“You’ve got this, Ashley, you’ve got this, Ashley, you’ve got this, Ashley.”

“What are you muttering?” Frank asked as we sat in the lobby of Sheriff Peak’s office.

It wasn’t much of a lobby, really. Just a handful of seats pressed up against a wall in an old, wooden building on Main Street. Just over a short barrier were a few desks, mostly empty except for the one occupied by Deputy Glick, who was on the phone following up on leads about the cartel members. From the frustration in his voice, though, he wasn’t getting anywhere.

“How can you even hear me?” I asked.

“Good ears, is all. You gonna be able to handle this? I mean, we can postpone it if we really need to.”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t want to postpone it. I just want to get this over with and move on with everything. I didn’t have any part in anything, and I want it all to be over.”

He reached down, grabbed my hand, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Well, when you go in there, just be honest, much as you can. Okay? Peak’s a good guy, like my boss said. He’s not going to try and trick you up. He knows you weren’t going to go shooting up your own property, especially after a break-in. Okay?”

I nodded, biting my lip. “Right.”

“And, if all that fails, just turn on some of that east coast charm of yours.”

I laughed. “I don’t think he’ll take kindly to my city slicker ways.”

“You might be surprised by us country folk.”

Sheriff Peak came out of the back office, one thumb hooked into the front of his belt, his bald head shining beneath the yellow lighting and the sun just barely coming in through the windows. “Ms. Maxwell?” he asked, adding a Z to the end of miss.

I went to stand. “Sheriff.”

“Thank you for coming down, ma’am. We just had a few questions we wanted to ask, that’s all.”

I nodded and walked through the little gap in the short wooden fence, and followed him back into his office.

The office was dominated by a big, solid desk. Not as big as the one my father had in his office back in Manhattan, but pretty close. This one had a lighter, nuttier color to it, though, and not the rich mahogany like father’s. The rest of the office looked like it was one part western museum, two part hunter’s trophy room. An old rifle like the ones they used in the John Wayne movies hung on the wall behind the desk, just over the sheriff’s chair. On the right was a big, growling wolf’s head.

“Please, ma’am, have a seat.”

I took a seat in one of the two wooden chairs right in front of the desk as he shut the door behind us. The springs of the leather-clad seat cushion whined as I sat down, and a moment of worry that I’d go crashing through to the floor passed through my mind. “Anything to help, Sheriff.”

“Now, Ms. Maxwell,” he said as he came around and took a seat behind the desk, “I really just had a few questions.”

Before he could ask them, though, we both heard a loud voice outside in the office. “But I was told to be here at 9:30. Why isn’t this incompetent asshole of a sheriff ready to see me?”

I knew that voice. It was the bimbo!

“Now, Mrs. Maxwell,” Deputy Glick replied, his voice rising a little despite his obvious attempt to control himself, “like I just said, the sheriff is with someone else at the moment. If you’ll have a seat, he’ll be right with you.”

“But,” the bimbo said, “my appointment was for 9:30.”

“And I understand that, ma’am, but it’s only 9:10.”

Sheriff Peak sighed like he was used to this kind of thing. He had to be when he dealt with as many tourists as he did. “Sorry, ma’am. I’ll be right back. Lemme just handle this real quick.”

“Good luck,” I said, my voice not much louder than a mumble.

He got up and came around his desk, stepping out into the small open desk space outside. He left the door slightly ajar, allowing me to hear everything that was said.

“Sheriff Peak?”

“Mrs. Maxwell? If you’ll just have a seat, I’ll get right to you. I’m currently going over some questions with your stepdaughter, and it’ll just be a moment.”

“Well, why can’t we just switch our appointments? I have a meeting I need to attend at ten o’clock, and I absolutely must be on time.”

“I can understand that,” Sheriff Peak replied. “But if you’d known about this meeting, shouldn’t you have scheduled a different time? Seems like the reasonable thing to do.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I would have, but I only found out about this meeting this morning. Could you just give me a moment to talk to my stepdaughter, see if she’d be willing to exchange times with me?”

“Well, I don’t see how that’d be fair to anyone, Mrs. Maxwell.”

“Please, Sheriff? Just give me a moment?”

Sheriff Peak sighed. “Well, if it’ll just take a moment, I don’t see why not.”

As soon as I heard her designer heels clicking on the hardwood floor as she walked towards the office, I put on my bitch face and stood up. I turned and faced the door, ready.

The bimbo opened the door, her clearly expensive pantsuit perfectly pressed. She looked like she was ready to take on Wall Street, not some small town sheriff.

“Ashley?” Elizabeth asked sweetly as she came in, both hands carefully holding her clutch bag in front of her.

“What?”

“Honey, would you mind terribly if I took your appointment time? I have a meeting with the board at ten o’clock our time to discuss your father’s recent troubles, and–”

“No.”

My flat denial of her request was like a slap in the face, and she almost visibly recoiled at the blow.

“What?”

“Did you not hear me?” I said stoically. “No.”

“I can’t believe–”

“Wait. Your. Turn.”

“But, Ashley,” she said, coming forward a step, “you don’t understand, honey. I need to be on this call. It’s very important to all of us.”

I leaned forward. “What?” I asked in a harsh whisper only she could hear. “So you can keep conspiring with those assholes to cover up my father’s crimes?”

She sighed and carefully bit her lower lip and gave me a little nod. “Fine. I’ll just reschedule this little interview. Or see if they can meet me.”

I nodded. “Good. And don’t worry, we’re just going to talk about the cabin, the break-in, and the men who showed up trying to kill me.”

She pinched her lips together so tightly they pressed into a thin line. “That’s fine. Do you want to know what the board comes up with today?”

“No,” I said. “Not really. After this, I’m done. Between you and this,” I paused, waving my hand, “whatever kind of mess Father’s gotten himself into, I’m done. I’m done with it all.”

If my flat denial of her request had been a slap in the face, this was like a swing from Babe Ruth’s baseball bat.

She shook her head a little and fluttered her eyelids. “Pardon me?”

“You heard me. I’m finished. After this, I don’t want any more contact with either of you.”

“Your allowance, though?” she asked, almost staggering. “Your trust fund?”

“Do you really think it’s going to be there after everything is said and done? We’re ruined, Elizabeth. We’re absolutely ruined. And, even if we weren’t, what good has it done for me? Surrounded me with fake people? With people just trying to get at my father’s money?”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You don’t get it, do you? The long hours your father worked, the decades your grandfather worked to get this for you. You are utterly ungrateful.”

“That’s rich coming from a woman who hitched herself to this family just last year!” I took a step closer, jabbing a finger at her for emphasis. “You’re not my mother, and you never will be. She was twice the woman you pretend to be.”

She made a noise of frustration, something animalistic and low. Not quite a growl, but not quite a whine. “Fine.” She took a step back and swiped absently at a bang that wasn’t there. “That’s just fine, Ashley.” She turned on her heel and left.

As my stepmother left the office, muscles I hadn’t realized were even tense uncoiled and relaxed. I collapsed into the chair, all the breath coming out of me in a giant gush like one immense release.

Back in the little office area, Sheriff Peak and my stepmother discussed the next best time for them to meet together.

I listened to them nattering back and forth, not surprised when Peak finally just rolled over and accepted whatever time she offered for him to meet her somewhere more convenient. Clearly, he just wanted this to be over with.

“Well,” he said as he came in and shut the door behind him, “your stepmother’s quite the woman.”

“She’s something, alright.”

He came around and settled into his desk. “Don’t worry, Ms. Maxwell, this really shouldn’t take that long. Just a few questions to fire off at you, is all.”

I straightened up a little in my seat and gave him a little nod. “Well, fire away then, sheriff. I’ll be as helpful as I can.”

As he began to pepper me with questions, I tried as hard as I could to focus on the situation at hand. My thoughts wandered, though, to Frank. More than anything, I wanted to be out of that office and back in his arms.

And, then of course, my wandering thoughts moved onto the imminent board meeting at M Three Investments. Even though I’d just told Elizabeth to get out of my life and stay out of it, I was worried. My father was, after all, still my father. A voice whispering at the back of my mind told me that, whatever they decided, it wasn’t going to be good for my father or the whole family.

I just hoped that neither Frank nor I would get dragged into this mess that we already were in any further. That same voice, though? It chattered right along, murmuring about how I should know better than to hope for the impossible.