My Cowboy, My Hero

Strong

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Max finished praying for Katrina and Rhye. He stood from Rhye's desk and stretched his arms above his head. He sighed as his phone rang. He really just wanted five minutes of uninterrupted time to process everything that had happened in the last few days. Between calls from social services, police reports, doctors appointments, birthday parties, and his caregiver duties, Max had been running ragged for days now. He worried about Lexi at night because she cried so often in her sleep- he imagined from the nightmares- that he hadn't slept well since the night they stayed at Taylor and Tyler's house.

He rubbed his hand over his face and answered the phone. It was a number he didn't recognize. "Max Daniels."

"Hello Mr. Daniels, this is Evan from the police department."

"Hello Evan, how can I help you?" Max said. He wasn't surprised the police were calling. He had received several of these calls lately.

"Well, I am not really sure how to start the conversation. I have some rough news, but it.... Well, it's..." he tried.

"It's what?" Max questioned. His heart falling to his knees.

"Well... Gosh this would be so much easier if we could talk to you at the station, but I just don't want to have Alexia put in such a vulnerable position." He rambled.

"What's going on?"

"Victoria Justice has been.... um.. she was killed today. Chase Masters shot her. He tried to kill himself a little while later. He is currently in ICU at Mercy Medical. Doctors don't think he will make it. We have done a good bit of digging, and it seems Alexia was the only person Victoria tried to sell. They're are a great deal of transactions in her account we are suspicious of, but so far they have all turned out to be from fake fundraising accounts or people who wanted to contribute to the group home. Clearly this isn't how we wanted the case to end, but we are glad to have a few more of the pieces put together."

"Yeah." He said as he searched for words.

"Do you think it is all over now?" Max asked. He wanted it to be over for all the women's sake.

"I think that the women will still need to receive a lot of care and will need time to heal. Social services is still looking for group homes and foster homes for the women in her care. I know one of the bigger churches here has some elderly couples who have taken some of them in. We are still asking questions and holding interviews with the women just to make sure we haven't missed anything. We have called in another team to investigate the social worker who was suppose to be following up on the women once they reached the group home. I know the Captain wants to charge her with neglect, but it looks like she was just really overloaded and failed to check in. Chase Masters has some prior convictions and has probably done some things he don't know about yet, but overall I think it's over." Evan spoke.

"I just want this to be over for Lexi. She is terrified to him finding her." Max said as he sat back down. He didn't know how he felt about the news. Justice was a horrible woman. He wasn't sad she was dead. He felt like Lexi wouldn't either. He shuddered as his mind drifted over to Chase. He didn't even want to think of all the filthy things that man was going to do to Lexi. Knowing he was in ICU wasn't any comfort for Max. He felt like he would only have peace once he was behind bars.... or dead himself. The thought made Max feel guilty. He wasn't sure what a Christian should feel in this type of situation.

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Max stepped out onto the porch and smiled when he saw Lexi. She was asleep against Tyler and he was keeping the horse in a slow walk so he wouldn't disturb her. Tyler stopped the horse when he saw Max. Max walked over to him. "I got her to take a little nap, but can't figure out how to get her off."