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Detective Carter sounds more nasally than he did before when he whines, “You broke my fucking nose.”
Even in my empty, soulless state, I take sick pleasure in that. Detective Carter deserves that and so much worse. Connor does too. And even Hunter. They all deserve to feel pain like I’m feeling, but life isn’t fair and that wish isn’t granted. I curl up on the floor, comforting myself.
A loud voice bellows with authority, “What is going on in here?”
Everyone freezes, eyes turning toward the man who’s exited an office off to the side.
Except me. After a quick glance, I look at the floor, trying to figure out where everything went wrong. Dimly, I hear Connor tell me, “I’m going to fix this. I promise.”
But I don’t react to that either.
I wait until the office door closes behind Carter, Hunter, and Connor before I let the tears fall.
I don’t know how much time has passed when a man in a black suit walks through. I wonder if he’s my lawyer when he glances my way, but he doesn’t say anything before going into the office with Connor.
Fine, fuck you too, I think. Fuck everyone and everything.
But the rage is short-lived, burning hot and fast and then leaving me weighed down with inner darkness. I sigh and curl back up. I stare at the wall until the officer from the desk appears sometime later with a paper bag of food. “Hey, honey. Thought you might be hungry, so I brought you some lunch.”
“Not hungry.”
“Okay, I’ll leave it right here in case you change your mind. Just do me a favor, don’t go chucking meatloaf sandwich all over the place?” She sits there for a minute, looking uncomfortable. When she glances over her shoulder for the second time, I glare at her.
“What?”
“I know this is an awful time, but I’m a really big fan,” the officer says, biting her lip a little. “I’ve been kicking myself for not asking last time. Do you think you could sign my book?”
She holds out a marker and a copy of Love in Great Falls that’s obviously been read multiple times. Even with everything falling to shit, I can’t be rude to her. Not when she’s been nothing but kind. It’s not her fault I’m where I am.
It’s Connor’s.
And mine.
I scoot over to the slot in the mesh, and she holds out the marker. I reach for it, but she moves the marker back slightly to ask, “You’re not going to stab anybody with this, are you?”
I lift an eyebrow, silently asking ‘seriously?’ and she smiles. “Didn’t think so.”
While I sign the book she’s holding open, she clears her throat. “So . . . your social media said that you’ve got a new book in the works. Trouble In Great Falls?”
Oh, God, that. Hilda is going to kill me. There is no way I’m going to make my deadline, and if word gets out that I’m in the slammer for going full assault force on a police officer, I’ll be done for. “Uhm, yeah. Who do I make this out to?”
The desk officer smiles excitedly. “Penelope. Everything’s going to work out for Ryker and Amber, right?”
I look across the office, where the men are all mansplaining the shit out of everything to each other, doing what men seem to do best. “I might kill Ryker off.”
Officer Penelope follows my line of vision and frowns. “I hear you, honey. Maybe don’t take out what that one did on my Ryker, though? He’s my favorite book boyfriend.”
“We’ll see,” I tell her. “You know, no promises and all that.”
But everyone knows that’s just a kinder, gentler way of saying no. Officer Penelope leaves, and I must fall asleep at some point because the rattle of keys wakes me. I open my eyes to see Hunter and a uniformed officer standing at the cell door.
“You sure you can handle her by yourself?” he sneers. “I can call the pound if you need it.”
I glare at him, clacking my teeth together.
Hunter sighs and rolls his eyes in exasperation. “Poppy, could you not? You have no idea what we just went through to get you out of here. And you,” he says, looking at the officer, “be a fucking professional.”
That melts my orneriness a bit. Hunter’s right on both counts, I bet. “I’m free to go?”
Hunter holds out a hand but frowns, which doesn’t make me feel any better. “Not exactly. You’ve been released to my custody. As a witness for our case against Mr. Big.” He stares at me hard, his eyes telling me to listen to what he said carefully. “I’ll have to cuff you until we get to the car. Seems you scared the shit out of Carter over there, and he’s considering pressing charges for assault on an officer. He’s not much a fan of being told to stand down and back the fuck off.”
