Author's note:

This story is a sequel to Avengement. If you haven't read that already, please consider doing so before starting this story as it will probably make things easier to understand.

Warren City Police Department

The nameplate on the sturdy wooden door drew a hint of a smile from Ronda Helmsley, albeit a sarcastic one. "Sheriff Melina Perez, Warren City Police Department," she mumbled, reading aloud to herself. "Sheriff. What a fucking joke." Without bothering to knock, she forcefully pushed the door open, sending it crashing loudly into a desk. As she marched into the office, Ronda saw that Melina was in the middle of a meeting with one of her officers. Melina looked annoyed at the rude intrusion, not that Ronda gave a damn. Melina was on the payroll of the Helmsley organisation, so there was nothing to fear.

"Don't worry about knocking," Melina said. "Just barge in. I'll pretend I don't mind."

"Then I'll pretend I don't mind being summoned down here like you're someone who actually fucking matters," Ronda snapped back. "What do you want? I have a business to run."

The young officer who was sitting in front of Melina's desk sniggered at that, drawing more ire from the Sheriff. "Leave us," she ordered him with a dismissive hand gesture towards the door. "We'll continue this later."

The officer stood to leave, but Ronda made sure to obstruct him. Glaring at him, she said, "That's a nasty attitude problem you got there."

"Looks to me like the attitude problem is yours, Ms. Rousey," he replied, hoping that he would push her buttons by remaining so calm in the face of her anger.

"It's Helmsley now," Ronda snarled, stepping out of his way, but continuing to glare at him as he walked past her.

When the door closed behind him, Melina gestured to the chair that he had vacated. "Nice job, Ronda. Why don't you keep things subtle?"

"Subtlety's not really my thing," Ronda said, taking the offered seat and relaxing into it as if she owned the place, which, in a manner of speaking, she did.

"No shit," Melina replied. "I got a city full of bodies on my hands and witnesses coming forward reporting gunshots, hangings, warehouse explosions, car chases. You do realise what's going to happen if the FBI show up here and start digging into this department and what goes on in this city?"

Ronda shrugged offhandedly. "I doubt there will be any more killing. The way I hear it, there are none of Reigns' people left to be killed. Whoever was taking them out was quite thorough." Payroll or not, Ronda wasn't going to sit in a police station and openly admit that she and her people were responsible for the series of brutal murders that had been carried out over the last few weeks.

"Right," Melina said, going along with the charade. She knew what was best for both her health and her financial situation, not to mention the fact that she was sleeping with Seth Rollins, who was one of the higher ups in the Helmsley organisation. Any kind of meaningful relationship was of course impossible for them. "You can speak freely in my office, Ronda. And look, I know it's been a tough time for you, what with what they did to Stephanie and all. I can't imagine..."

Ronda exploded out of her chair and slammed her fist down hard on Melina's desk. "Don't you fucking dare talk to me about that," she screamed, going almost nose to nose with the Sheriff.

"Calm down," Melina said quietly, visibly intimidated. "I'm not trying to... I'm just saying it must be hard to deal with being the one in charge now. It must have came out of the blue for you when Hunter and Stephanie said they were leaving. Please, sit back down."

Ronda continued to glare at Melina for a moment, but then retook her seat, sighing as she sat down. Some of the anger seemed to leave her, to be replaced by sadness. The door opened again, and a different officer walked in. "Everything okay, ma'am? I heard shouting."

"Everything's fine, Layfield. Close the door."

Ronda waited for the door to close again. When she spoke, she sounded withdrawn, troubled by the memories of she was describing. "You know what's hard? Hearing your aunt wake up in the night, screaming in terror. That's what's hard. Seeing someone you've loved for so long crying all the time. Seeing someone who used to be so strong look so weak. That's what's hard. Honestly, I'm glad that they decided to retire and move to Barbados. Aunt Steph just couldn't be involved in this life anymore, and I understand that after what she went through. It was time for them to get out, so they got out, and they're happy over there. The Helmsley business will go on though; don't worry about that. I promised them. They made me promise."

"I didn't doubt it," Melina said, relieved that the atmosphere in the office was now a little calmer. She knew that Ronda was talking about the manufacture and distribution of Meth, not the food processing company that Helmsley used as a front business.

"So why did you ask me to come down here?"

"First off, to tell you that the FBI are starting to take a keen interest in Warren City, following the recent spate of violence. Secondly, I wanted to give you this. Thought it might interest you." She pulled a sheet of paper out of one of the trays on her desk and held it out to Ronda.

"What is it?" Ronda asked, making no motion to take it.

"Just read it," Melina sighed, wondering why everything had to be such hard work with Ronda. It hadn't been that way with Hunter, but then Hunter knew how to conduct business professionally, whether it was illegal or not. On the other hand, Ronda was a psychopath, plain and simple, as far as Melina was concerned, and having to deal with her was a frightening prospect. That was the the reason that the sheet of paper existed.

Leaning forward, Ronda impatiently snatched it from Melina and then leaned back in the chair to read it. Melinda said nothing as she watched Ronda read and then cover her mouth with her hand and close her eyes tightly. It was more of a reaction than she had expected. A few seconds later, Ronda removed the hand from her mouth and opened her eyes, which were now filled with tears, again surprising Melina. "Is this for real?" Ronda managed to ask.

"Of course. I wouldn't mess with you like that," Melina said. "Whether you believe it or not, I have Helmsley's interests as my first priority. You're the number one now, and we need to work together. Take this is a... What would you call it? A demonstration of my intent?"

Ronda was stunned into silence, with so many emotions hitting her all at once. According to the sheet of paper, Melina had somehow gotten just over six months taken off of Shane McMahon's five year prison sentence, and he was now due to be released the next day. When Shane had been caught red handed in the act of burning down a warehouse belonging to a rival organisation, there had been nothing that even Melina could do to keep him out of prison. It was obvious from the expression on Melina's face she thought she was doing Ronda a huge favour by getting Shane released because he was the brother of her adoptive aunt, and someone who would now be incredibly useful in running the organisation with the absence of Hunter and Stephanie.

There was no way the sheriff could know the truth. In fact, no one aside from Shane and Ronda knew the truth, which was that they were in a relationship with each other. They had both known that Hunter and Stephanie would have found it almost impossible to accept that they were together, so they had kept it a secret. They wouldn't have been able to understand that Ronda didn't look at Shane as an uncle and he didn't look at her as a niece. There was no true blood relationship between them. The significant age difference alone would have been something that Hunter would have objected to, but Ronda didn't care about that kind of thing. Age was just a number; a meaningless one at that. As far as both she and Shane were concerned, they were just two people who worked for the same organisation, and had fallen in love with each other.

For almost four and a half years while Shane had been locked up, Ronda had felt like there was a part of her missing. Visiting him seemed to make it worse, if anything. Saying goodbye was always heartbreaking. The last few weeks in particular had been hell, with Hunter and Stephanie also gone, leaving her with only her security detail for so-called company. Revenge had been the only thing that she had been living for; in the form of wiping out the rest of the people who had been a part of the organisation that had once been run by Roman and Nicole Reigns. Returning to what, by her standards at least, could be called a normal life was something that she had been dreading. Getting through each day would have been torture. Now though, Shane was getting out...

"Are you okay?" Melina asked, bringing Ronda out of her thoughts. "You seem like you're having a breakdown or something. Hardly what I expected."

"No," Ronda said, trying to shake it off as best she could in front of Melina. Displaying weakness of any kind wasn't on. She was the boss now. She represented the name Helmsley. "I'm okay. It's just a big surprise. You've done something I won't forget today, Melina. Do you understand me?"

"Remember that the next time an envelope comes my way."

Melina's tone indicated that this was where the meeting needed to end. Recognising that, Ronda stood and said, "Trust me, you'll be looked after." With that, she headed for the door.

"Ronda?"

Ronda's hand was on the door handle, but she stopped and turned back to face the Sheriff. "What?"

"Stop killing people. If you don't, we're all going to go down."

With a slight nod in acknowledgment, Ronda left the office and closed the door gently behind her; something which Melina didn't fail to notice. "You better be able to keep her under control Shane, or we're all fucked," she muttered to herself.