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It wasn’t the first time I’d heard those words, and I’d bet his fancy fleet of Porsches that it wouldn’t be the last.
My jaw clenched and I looked at Officer Daniels. “Are we done with him?” I asked her, ignoring the lovely things my father then had to say to me.
She nodded. “We have what we need.”
I gave her a curt nod and dropped the receiver back onto the phone, hoping that it clattered in his ear.
“Do what you’ve got to do,” I told her.
She looked around the room for her partner. She threw him a nod and he grabbed the keys and started heading out to the car.
Officer Daniels helped me out of the chair, undid my cuffs and led me out to the car.
“First time seeing the new place,” I commented dryly. Inwardly, I was seething.
“Best you keep your mouth shut, Roman,” she advised. It was firm, but there was no malice in it.
Officer Daniels was a lot of things. She was professional. She was bored and annoyed by my shit. She’d written me off alongside everyone else who’d ever met me. But she wasn’t mean and she wasn’t rude.
As we drove up to our new house, I noticed all the lights were out. All but the security light at the front door. It was then that I remembered I was supposed to be at dinner with Mum at the neighbours. I was almost disappointed I’d miss it. But then, I wasn’t sure that putting me under that roof was a very good idea.
“Are you sure someone’s home?” Officer Daniels asked, as though there were anyone but me and Mum to be at home.
“She’s next door,” I told them.
Officer Daniels held the door open for me and a thought hit me.
“I don’t suppose you’d do me one teensy favour?” I asked, piling on all my charm.
“What?” Officer Daniels asked me, obviously thinking this was going to be good.
“I know the girl who lives next door,” I started. “And I’d love to give her a good impression of me.”
“Uh huh,” Officer Daniels said.
“Can you pretty please put the cuffs back on for me?”
She raised her eyebrow. “You want the cuffs back on?”
I nodded. “Yes, please.”
“I’ll make you a deal. I do this, and I don’t want to see or hear about you for a month.”
I pretended to think about it. Finally I nodded. “Okay. Deal.”
I put my hands behind my back and she redid the cuffs, muttering about idiotic teenagers and the things she was willing to do for them, then she and her partner frog marched me to the neighbours’ front door.
When it opened, it was more than I could have hoped for.
There she was.
Little Miss Popular.
The smile on her face died as she looked me over. Her big grey eyes went wide as they scanned my face like she’d never seen someone with a split lip before. That pale brown hair tumbled over her shoulder in a thick ponytail, the end of which she played with nervously as she chewed her lip.
Were she anyone else, I would have said that she’d dressed up. But it was her and she always looked unnecessarily put together. It was just a fitted dress and sneakers, but she could have worn a cardboard box and I still would have had the most impure thoughts about her. There was something about the look in her eyes, something about the way she bit her lip. It got to me. Got to me like no one else had ever got to me before.
“We’re looking for Mrs Lombardi?” Officer Daniels told her.
