“Don’t start with me.” Jeffers came over, one hand training his gun on William and the other fetching his cuffs from his belt.
“Jeffers, knock it off,” Anne said.
“Coming in here, intimidating an officer who’s been investigating you for murder?” Jeffers said. He motioned for William to turn around. William pursed his lips and complied.
“He wasn’t intimidating me,” Anne protested. “Why would you think that?”
“C’mon, Anne. Don’t tell me you were fine. He was all over you.” Jeffers jerked William’s hands into the cuffs, but William didn’t make a noise, aside from one indignant grunt.
“I could tell you what he came for, if you’d have waited a second for him to tell me. I wasn’t being intimidated, and you don’t need to arrest him,” Anne argued. With her eyes on them both, she waited for another moment before snatching the gun out of Jeffers’ hand. “Are you kidding me with this? In the station?”
Jeffers looked up. Josh had ducked behind his desk and had his hand on the phone.
“It’s fine, people,” Jeffers announced. “We’re just bringing him back for questioning.”
“Great job, there. Catching the man who came here of his own volition,” Will muttered.
“You got something to say?” Jeffers growled.
“Yeah, obviously. It’s why I came here.” William rolled his eyes and looked to Anne.
He wasn’t pleading or distressed in any way. He just looked incredibly annoyed.
“Jeffers, you need to be incredibly careful,” Anne warned.
“Yeah, I know this one is slippery.” He gave William a push and began walking back down the hall with him.
“No, I mean…” Anne reached up on her toes and tried to whisper, although it was hard to pitch her voice properly and William could probably hear. “You don’t want him suing the department. You didn’t read him his rights, and last night his car was searched illegally.”
Jeffers looked back at her. His expression was stubborn and angry. He gave William another push, and Anne almost had to jog to keep pace with them. Within a minute, they’d reached Jeffers’ destination, an interrogation room. He dragged William inside and unlocked one of his cuffs and attached it to the table. Then he stepped back outside and slammed the door.
“What’s going on here, Anne? Why is he even here?” Jeffers demanded.
“I told you. I don’t know. He hadn’t gotten to that part yet.”
“But he got to the part where he practically had his tongue in your ear?”
Anne tilted her head back and looked at Jeffers in disbelief. “That is unbelievably disgusting, and you are so out of line. I’m letting him out.”
Jeffers caught her hand. “Don’t. He’s here for questioning. Why shouldn’t we question him?”
“He’s not here to be cuffed to a table and roughed up by the cops,” Anne countered. “I’m not kidding about the possibility of a lawsuit.”
Anne shook her head. Jeffers could be a little too casual and sometimes a little lazy, but she’d never seen him be so irresponsibly aggressive. She reentered the room to see William with his heels kicked up on the table and rubbing his wrist.
“How the hell did you get out of those cuffs?” she asked without thinking.
“Why the hell did your idiot partner put me in them?” he shot back.
“Hey,” Jeffers objected.
Anne held up a hand. “Look, it’s better to be alone as we discuss whatever you decided was so important that it needed a face-to-face conference. Just say what’s on your mind.”
William closed his eyes, took a breath, and looked back up at Jeffers. “Just you.”
Jeffers narrowed his eyes. “Not a chance.”
William pressed his lips into a flat line and crossed his arms.
“He won’t attack you again,” Anne promised. Funny, since the roles were usually reversed when they were playing good cop/bad cop.
William blinked slowly and said nothing.
“Are you just here to waste our time then? Some kind of distraction?” Jeffers said.
“I’m here to talk to Anne,” William said mildly.
The fact that William wasn’t even slightly intimidated by Jeffers seemed to make him even angrier. And it occurred to her that what he wanted to talk to her about might have been romantic in nature. Her heart surged in her chest.
“You could’ve called.” Anne took a seat.
“Could’ve. Didn’t.” William rolled his neck around on his shoulders. “It would be easier to show you.”
Anne’s cheeks burned. Did he have to act like this here?