The shape of his hand stood out against the red of her bottom, each cheek displaying his print as he brought her punishment to a close and it was once again silent but for the flowing water of the river and her sniffling.

He kept one hand on her low back, holding her as she was as he reached to get a tissue from his pocket. He handed it to her and she took it. Slowly, he stood her up between his legs. She bent to pick up her panties and shorts from around her ankles but he shook his head, holding her arms at her sides. He looked at her for a moment, at her flat belly, at the tiny patch of dark hair between her legs. It was much darker than the hair on her head. He swallowed; he was so close to her that he could almost smell her sex…

But he needed to keep a clear head.

He rose to his feet, looked around and decided on a spot. He needed a few minutes to collect himself. He walked her just a few feet away and turned her to face the wall the teens had been hiding behind when he’d caught them smoking pot.

“You get to stand here for fifteen minutes with your bottom on display thinking about this. Thinking about your spanking and how much it hurt and how much you don’t want me to do that again because next time, it will be worse.”

“I don’t think it
can
be worse,” she mumbled, new tears sliding down her face.

“Hands at the back of your head. Like that,” he said, placing them there. She complied, which surprised him. He expected a fight but she only glanced at him from the corners of her eyes, her face blushing as red as her bottom as he walked away. Her shorts and panties were still at her ankles, her bare bottom red and on display, the only sound that of her quieting sniffling.

Putting her in the corner was a good idea. He definitely needed a moment.

He inhaled a breath, trying to think of something else. Trying to think of why he was doing this. Of the danger she would be in if anyone found out what she was up to. Jackson walked to his truck taking her camera with him. He climbed inside and started the engine to get the AC going. She glanced at him but must have realized he wasn’t going anywhere and turned her face back to the wall. He adjusted the crotch of his pants and picked up his cell phone. He would pretend to make a few calls while waiting for his erection to settle down.

* * *

He had stuck her in the corner. She was standing in the corner out in the open with her panties and shorts down around her ankles and her freshly spanked, burning bottom on display for anyone who happened to walk by to see.

She glanced in his direction and reached one hand down to touch her hip. It was tender and hot to the touch but when she heard his door open, she quickly put her hand back on her head.

He had spanked her. She, an adult woman, an FBI agent, had just been spanked by the local sheriff. It had hurt. It had hurt much more than she thought a spanking would hurt. Not that she had given it much thought. But it wasn’t only the pain of her bottom that bothered her, it was something else. It was the stickiness at her thighs that caused her true concern.

She was not aroused. Certainly, she was not aroused. She hadn’t been when he had been spanking her—those giant hands having a field day on her poor bottom. All she could think of at that moment was the actual pain. After each spank, she had anticipated the next, squeezing her eyes shut, hoping it was over. But now, now that she was standing here exactly as she was, exposed, punished, well, if she were honest with herself, she would have to admit that if she were alone, she would have reached down between her legs to touch herself, rub herself until she came.

She heard his footsteps as he approached and stiffened.

“All right, pull up your panties and shorts,” he said from somewhere behind her.

She glanced at him, turning slightly as she bent to dress herself. She then faced him, her old resolve back. Or so she thought because when she met his gaze, tears began to flow again and he came to her, pulling her to his chest, patting her back, rubbing her head as she cried into his shirt.

“I… I was supposed to be here with him,” she said through sobs, wondering if he could even understand her. “I should have been here too.”

“Calm down, it’s over now, Jess. Shh…”

“My sister, she went into the hospital. Her husband was out of town. She delivered her baby too early and I went to help her, canceled my trip with Ben,” she said, looking up at him, not sure why she was telling him this at all.

“Is the baby ok?” he asked.

She nodded, wiping the tissue he had given her across her nose.

“Then I’m glad it happened and that you weren’t here with Ben.”

She looked up into his eyes, his tender, caring eyes. She nodded. “I have to find out what happened. I can’t let his death be nothing. I cannot.”

“I’m not going tell you that you can’t. I just don’t want to see you get hurt, or worse, trying. I told you yesterday, the dam did not fail. There is no way. I don’t believe this was an accident. I believe this was murder and the murderer or murderers are still out there. But you can’t do this alone. I’m not going to let you.”

He held her for a minute longer until her stomach growled. She realized she hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday.

“You still have those donuts?” she asked, pulling back, masking the vulnerability she had just let him glimpse with a harder exterior she was used to showing.

“And lukewarm coffee,” he said. “In the truck.”

Chapter Four

Jess followed him back to his office on Main Street which was only a few blocks from her hotel. She looked around on her way, deciding the town of New Hope was a little bigger than she had imagined it to be. Still, it wasn’t close to what she was used to. She had to keep that in mind. As much as Jackson wanted to help her, he was only a small town sheriff.

He gave her a hand as she adjusted the crutch, but when he tried to take her camera and purse¸ she pulled them tight to herself. “I got it,” she said, refusing to show weakness.

“Suit yourself,” he said, looking surprised. They walked up the front steps and he opened the door, gesturing for her to enter ahead of him.

“Sheriff,” Bill stood from where he had been sitting at his desk filling out a report. “Oh, hello, ma’am,” Bill said.

“Bill, this is Jessica Manning, the woman whose car you brought to the hotel yesterday,” Jackson said, setting the donuts down on his desk. “Jess, Deputy Bill Johnson.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said.

“More reporters?” Bill asked, seeming excited about the idea.

Jackson hung his hat on its hook. “No.” Jackson didn’t elaborate and Bill only paused for a moment.

“You went to Dunkin’ Donuts?” Bill asked, already eyeing the box. Jess smiled as she watched him, his eyes hungry. She thought she heard Jackson sigh.

“Why don’t you take one and head out for a bit, check out the high school, make sure there’s no one unaccounted for,” he said. “Ran into some kids smoking pot up at the site.”

“Oh,” Bill said, deciding on the chocolate-covered, cream-filled donut. “I’ll get right out there, Sheriff,” he said, biting into his donut, just catching the cream that spilled out the side of it.

Jackson pushed a chair out for her to sit down across his desk. She placed the crutch against it and sat, taking the lid off one of the cups of coffee and emptying two packets of sugar into it. She listened as they exchanged a few more details until Bill finally left.

“He seems like a nice man,” she said, taking a glazed donut and biting into it.

He gave her a look. “That dam break was the most excitement this town has seen in a long time. Not much else going on around here so they get excited when we have people in from out of town.”

She gave him a crooked smile and focused on her donut.

“You too?” she asked.

He shook his head and claimed the last donut, watching her as he bit into it. “Just remember, Miss Big City, who had to save your ass when you managed to find a rusty nail to stab yourself with. Just because New Hope’s a small town, doesn’t mean people here are any different than you.”

Well, maybe she deserved that one. She took another bite, the sugar making her lips sticky.

Jackson finished his donut, wiped his hands on a napkin and sat down behind the desk, taking out a file.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“My private file on the dam break,” he said, turning it so she could have a look. “I’ve been through the place with a fine-tooth comb and even though I can’t find any evidence to support my theory, my gut tells me this was no accident. Tell me something, when did you get the tip about possible water contamination?” he asked.

She leafed through the pages. “About six, seven weeks ago. What caught Ben’s attention was that the company that was doing the hydraulic fracturing here was a company called Larimer Energy.” She closed the file and sat back, no longer wanting the cold coffee. He remained watching her, his full attention on her as she continued. “A few years ago, Larimer Energy had come under scrutiny for something similar, although it wasn’t hydraulic fracturing. Ben had been assigned to the case back then.”

“Why do you say it like that?” he asked.

He was sharp. “Because this time around, he wasn’t exactly assigned to it. In fact, no one knew we were investigating the claims of contamination.”

“I’m confused.”

“Well,” she began, picking up the coffee, turning the stirrer around in a circle, then setting it back down on his desk. “Ben had uncovered something that wasn’t kosher, let’s just say. Back then, just as now, Larimer wasn’t exactly breaking the law but what they were doing was unethical and dangerous. When he was close to breaking the case, Assistant Deputy Director Hanson pulled him off it. It was abrupt, to say the least. Ben hadn’t been expecting it
or
the demotion that came after things had quieted down.”

“Go on.”

“Hanson was an associate director at that point. He was promoted, jumped a few steps even, right after the Larimer case was closed. There were rumors, Ben told me, but no real evidence of anything, any bribery or cover-up. I wasn’t there at the time so I can’t say for sure, but Ben never forgot that.” She looked off for a moment. “He was a good guy. He was doing the right thing and he always put others before himself. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. He shouldn’t have died like that.”

* * *

Jackson listened to her, his every suspicion growing as he did. But along with that suspicion came a new reason to worry. If the FBI was involved in a cover-up, this would be bigger than even he had imagined.

As for Ben’s story, well, he could relate to that. He hadn’t always been a small town sheriff. But now wasn’t the time for that and that wasn’t a time he liked to discuss anyway.

“Did you talk to him at all once he got down here?”

She shook her head and reached for her cell phone. She pushed some buttons and set it on the desk on speaker. “This was the last message I had from him:
I’m on my way to the site now, Jess. I would have waited for you but there’s too much at stake. Give me a holler when that baby is born and don’t worry about me. Go take care of your family, kid. And remember, don’t talk to strangers.
”

Jackson took the phone, pushing the button to play it again. He watched her this time, watched her eyes redden.

“He always called me kid and told me not to talk to strangers,” she said, turning away for a moment. “Silly old man.”

He gave her that time and didn’t miss it when she reached to wipe her eyes.

“That was a few hours before the dam collapsed,” she said once the message ended.

“Well,” Jackson said, “he had only managed to meet with three residents before he was killed. Two of them were killed along with him, but Jensen’s wife was there during their meeting. She was at the store when it happened. I spoke with her but not at any length. She was too upset, as you can imagine. She took her kids and went to stay with her parents in Orlando the day after it happened.”

“I was hoping to talk to the rest of them this week but I’d love to get back to the site, get some more photos. Have a closer look at the dam, if that’s possible.”

“We can do that,” he began, but she cut him off.

“Sheriff… Jackson, look, I know you mean well but I’m not sure you should be getting involved. I don’t feel right about it, I’d never be able to forgive myself if anything went wrong, if you were hurt… or worse.”