AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What academy?” We were at least an hour away from any kind of big city. Seemed a weird place for something as fancy as an academy.
He frowned but didn’t clarify. “How about we try starting over here? Hi. I’m Parker Barnes. It’s nice to meet you.”
I kept my eyes fixed firmly ahead and nodded.
“And you are?” Parker prompted after several silent moments passed.
“Tawny,” I answered even though I really didn’t want to.
“There. Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
I shook my head and let out a beleaguered sigh. “I’d really rather not make chit-chat with some guy who thinks I killed my landlady. Let’s just get the questioning over with and go on our separate ways. Okay?”
“Touché, madame. Lucky for you, we’re already there.”
The car jerked to a stop, shocking me with how short this journey had been.
I widened my eyes at the sight of the sprawling brick building before us. It wasn’t just a single building, but a whole complex—and it definitely wasn’t a police station. I didn’t remember ever passing it before on my walks through town, either. Though it obviously wasn’t far from where I lived, judging from the short time between climbing into this cruiser and reaching our destination.
“I thought you were taking me to the station?” I said, crossing my arms across my chest in open defiance.
“This is the station, at least for our purposes today. C’mon. We’ve lost too much time already.”
I turned to stare at him. He didn’t look like your garden variety murderer-rapist-all-around-psycho, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t. I refused to follow him blindly just because he wore a uniform. Uniforms could be faked, after all.
“Everything only just happened. How have we lost time?” I demanded, sitting firm. “And, no, I know better than to go into a strange building with a strange man. I’m staying right here.” Not that camping out in his strange car was any better, but still, a girl had to stand up for herself—otherwise who would?
“Okay, but if anyone asks, you’re the one who chose to do this the hard way,” Parker answered with yet another frown before exiting the car.
I watched as he marched around the car, came to my side, and then flung the door open. “Out,” he said firmly.
I opened my mouth to argue but let out a scream instead. My hands were moving to unbuckle the seatbelt, my feet to pull me from the car. I had told neither of them to do those things. “Hey,” I cried in a pathetic protest. “Stop it.”
“Follow me,” Parker said, obvious enjoyment now dancing in his light eyes.
My legs answered as if they belonged to him instead of me. The no-good traitors.
And into the unmarked office in the non-police building I went, thanks to my frighteningly bossy companion and inexplicably disobedient limbs.
Yup, this day just kept on getting worse and worse.
And that definitely didn’t bode well for whatever happened next.
4
We entered a chilly office space that sat dark and dim despite how brightly the late morning sun shone outside. Okay, so I might have slept in a little that day, but I was between books so it didn’t really matter.
“Your instincts were bang on,” Parker said to someone I couldn’t see. “Haberdash is dead. And I found this one at the scene.”
“Well, that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the day,” a smooth voice responded from somewhere deeper inside. Each of his words rolled directly into the next without taking any small breaks for breath. I’d almost describe it as serpentine, although that description wasn’t exactly right, either.
More than a little intrigued, I whipped my head from side to side but still couldn’t locate the speaker. “Who’s there? What do you want with me?”
The disembodied voice chuckled, and I thought I caught a glimpse of movement at the edge of the room, but just as quickly as I spotted it, the dark form had slunk back into the even darker shadows.
“Well, that certainly isn’t good. Take her to the conference room,” the voice instructed in that same overly polished manner. “I’ll summon the others.”
Parker placed a hand at the small of my back, and I wriggled away from him. “Don’t touch me,” I snapped.
