AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s okay,” I echoed with wide eyes as I stepped past them and swallowed my smile before it broke my face. Marching right up to Mateo, I demanded, “What’s going on?”
“Faith.”
“And don’t you dare lie to me, brother-in-law,” I said. “I don’t care how much Grace loves you, I will make your life a living hell if I hear one more line of bullshit. Adam broke his parole to come find me. He has gone—”
Mateo grabbed my wrist and pulled me into his office as I continued.
“—above and beyond to make sure I’m safe twenty-four seven. I know with absolute certainty that Adam would not work for Pittman again after what he did to me. I know it to my bones. So, I’m asking nicely, Mateo. What the fuck is going on?”
He shut the glass door behind me and spun around so that his back was to it. “I don’t care what you think you know, damn it, shut the hell up,” he said through gritted teeth.
I reared back, unaccustomed to anything but amicability from my sister’s husband. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he said. “Stop being the poor wronged one for five seconds and think about what might be happening to somebody else, and that maybe there are factors outside your little bubble of knowledge.”
My skin lit on fire. “My little bubble?”
“Maybe quit making it worse, Faith,” he continued. “Maybe get out of the way and trust me to do my damn job.”
There was that trust thing again.
I was flummoxed.
“Where is he?” I breathed, my blood rushing through me so fast I was almost dizzy.
“He’s in lockup,” he said, pointing in that general direction.
“I want to see him.”
Mateo scoffed, and I noticed again how exhausted he looked. “Not happening.”
“Mateo.”
“Go home, Faith.”
I knew he wasn’t intimidated by me. He was married to my sister, and I was a lightweight compared to her argumentative process, but still. I was a McMasters woman. I crossed my arms and channeled all that I could.
“Jesus,” he muttered after a moment.
Without another word, he steered me down a hall, turning suddenly at a group of three holding cells. He planted me directly in front of the middle one where Adam sat on a bench, his head in his hands. I wondered where Pittman was and why he’d be somewhere different.
“You have one minute,” Mateo growled, and Adam looked up.
“What the fuck?” Adam said, rising to his feet. “What are you doing here?”
The rush of emotion upon seeing him there in front of me stole my breath. It was all I could do not to grip the bars to stay on my feet. “Could ask you the same,” I managed finally.
He shook his head, looking almost panicked as his gaze raked the area. Multiple officers passed us on their way to various places. “You need to go.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do, Adam.”
“Don’t stay at the apartment, go—”
“Got it covered,” I said.
I was shaking with the need to ask questions. To yell all the things. But something in the back of my head said to keep it in. That something was at play here and all my hurt feelings and betrayal could wait.
Maybe there are factors outside your little bubble of knowledge.
Maybe quit making it worse.
There was some reason this was going down this way, and they weren’t trusting me with it. Because I was just the sweet, delicate little Faith that everyone had to shelter and shield.
“Anything else you want to say to me?” I choked out.
Adam shook his head as two patrolmen hovered nearby, his green eyes glazing over. Just like they had when he first came home. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice gravelly.
My eyes burned with unshed tears, but I refused to show him that. “Go to hell,” I whispered, dragging my gaze from him to Mateo. “Both of you.”
