AllFreeNovel
Share Us
at moment that I was shaking.
“Arrest him!” Rollins called over to the uniformed officers as they headed straight for him. “No, you idiots. Him.” He pointed to Woody. “I’m Detective Luther Rollins, and this is my investigation!”
The officers ignored Rollins protests as they hauled him away.
“Serves you right, you dirty old man!” Carina yelled after him. “What’s the matter with you? Trying to feel up a nineteen-year-old girl!”
“I?.?.?.?I’m twenty,” I stammered as my body still shook from shock and adrenaline. “I never thought I’d be so happy to see you’re annoying face.” With quivering lips, I managed a watery grin.
“God, you’re such a bitch.” Carina laughed as she pulled me into a hug. “But seriously, are you okay?” she asked as she pulled back to study me.
“Yes,” I replied, and then hugged her again. “Thank you,” I whispered, and I felt her hold tighten around me. “I thought you left.”
“No, I was in the office. I told Annette I would make the schedule for next month. I heard you scream and saw you out here with that guy. So I called the cops and every person on the emergency contact list. Woody was the first to answer.”
I didn’t even want to think about what might have happened to me if she hadn’t been there to help. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all and was worth getting to know better.
Woody continued to talk to the police and helped me make a report against Rollins. It all felt surreal, and the worst part was that even though his actions terrified me, I couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the way things turned out for him. He’d lost his wife as a result of something Mack’s father, Patrick King, had done, and was still suffering. I thought about how devastated my father would be if he lost my mother. Rollins had turned into the arms of darkness for comfort, and I hoped one day he would find light again.
Chapter Twenty
“I hate lawyers!” I growled as I hit end on my phone and flopped back into the booth. I’d been trying to reach Mack’s lawyer in order to get information about his upcoming hearing, without much success. It had been three weeks since Rollins attacked me, and I was told that he’d been put on administrative leave while internal affairs tried to determine what to do with him.
It had also taken another month for Mack to get a trial date, and the lawyer wasn’t very forthcoming with information since I wasn’t a relative. All I had to go on was what Brando told me, and I was pretty certain he wasn’t telling me everything.
“Oh, what time is it? Aren’t you supposed to see Brando tonight?”
“Yeah, he should be here in a few minutes,” Tayia answered as she smoothed her long hair away from her face. In the nearly two months since Mack was arrested, Brando and I had formed a comfortable relationship. He would often call me or come to Catch for a visit. He’d also developed an interest in Tayia. It was an understatement to say that I was shocked when Tayia agreed to go out with him, except she never let Brando pick her up from her house. It seemed that Blake had a problem with the whole situation, and Tayia was avoiding him, which was the reason she was sitting with me in a booth at Catch waiting for Brando. I thought she was giving Blake way too much power over her dating decisions, but again, it was sensitive territory so I left it alone. I was just happy to see her finally taking an interest in someone.
When Brando strode in, he reminded me so much of Mack, my heart ached. They shared the same confident walk and panty-dropping grin.
When Tayia saw him, her back straightened, and her smile widened.
“Hi, Brando,” she said when he reached our table.
“Hi, Tayia.” He smiled at her, then looked at me. “Hey.”
I waved, then started scrolling through my phone for the lawyer’s number again. “Mr. Wallace was supposed to call me back and he hasn’t. Have you heard anything?”
“Don’t worry,” he said with a reassuring smile. “You’ll know something soon.” Then he turned to Tayia and held out his hand. “You ready to go?” She nodded and stood. I knew they were going to a fancy restaurant in Key City and that Brando was using Mack’s boat to take them there. He’d also been staying at the house there too, since Rollins raided the place in Charleston. They’d also checked the Key City house but didn’t find anything to help their case.
Brando grabbed Tayia’s hand and led her to the door.
“Have fun, kids!” I called behind them as they walked away, then returned to waiting on my tables. Mama gave me my job back, but not before reminding me that I wasn’t allowed to quit. She did say that I was entitled to a break every now and then, though. She was also really supportive with the Mack situation, in fact, all of the family was. Woody seemed to be staying out of trouble and was helping out more with the rental properties and renovations. He was always good at woodworking and building things. Maybe he was turning over a new leaf.
Knight was currently running the street racing game and had been reportedly making a lot of big changes. Most of Mack’s list had been replaced with Knight’s friends. Woody and Drew refused to race by Knight’s rules, so they were kicked completely off the list. It burned me up that in the span of two months Knight had managed to completely destroy what took Mack years to build. I’d also learned that the blonde who had been bankrolling everything for Knight was Madelyn Risto, Carina’s mother. There was a story there, and I couldn’t wait to get to the bottom of it.
After closing down the restaurant, I went upstairs to my apartment and had a nice long shower. I’d spent a lot of time in here the last couple of months. Sometimes I would cry, sometimes I would think of legitimate plans to break him out of prison, and sometimes I would alleviate the ache between my legs when my need for him was too much to handle.
I’d just finished putting moisturizer on my face when I heard a light tapping at the door. It was almost three in the morning, and I wondered if Tayia was back from her date with Brando since she’d been staying over with me most nights.
When I reached the door, I couldn’t see anyone through the peephole so I backed away, thinking maybe I’d been hearing things. Then I heard the light knocking again. So I looked once more and saw nothing. Alright, now I was starting to feel creeped out. My mind started to go crazy with thoughts of Rollins returning to pick up where he left off, or Travis coming to give me more sleazy poems.
That’s when I’d reached my limit of being stalked and victimized. I reached in the dresser drawer and got the mace I’d been carrying around with me for weeks and stomped to the door. Enough of this shit. I unlocked the latches, put my finger on the mace trigger and flung the door open wide.
“I fuckin’ knew you were gonna open the door,” the voice I’d been waiting two months to hear said. “It’s three o’clock in the morning. I told you dumb shit happens all the time, Jonna.” Mack was standing there grinning at me and shaking his head. I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t, so instead I dropped the mace, flung my arms around his neck, and wrapped my legs around his waist.
“Hey.” He laughed as he steadied himself against the doorjamb.
