Executive Orders: Part 2 of the Homeland Series Read Online Free PDF Page A

outside the jail. Hank left Brandon locked in his cell, arriving in the parking lot as a deputy got out of his vehicle and pulled a handcuffed blonde woman from the back seat. She kicked and bit at the officer as he removed her from the vehicle.
    “Let me go!” the prisoner screamed, “I’ll kill you!” She fell to the ground and tried to roll onto her back and kick the deputy away from her.
    Hank rushed to help the officer. “Let me give you a hand.” He and his deputy shared a look of brief amusement at the irony of that statement coming from a one-armed man.
    “Dammit, Chloe!” Hank yelled, “Settle down!”
    “Careful, Sheriff,” the officer warned, “She’s high as a kite.”
    Chloe screamed, “I’ll call my daddy! He’ll get me outta here! You’ll see!” Her eyes were wild as she cursed and flailed. “Let. Me. GOOOO!”
    Hank wrapped his arm around her neck and forced her prone onto the pavement. “Hogtie her!”
    The deputy produced more cuffs, binding Chloe’s ankles together, then attaching those restraints to the ones on her wrists.
    “Good job,” Hank panted, “Get some guys from the jail to put her in a cell. I’ll watch her while you get ‘em.”
    “Thanks, Sheriff.” The deputy ran into the jail.
    The wild woman continued to scream and spit as she lay, bound hand-to-foot on the pavement. She seemed more animal than human to Hank.
    It was hard to believe this thing writhing before him now was the mother of his precious granddaughter, Maggie. She was the woman his son had loved. No matter how many times she lied to him, cheated on him, or stole from him, Hank’s boy always took her back. Sometimes she came crawling to him. Other times he went after her.
     
    He went after her for the last time one summer night, five years past. She was strung out again on only God knew what, running with the worst crowd the county had to offer. Hank and Betty begged their son not to go.
    “Leave her be,” Betty begged him, “She doesn’t care about you or Maggie. Just let her go.”
    “I love her,” the young man replied.
    “You’re a deputy, for God’s sake,” Hank rebuked, “You can’t be with a pill head and keep your job.”
    “Then fire me.” He slammed the door and drove off into the night.
    Hank got the call he feared most a few hours later. He barely remembered driving to the dark country road. His only clear recollection was of flashing police lights, road flares burning in the darkness, and the grim faces of his deputies as they avoided his gaze.
    “Don’t, Hank.” Gunny pulled at the sheriff’s arm as he exited his squad car “Go home to Betty. She’s gonna need you.”
    “I have to see for myself.”
    Gunny released his grip. Hank stumbled, numb, toward the tarp lying on the edge of the road. A gust of wind turned up a corner to reveal a hand. His son’s hand. Hank knelt and turned the shroud back further. He looked into his boy’s lifeless eyes, remembering countless nights spent watching that face sleep. He reached down and stroked his namesake’s hair the way he used to do as the boy slept in his crib. The flesh was already cold.
    “What happened?” Hank said to the darkness.
    “He found Chloe and her friends partying here. They were all high on meth. He tried to get her to come with him. A fight started. One of her friends had a gun.”
    Hank fell onto his haunches, suffocating beneath the weight of his grief.
     
    “Hey! HEY! I’m talking to you!”
    Hank’s mind was jolted back to the present by Chloe’s renewed squalling.
    “My dad’s gonna kill you!” she spat.
    Two deputies came from the jail and picked Chloe up by her restraints.
    “Get her out of here,” Hank ordered.
    Once the officers took Chloe inside, Hank stood alone.
    His thoughts turned to his remaining son, Cole. He was a sergeant with the 101st Airborne in Fort Campbell, five hours to the west. Hank hadn’t heard from him since everything went to Hell.
    Have I lost him, too?
    Nor had