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“Well?” he huffs. “What are you waiting for? Arrest his ass.”
I cross my arms over my chest and wait.
“Penelope.” Detective Erikson’s eyes move over my shoulder. “Did Kai assault Phillip?”
“No.” Penelope comes to a stop beside me. “He showed up here and started yelling. He broke something very important to me and then threatened me. Kai was just showing him where the door was.”
“That’s bull—”
Detective Erikson cuts him off when he looks at Maggie. “Did you see Kai assault Phillip?”
“No, Detective. If anything, it looked like Phillip was going to go after Penelope. Kai stopped him before he could.”
Phillip opens his mouth to spew something else, but before he can, the detective looks to the left of Penelope’s office door. “You see anything that resembled assault against Phillip?”
I turn and find Kian standing there looking at Phillip with a harsh expression.
“No. And I’ll be honest, Kai showed a hell of a lot of restraint. I would have decked the asshole had I got to him before he had.”
After me, Kian is the newest member of Penelope’s team. He started working for her a couple of months before I started interning. Looking to be in his mid-forties, it’s easy to see he keeps himself in shape. I’ve met his wife a couple of times. As tough as the guy looks, he’s softer when his wife is around. Word is, his eighteen-year-old daughter is dating the high school English teacher. I bet that went over well with daddy.
“Seems to me,” Detective Erikson says, pulling my attention away from Kian and back to him, “you’re the one being the nuisance and attempting assault. Penelope, do you want to press charges?”
Out the corner of my eye, I see Penelope straighten her stance. “Yes.”
“You bitch!” Phillip snarls.
When he takes a step toward her, his body tense, like he wants to hit her, I step in front of Penelope and level him with a glare.
“You come anywhere near her again,” I growl, keeping my voice low so the others can’t hear me, “they’ll be carting you off in a body bag.”
“You?” The asshole actually laughs. “What in the hell can a boy do to me?”
“I’m a hell of a lot more of a man than you’ll ever hope to be.” I lean toward him. “Try me.”
“Enough,” Detective Erikson barks. He walks up behind Phillip and grabs his arms, pulling his hands behind his back. “Phillip Adair, you’re under arrest for attempted assault and destruction of property. Anything you say….”
After the detective reads Phillip his rights, he hands him off to the officers with instructions to put him in the back of a squad car. Then he pulls out a notebook and begins taking statements from everyone.
Anger burns in my gut when Penelope tells him the glass figurine Phillip broke was one her mother gave her when she was a little girl. I want to march outside, yank him from the car, and beat the ever lovin’ fuck out of him.
Sensing the tension rolling off me, Penelope glances over. I push my anger aside and reach for her hand. Detective Erikson’s voice pauses, and I look back at him. His eyes move from our clasped hands to me then to Penelope. He continues asking his questions.
He flips his notebook closed a few minutes later. “If that’s it, we’ll be in touch if we need anything else from you.”
“Thank you, Spencer,” Penelope states, holding out her hand.
He shakes it before letting it go. “Believe me, it’s going to be a pleasure hauling his ass in.”
He leaves a moment later. I walk into Penelope’s office and start cleaning up the glass from the floor as I wait for her while she speaks to Maggie and Kian. A few minutes pass before she’s closing the door. She leans against it with her eyes closed. My anger renews at the way her shoulders slump, as if the weight of the world rests on them.
I come to a stand and walk over to her. She slowly opens her eyes and peers at me.
“You okay?” I ask, gently gathering her in my arms and tugging her close.
“Yeah.” She sighs the one word. “I hate that man with every cell in my body.”
“You have every right to hate him. He’s lucky I have mountains of control or he’d be heading to the hospital and not to jail.”
