Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Though, that might have to do with the fact that he was another cop’s son. He knew when he could and couldn’t joke around with me. This time being one of those times that he couldn’t.
“Yes, sir.”
Then he was gone and I was pushing back through more kids.
And there was Conleigh.
She and another girl the same age were screaming at each other.
“Your mother is a whore!” the other girl screamed.
“No,” Conleigh disagreed. “She’s not. My mother is not a whore and has never been a whore.”
My eyelid twitched.
“She cheated on your father. Everybody knows Officer Holyfield would never leave your mother if she hadn’t.”
Yeah. Those kids loved “Officer Holy.”
“No,” Conleigh snapped. “My mother wasn’t the cheater. My stepfather was. Go ask Cohen’s mom.”
“My boyfriend’s mom didn’t cheat with Officer Holy. Fuck you.”
I sighed.
“Girls,” I growled. “Time to break it up. It’s time for you all to leave.”
That last part I said loudly. Loud enough that every single one of the little shits had heard it.
They shuffled from foot to foot, unwilling to leave the juicy gossip.
“Now!”
Most of them left. But they didn’t go far.
“Girls,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“She’s spreading rumors about my mother,” Conleigh snarled. “Saying she’s a whore and that she deserves to be poor. She won’t stop talking about her, and now everyone at school thinks I’m ‘just like my mother.’”
I gritted my teeth and turned my eyes toward the other girl.
“What’s your name?”
The girl didn’t immediately answer. Conleigh did, though.
“Shannon Noor.”
Shannon’s eyes narrowed, and I saw her body tense in readiness.
“If you hit her, I will take you to jail for assault.”
The girl took a hasty step back.
“Time to go home.”
The girl gave Conleigh one more long glare and then swiveled around with the amount of anger that only a hormonal teenager could’ve pulled it off.
Conleigh glared at her back the entire way.
“Let’s go.”
She didn’t argue, and it was only when we were in my cruiser that I saw why.
She was crying silently beside me.
I had no clue what to say.
“My son, Sean,” I finally settled on. “Is getting calls from my ex. She’s a whore. I know whores. Your mother is not one.”
Conleigh burst out laughing in between sobs.
“Thanks for that,” she said as she wiped her eyes.
“Why do you keep doing this?” I asked. “One of these days I’m not going to be on duty and you’re going to get picked up by one of my cops that doesn’t have a soft spot for pain in the ass girls. He’s gonna take you into the station and book you. Then you’re going to forever have a record. Do you know what that does to you when you try to get a job?”
She stubbornly didn’t reply.
I sighed and started my cruiser, backing out of the crowd of people who were still gathered. Before I left all the way, I stopped and picked up my mic that would allow me to speak over the loudspeaker.
“In ten minutes I’m going to have a unit come over and make sure this parking lot is clear of loiterers. And, for all of you peabrains that don’t know what a loiter is, that would be the ones that are still standing around in the parking lot. If you’re still here, he’s going to be handing out tickets. Fines for said tickets are two hundred and thirty bucks. They also can’t be dropped. Think about that.”
Before I’d even hung the mic up, people were dispersing.
“Are they really that much money?”
I grinned. “No. They’re about seventy-five. But these kids don’t know that.”
Conleigh grinned at me. The grin quickly fell.
“I gotta tell you something.” She licked her lips and then looked away.
“What?”
I waited and listened as I maneuvered out of the mall parking lot, making it nearly halfway to her house before she decided to speak again.
When she did, my gut twisted.
“My dad—stepdad—cheated on my mom.”
I winced.
“With her best friend.”
My brows rose. “You know that for sure?”
I hadn’t heard a damn thing, and the station was a damn gossip mill.
She nodded, swallowing convulsively. “I heard her crying when she was packing our things when we moved out of Matt’s house. That girl, Krisney, the one we rented the house from?”
I nodded.
“She was asking mom what happened. My mom thought I was at school, but I’d walked home because it was early release and she forgot. Anyway, Mom was telling Krisney that my stepfather cheated on her with her best friend. And her best friend at the time’s husband was dying of cancer. Apparently, it was going on for a really, really long time.”
I felt sick to my stomach.
“I was hoping if I could do something bad…bad enough that the cops came, that one of those times Matt would come.”
“And what were you going to say to Matt?”
She pursed her lips, and her eyes changed. Before I could say anything on that, though, a call came in. I held up my hand when she started to reply to my question, and she clamped her mouth shut.