Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 78054 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78054 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
I realized one of the strange noises I could hear was me. Gasping for breath and still crying. I dropped my head to his shoulder, and he pressed his hand to my neck, rubbing the tight muscles, his touch soothing and gentle.
I began to relax. My breathing smoothed out. I was still leaking tears, but they were slowly stopping. I sniffled and wiped at my nose. Brett offered me a rag.
“It’s pretty clean,” he said. “It’s all I’ve got.”
I wiped my face and blew my nose, still resting on his chest.
I heard the sound of footsteps, and Brett looked up, his voice rumbling in his chest.
“Well, well, if it isn’t my old friend. How are you, Officer Gallagher?”
I lifted my head, meeting the shocked gaze of the police officer who had helped Chase. Maxx was beside her, frowning. Her amber-colored eyes took us in. “You,” she said, her lips quirking. “I thought it was your friend who caused trouble.”
“We’re all equally guilty,” Brett said dryly.
“The, ah, man, Carl Enders, who is being loaded into the ambulance, says you attacked him with no provocation.”
I pushed off Brett, trying to stand. My legs felt wobbly, and I had to sit back down.
“He was defending me. Charly can vouch for it.”
“He’s accusing her of stealing his property.”
Maxx snorted. “My wife isn’t a thief. She took back what belonged to Kelly in the first place.”
Officer Gallagher shook her head. “I need to take you to headquarters, Mr. Conner. I’ll need your statement. Mrs. Reynolds too.”
“My wife isn’t going anywhere,” Maxx growled. “That ass came onto my property, tried to attack my wife and her friend. Brett was defending them.”
“I’m only doing my job.”
Brett pressed a kiss to my head, sat me on the bench, and stood. “I’ll go. Can’t you take Charly’s statement here?”
She wavered, and I stood as well. “Maxx is telling the truth.”
“Fine. I’ll take her statement, but she has to come down if I need her.”
Maxx crossed his arms, but Brett stepped in. “Fine.”
“I want to make a statement too.”
“Okay. Give me a minute.”
Maxx followed her out of the barn, and Brett turned to me. “Stay out of this, Kelly.”
“No. This is my fault.”
“I’ll go make my statement and answer their questions. You stay with Charly.”
“No,” I snapped. “I was there. You weren’t.”
“You are always so stubborn.”
He took my arm.
“So are you,” I muttered.
I sat in the waiting room of police headquarters. I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of that grandiose-sounding name for this small building in Lomand. I could hear Brett’s voice in the back as he spoke to the officers. I waited for my turn, holding a cup of cold coffee.
When Officer Gallagher came in and escorted me to the back, I sat down, looking around the tiny room. Sparse and barren, it held a table, two chairs, and a camera.
“You aren’t facing any charges,” she informed me. “So I’ll just take your statement.”
“Brett shouldn’t be either.”
“Mr. Enders has a broken nose, black eye, and a lacerated cheek. His ribs are bruised and his hands injured, which, as I was informed, are essential to his line of work. He is insisting on charges.”
I scrubbed my face, wanting to cry again.
“Tell me what happened,” she said.
I made a decision.
“Maybe I need to start a while back for you to understand the whole story.”
“Okay.”
I shut my eyes, and I started to talk.
Eventually, I stopped. She hadn’t interrupted me once. Didn’t ask me a single question. When I opened my eyes again, she hadn’t written anything down. She was studying me.
“So he drugged you, stole your work, and is essentially blackmailing you. And he showed up today, demanding that you return the work he stole so he could use it for his own gain. Mrs. Reynolds fully admits to opening his trunk, removing some SD cards, and destroying them in front of him. She didn’t say what they contained, but I assume it was the pictures he took to compromise you.”
“Yes.”
“And when she screamed and you tried to stop him from getting to her, that was when he tried to hit you, and Mr. Conner came to your defense.”
“Yes.”
She tapped the pen on the notepad. “All your stories line up without the extra detail.”
“So, you can drop the charges?”
She shook her head. “It’s not up to me. Mr. Enders tells a different side of the story. He’s lying in a hospital bed. It’s up to a judge.”
“He deserves what he got.”
“I’m not allowed to express my opinion on that.”
“Can Brett go home?”
“No. He’ll be held overnight.”
“That isn’t fair.”
Her eyes softened. “I know. But he refuses a lawyer, and Mr. Enders is insisting on the charges.”
My mind whirled. I knew Carl. He was furious. I had witnessed it once, and I knew his temper was lethal. Not only had I refused him today, Charly had destroyed the evidence he’d possessed to hurt me. And Brett had physically humiliated him. He would dig in his heels, and even if he couldn’t make the charges stick, he was going to do everything he could to destroy Brett, Maxx, and Charly.