“Just give it some time. If Thad locates what we asked for, Marcus will set him free, and we can put this behind us.”
“Whatever. Like he said, I don’t have the power to stop him.”
She gave a resentful sniff and growled, “Yet.”
I had to get her mind off of this somehow. She was triggered— I could tell by the emotions swelling through our bond. Her mind was disoriented, trying to piece together fragmented memories of what had happened in the Ancestral Lands, and what had happened in the hospital, attempting to figure out what had been real and what her mind had potentially made up to fill the gaps in her memory.
I didn’t know what was real, either, and sorting through the chaos in her head was a task neither of us were equipped for, so I went with something simpler. “We should get our minds off of it. We never finished writing the song we were working on last weekend.”
Ava huffed resentfully. “That would be great if I could remember where it is. I put it down and don’t recall where.”
“We’ll find it.”
Ava started shuffling items around, and I went to help. When I misplaced things, I worked in a grid pattern around the room to locate them. I started in the farthest left corner, and worked my way along the wall, where the counter was. When I didn’t find it, I moved a few feet down and moved my way to the back of the room.
I couldn’t help but admit this had been an easier process when I’d lived alone. Ava was doing her best, but she’d been a messy personbeforeshe’d gotten injured, and memory issues aside, she had a tendency to misplace our belongings. Our apartment wasn’t very large, so I was sure we’d find the folder we’d kept our sheet music in eventually.
Ava sounded intrigued as she asked, “Charlie, what are these?”
I heard the clink of the handcuffs, and froze. “I… uh, stole them off a guard.”
“Why?” Her voice raised a pitch.
“I thought you’d like them. I was saving them for the right time.”
“Now’s agreattime.”
At the mention of sex, Ava’s anger completely flew out the window. I saw it as an opportunity to quiet her mind, and she needed to focus right now. There was nothing that calmed her thoughts better than bondage. Right now, I couldn’t focus on much other than those cuffs. I’d been waiting a long time to use them.
I gently took the cuffs out of her hands, teasing her as they jingled above her.
She reached out to grab my shirt, keeping her wrists close together, as if offering them to me. “I’ve been a bad girl, haven’t I, Charlie?”
“The worst,” I agreed. “Someone needs to make an arrest.”
Ava giggled. “Officer, please, you’ve got the wrong girl.”
“Oh, I’ve got the right girl. Only someone as hot as you could walk away with the smoking gun.” I slapped the cuffs on one of her wrists. “I need to restrain you.”
Ava used her free hand to try rolling away, but I held on to her cuffs. I was gentle, and she laughed lightly. “Stop resisting,” I ordered.
I grabbed her other wrist. Her hand slipped from my grasp as she struggled away, but I caught her again and cuffed her hands together. “You have the right to remain silent.”
“You have the right to suck my dick,” she said as she tried to elbow me.
I grabbed tight to her wrists and leaned down to whisper firmly, “Remain. Silent.”
“I don’t take orders from cops.”
Ava was being areally badgirl. I picked her up and tossed her over my shoulder. She let a snicker escape as I carried her to the bedroom and threw her on the bed.
“Put your hands above your head,” I ordered.
“Make me.”
I jumped on the bed and straddled her, then grabbed her wrists, which she was keeping close to her chest, and pinned them above her head. I leaned down until my breath brushed the side of her face. “Do you have anything on your person?”
Ava shivered in anticipation. “No, sir.”
