Deployed by Mel Odom

your case over to trial. Is there someone here to post bail for you?”
    Before Bekah could reply, her granny stood up. “I am, Your Honor.”
    Harrelson looked out into the audience. “Who are you?”
    “Mrs. Alice Shaw. Her grandma.”
    “That’s fine, Mrs. Shaw.” Harrelson nodded toward thebailiff. “Have someone help Mrs. Shaw.” He turned back to Bekah. “We should have you out of here in just a little while.”
    Gratefully, Bekah nodded and resumed her seat. She couldn’t wait to get out.
     
    A half hour later, Bekah stood at the booking desk with her granny and Travis. Her son rested in her arms, holding on fiercely while he looked around at the strange surroundings.
    “This is a police house.” Travis’s voice was a whisper.
    “It is.” Bekah didn’t bother trying to make the distinction between police and sheriff’s deputies.
    “They’re the good guys.”
    “They are.” Bekah wasn’t feeling too friendly toward the law enforcement department at the moment, though.
    “Did you do something wrong, Momma?”
    That was a hard question to answer, and Bekah hesitated.
    Granny came to her rescue, smiling up at the boy and patting him on the shoulder. “No, sweetie, your momma didn’t do anything wrong. The police just don’t have their facts straight. Everything’s going to be just fine.”
    “Good.”
    Bekah shot her granny a look, but the old woman shook her head. There were things they didn’t talk about around Travis. When the deputy handed her the manila envelope containing her personal effects, Bekah checked them over, then signed the sheet.
    Granny reached over and took her arm. “Let’s go getyou something to eat. I didn’t have much of a breakfast this morning.”
    Travis rubbed his stomach. “Me neither. Can we have McDonald’s?”
    Bekah grinned at her son and bumped heads with him playfully. “Of course you can have McDonald’s.”
     
    Murchison, Oklahoma, was the county seat, so it was a lot larger than Callum’s Creek, but it was still small-time next to Oklahoma City, Tulsa, or Houston. Bekah hadn’t traveled much in the United States, so she hadn’t seen the cosmopolitan cities like New York or Los Angeles.
    However, the town did boast a McDonald’s, and Travis loved to go there every chance he got. He sat through half of his Egg McMuffin, then begged to be set free. Now he was crawling through the brightly colored PlayPlace.
    Bekah picked at her breakfast, but she was hungry enough and sensible enough that she knew she was going to work her way through it. Once Travis had gone to find “new friends,” Bekah told her granny what had happened the previous night.
    “This is all my fault.”
    “Nonsense.” Granny lightly slapped her hand. “You were defending Connie Hiller. I’d have thought less of you if you hadn’t. I’m just thankful you weren’t hurt. Things could have gone the other way.”
    “I know. I got lucky.”
    “I think maybe there was more than luck involved, BekahAnn. You’re a good Marine. You knew what to do and you did it.”
    At first, Granny hadn’t embraced the idea of Bekah serving in the military. And that was before Bekah’s activation and first tour as part of the support teams from the First Battalion, Twenty-Third Marines based in Houston.
    For a time they’d been at odds over the kind of momma Bekah would be for Travis. Bekah had argued the point, saying she needed training for something, and she couldn’t manage college on her own. The money she earned as a Marine would help with that.
    Then she’d felt guilty about leaving Travis with her granny, knowing taking care of the boy would be a hardship. Granny had made that easier for her, pointing out that Travis would have to live with his closest relative while Bekah was gone, and that there was no one else around since Billy Roy Briggs and his family weren’t going to have anything to do with her son.
    Granny shook her head angrily. “What chaps my hide is the fact that