Chapter 17

Afternoon the next day
County Safety Building
Harborton, Washington

The Nexus women had finally had enough.

Lanie practically had to skip to keep up as they burst out of the vehicles and headed toward the front door of the old brick County Safety building. She hoped that her team got in place before things got really out of hand. Not that she gave two shits about the entire sleazy Sheriff’s department but she didn’t want any collateral damage.

She’d never seen calm, level-headed Kelly so pissed off and she hoped to never again. Sarah was a wrecking ball disguised as a kitten, but she forgave quickly. Maria was an absolute sweetheart who wouldn’t hurt a fly but would take the entire world head-on if you threatened her family. Mei was the ocean- placid on the surface but you would never find the bodies. Lizzie didn’t get mad so much as she got even. But Kelly- Kelly was a momma grizzly bear with a long memory and no mercy whatsoever when she was riled.

They flung the double doors open and strode nearly in line to the duty counter with Lanie trailing slightly behind. She quietly shifted off to one side for a better viewpoint. She was a little terrified of what was about to happen but she wasn’t going to miss a second of it.

The female deputy behind the desk opened her mouth to say something then saw the looks on five faces. She turned white, gulped once, and fled to the back to fetch her boss.

A few seconds later a smug Sheriff Strickland sauntered out into the lobby accompanied by two deputies and Lennie.

“So what can I do for you girls this morning?” Strickland smirked.

“We’re here to get Ben Clarkson. You have one chance to bring him out immediately,” said Kelly struggling for composure.

“What she said, Gnomeo. You have completed the “Fuck Around” phase of the program and are about to enter the “Find Out” zone,” added Sarah with an evil grin.

The others were quiet but Mei was fingering her ring and Lizzie held a small tablet at the ready.

The Sheriff snapped his fingers. “Wait a minute, I’ve been trying to remember where I know you from,” he said looking directly at Kelly. “Yeah, I remember now it was a few years ago. You were trying to pin your slutty behavior on the Senator’s son! Wow, it doesn’t look like you’ve changed much.”

For a moment the world stood still and the air inside the building felt thick and somehow blue. Then a glow sprang up around Sarah’s neck where her tiger’s claw pendant hung. It got so bright that for an instant it was impossible to look at directly.

“You shouldn’t oughta said that idiot boy, you might have had a chance at mercy,” said Maria into the sudden silence.

There was a snapping roar as air was slapped rudely out of the way to make room for a twelve-foot-tall Bengal tiger where Sarah had stood moments before. The beast let out a roar that rattled every window in the 3 story building and sprayed hot spittle across the Sheriff and his entourage.

Two of them fainted dead away and the sheriff wobbled backward on legs suddenly made of overcooked ramen noodles as steaming hot piss streamed down his leg. Lennie was just too stupid to understand what he was seeing and stood there with a wondering expression and a pint of feline spit on his face.

Lanie could see massive muscles bunch in the impossibly sized form in preparation for a leap when Kelly held up her hand- restraining the giant cat.

“Aw dammit, Kels you spoil all my good times. C’mon. Let me shred ‘em into little bite-sized bits. It will be so much fun!” said the tiger in a low rumbly growling voice that somehow sounded like Sarah but vibrated like distant thunder.

“Nope sorry Sarah, I appreciate the sentiment and you are an amazing sister to stand up for me, but even though your way has his life end in screaming horror, it’s too short. I want this to last for decades, I think we are going to let him live so Lizzie can do her thing. Elizabeth- if you will,” said Kelly with a hand wave.

Suddenly the tiger was gone and Sarah stood there buffing her nails on her shirt with a mildly disappointed expression as if nothing untoward had happened. But then Lanie caught a side wink from her.

Lanie suddenly understood. Lizzy had taken this whole thing very hard. She obviously hadn’t slept and her eyes were puffy from crying, even though she tried to put on a brave face for her sisters. Lanie had worked with her to get the official cover issues worked through and knew firsthand that Lizzie blamed herself for letting the Sheriff’s department get the drop on Ben, and then for not being able to get him out quickly. Kelly was being a leader by letting Lizzie take over here and maybe Sarah wasn’t quite as unsubtle as she acted.

Lizzie’s little owl pendant started glowing as she typed a single command into her tablet.

Instantly every monitor in the building was filled with images. Even the 60-inch TV that displayed public safety info in the lobby started rapidly scrolling through documents, images, and videos as well as voice narration.

At first, it was just gibberish, and then almost simultaneously everyone realized what they were seeing.

“No! It can’t be. I destroyed those! Those people are dead. How?” Sheriff Strickland’s mind struggled to understand how every instance of a 15-year history of criminal corruption could be so thoroughly documented.

“This has already gone out to the State authorities as well as the FBI and the DOJ in addition to every major news outlet in the country. For bonus points, you are also about to be a star on TikTok. Hey, did I forget to mention the obstruction charges and the charges for supporting terrorism? You might avoid Guantanamo but they are going to be burying you so deep under Leavenworth that you’ll never see sunlight again. And I created a special bot for you whose only purpose is to make you as miserable as possible for the rest of your life in any way that it can.” said Lizzy triumphantly.

Lanie knew the subtext. No one messed with Lizzie’s family or her man.

Strickland recovered a bit from the shock and started sputtering just as his deputies started coming around.

“Get them, arrest them!” he said pointing toward the girls.

The two deputies on the floor staggered to their feet and stared at Strickland as if to say, ‘Have you lost your fucking mind?’ and scrambled for the back exit as fast as they could stumble.

Lennie’s brain cells were in stack overflow and still couldn’t comprehend all that he had heard and seen so he followed his boss’s instructions or tried to. He was nearest to Mei so he reached out and put a ham-sized hand on her shoulder. Now Lanie knew that Mei was nowhere near as strong as Sarah but she had observed Mei closely since her pregnancy and somehow Mei had gotten even more of the ‘Ben Effect’ since she had been carrying his child.

Mei almost casually picked the massive hand off of her shoulder, stepped sideways slightly trapping the wrist and arm, and kicking his feet out from under him, threw the four hundred-pound man flat on his back.

“I. Don’t. Like. Being. Touched.” she said shifting her grip on Lennie’s trapped hand slightly.

With every word, she broke one of Lennie’s fingers in two like an over-toasted Olive Garden breadstick. Lennie started screaming like a 3rd-grade girl in a room full of spiders and tried to rise. Using surgical precision Mei snap-kicked him right between the eyes with her elegant black flats. Lennie’s lights were out before the back of his head slapped down onto the yellowed linoleum floor.

Lanie could sense Strickland was getting even more desperate and was just about to draw her weapon to cover him when she became aware of a rush of black tactical gear surrounding them. As Strickland’s hand dove for his service weapon, he was taken down in a sea of kevlar.

“Ladies, let’s leave these fellows to take out the trash and go get our man,” said Lanie as she snagged a set of keys off Strickland’s prone figure.

A split second later she realized she had said ‘our man’. Shit, she hoped no one noticed. She did not want to annoy any of these women in the mood they were in.

A few minutes later they were all out in the parking lot and Ben was surrounded by his women, once again. Ben thoroughly kissed each one of them and then much to her surprise swung Lanie around and gave her a short but sizzling kiss all her own.

“Thank you too Lanie!” he said as he set her back down.

They were all laughing at her discomfiture as she blushed. She was going to have to do this rescue thing more often.

“Say Shorty, you coming with us?” Ben said to the gentle giant trailing behind them.

“Well Cap’n, you keep mighty interesting company. If you still need a hand, I’d be right pleased to tag along and see what happens next,” Shorty replied with a craggy smile.