Page 1 of Tiger's Little Waif
Chapter One
“You can do this,” Shaw Tucker whispered to herself as she stared at the impressive double doors made of elaborately carved wood. “You have to do this, or you’ll be dead before the weekend.”
Her Little side wanted to run away. Her Big side also wanted to run. The only problem was she had nowhere to run to. Dan’s vow from the night before, to find her and kill her, still rang in her memory. Even as the police dragged him away from her crumpled and battered body, he continued to scream death threats at her. It had taken everything in her to talk the paramedics out of taking her to the hospital and allow her to just go home.
The only solution she could come up with was to leave town. But until her first alimony check arrived on the first of the month, she had no money to relocate. She needed help. She only hoped the people behind these doors would agree to shelter her far away from the city and her abusive ex-husband.
“Open the door, walk in and ask. Until you do, all you have is a no,” she whispered.
Taking a deep breath, which caused nearly every part of her body to protest, Shaw opened the door just wide enough to slip through. After pulling the door closed, she limped to the last row of benches and held her breath as she sat down. A hearing was already in process, so she would wait until they took a break before approaching the Council and pleading her case.
As the morning progressed, she watched young women enter the wood-paneled room and stand before the five-member Council. Some cried and some raged, while others remained silent as the authority figure standing beside them explained what societal transgression brought them before the Council.
Out of the ten women escorted into the room, only four were offered a chance to attend the program at Bratburg Institute. The rest were either sent across town to the courthouse to stand trial for their crimes or transferred to centers for drug or alcohol rehabilitation. Not a single one of the women was released to return to the lives they’d led before appearing before the Council.
After the last woman had been escorted from the room, the man in the center of the panel stood. He exchanged a look with the tall man in the front row who had consulted with him several times during the day. Together, the two men approached her.
“We don’t usually allow an audience for these proceedings. Is there something we can do for you?” the Council member asked as he stopped in the aisle, several feet away.
The other man stood about the same distance away on her left.
Dropping her head, Shaw closed her eyes and whispered, “Yes, please. I’d like to be sent to Bratburg.”
“Why?”
Shaw raised her head to see if the man was seriously asking this question. “Why, what?”
“Why do you voluntarily want to go to Bratburg?”
The simple answer Shaw had been rehearsing all day evaporated from her brain.
She swallowed hard and took a slow, deep breath. “Because if I don’t get out of the city before my ex-husband gets out of jail tomorrow, he’s going to kill me. I don’t have any money, or friends or family to ask for help. Tomorrow, I’ll have to move out of the room I’m staying in because I can’t afford another night.”
A deep growl drew her gaze to the man on her left. His expression of anger sent a shiver of fear through her, but at the same time gave her hope that these men would help her. When he caught her staring, the man inhaled sharply, and his expression smoothed.
“Why do you think he’s going to kill you?” he asked as he leaned forward to rest one forearm on the back of the bench in front of her.
Without a word, Shaw closed her eyes and used both hands to lift the oversized t-shirt she wore, exposing her body from the bottom of her bra to the top of her jeans. Both men inhaled sharply, and the man on her right muttered a series of curses at the sight of the bruises that mottled her ribs and upper belly.
“How old are you, Little one?” the man to her left asked, his voice surprisingly gentle for such a large man.
“I’ll be twenty-nine in three weeks.”
“I’m afraid you’re too old to be sent to Bratburg,” the Council member said. “I’m sorry.”
His words shattered the fragile bit of hope she had carried into the room with her. She blinked to hold back tears as she pushed to her feet with only a slight moan of pain. “Oh, okay. Sorry for bothering you.”
She tried to come up with her next move, but nothing came to mind. She had no backup plan. There was nothing else she could do except try to stay hidden so Dan could not find her as she waited for her check. The court had decided to garnish Dan’s wages and send her alimony directly to her rather than trust Dan to pay her, probably because he’d vowed to put her in the ground before he paid her a nickel.
The police officer who had taken her statement the night before had promised he would make sure that Dan stayed locked up for forty-eight hours to give her time to leave town. She now had less than thirty-four hours left before he would be free again. With only twenty-seven dollars in her wallet and no car, she would not get far, but maybe she could get to the next town before he hit the streets.
She took a long, slow breath and turned toward the door. The first tears burned their way down her cheeks as she limped into the hall.
“Miss? Hang on a minute.”
Shaw stopped and slowly turned around. The second man, the one who’d been sitting in the front row of the gallery, was striding toward her, looking like a hero from the romance novels she loved to read.
He did not speak until he stopped a good six feet away from where she stood. It was as if he knew she would back up if he got any closer.