Chapter 140

It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns at Carefree Village. There were 70 apartments plus the two No-Door units. That meant 140, 150, 160 people were there each weekend.

Dirk Hoffman and Emma Preston were frequent guests. They weren’t married, but had a 14-year old son, Ronnie, and had lived together for over ten years. Dirk owned two gyms in Des Moines, and Emma worked part time as a bartender. They were both nice looking and fit. Emma, who was 33, had a black pixie cut, which made her look kind of boyish with her slim figure.

Dirk had an alcohol problem. He wasn’t a loud, belligerent drunk, but as he grew quite and quieter, his face darkened and Emma withdrew into herself.

One morning she walked out of their apartment, hunched over a little, moving gingerly. Riley went right up to her, “Did he hit you, Emma?”

“Oh no,” but her glance veered off.

Riley took her hand, “Come talk with me.”

Flynn was just finishing his cereal. He took one look at Emma and knew something was up. He said, “Gotta run, see you, Riley, Mrs. Preston.”

Riley took the young woman over to her bed and lay her down on her side, “Curl up a little, take the pressure off.” A faint bruise was starting to form on her stomach.

Emma felt tears forming and stopped denying the obvious. “It’s those fucking pain pills — he threw out his back and got hooked on Oxy.”

“When did he start hitting you?”

“Two months, maybe three.”

“Here, put on this tee, we’re leaving.”

“Where? No, I can’t. I got nowhere to go. And what about Ronnie?”

“One thing at a time, Emma. It’s a short walk to my car, come on, before he comes out.”

Ten minutes later, Riley had Emma in bed, in the little bungalow that Claire had built for her top whores. She called Maria in, “Stay with Emma, I’m going to talk with Luke.”

In the Stillman family compound, she explained the situation. “I’m not letting her go back to that bastard. Here’s what I’m going to do.”

Luke listened carefully, sympathetically. “I could have a talk with the creep, a serious talk. But that doesn’t usually work. He’ll be alone with her again, build up another rage, and it’ll be worse next time.”

“Yeah, I know. A good friend of mine got a restraining order. Fat lot of good that did.”

Luke admired her decisiveness, her quick thinking. And that Riley wasn’t asking permission, she wasn’t even checking in with Claire.

He said, “I’ll go back with you while you talk with Emma. And I’ll stay with her until you get back from Des Moines. Then Martin and I will escort the fucker out of Four Corners. We could rough him up — resisting a lawful order.”

Riley shook her head, “I don’t want to give him any legal ammo. Unless he really does fight you.”

Back at the bungalow, they found Maria lying beside Emma, her arm protectively over the woman.

Riley explained the plan, “You call Ronnie, tell him to come with me today. Monday, you call his principal, tell him you’re home-schooling your son. When I get to your house, I’ll pack for you and Ronnie.”

“God, it’s moving so fast.”

“Maria and Luke will stay with you until I get Ronnie back here. Then Luke and his security team will kick Dirk the fuck out of Four Corners.”

“But, where will we live? What will I do for money?”

Riley explained the plan — immediate term, short term, long term.