She felt herself flush. She’d basically accused the man of murder. And stalking. And lots of other things. She’d sent out people to gather information on him.
“Ms. Jones, how have they treated you?” Taggart slid into the chair across from her.
“Did you eat the bologna?” Kyle sat down beside his boss. And uncle of some kind.
Deke hovered in the background.
She hadn’t been offered food. She also hadn’t been taken to lockup. “I’ve been in Captain Brighton’s office, and then someone came to take me here. He brought me some coffee and a towel, and then they let me change out of my wet clothes.”
As police interactions went, it had been shockingly polite. Captain Brighton had put her in the back of his car and then he’d taken her into his office. She hadn’t seen him again. A female officer had brought her the bag of clothes someone had packed for her.
“MaeBe ran by your place and grabbed you some clean clothes,” Kyle said. “She’s worried about you.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that. She definitely wasn’t ready to forgive the woman she’d been starting to like. She could forgive the people behind the scenes much faster. They’d been doing their jobs, not breaking her heart and her trust. “Thank her for me, please.”
“She’s in with the detectives, showing them what she’s found,” Kyle said. “She’s been working on your case for days, and she’s been your biggest defender.”
“I didn’t know I needed a defender. No one told me what was happening.” She was still confused. “How was I supposed to be blackmailing Junior?”
It was ridiculous to call an almost sixty-year-old man Junior, but she wasn’t about to call him George. He didn’t deserve the name. He was nothing like his father. He was a selfish prick who would stop at nothing to get one more dollar out of the world. He would cut anyone’s throat to get the tiniest bit further.
“He faked photographs of the two of you meeting at a seedy motel and had someone write an email demanding cash or you would turn over everything to the press,” Deke began.
She felt herself flush. “I didn’t…”
“MaeBe and Hutch can prove that the photos are fakes, and we have video of the man Junior hired uploading those files to the system at your sister’s house,” Taggart continued. “I would like to point out that had my employees not been dipshits doing shady things, you would very likely be in a cell right now waiting for an attorney you can’t afford because it would take the police a while to figure this out.”
“I turned on the cameras inside your sister’s house,” Deke admitted. “I was watching to see if anyone showed up. When you had a late-night visitor, I investigated. We can prove you weren’t behind this ploy of Junior’s.”
She didn’t care that Michael’s schemes had worked in her favor. She didn’t. She cared that he was one more lying asshole who’d used her.
“I still can’t afford a lawyer,” she said quietly. “So I’m not sure they’ll listen. And I certainly can’t afford your services.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Taggart replied. “I’ve already explained that I’m willing to deal with your case in exchange for the whole not suing us thing. And we do enough work for DPD that they will listen to us. As of ten minutes ago the police agreed this was all a misunderstanding. You won’t be charged with anything.”
“I haven’t been able to prove that Junior was behind it.” Deke leaned against the wall. “All I’ve got is some asshole sneaking in to upload the data to your computer. He sent the email to Junior.”
Taggart shrugged. “We all know Junior did it. It’s just going to take time to prove it. And I told you we would take care of the attorney. Lea Stone handles our dealings with the police. She’s already gotten this incident taken care of, and she’s trying to get Michael out on bond. It’s surprising how fast a judge can work when you’re the son of a billionaire.”
“Or the girlfriend of a son of a billionaire,” Kyle pointed out. “They didn’t even book her from what I heard. Michael got booked real fast. I hope he avoided the bologna, too. I’m serious. They put something in it as punishment.”
“I’m not his girlfriend.” But she wanted to see him. Her stupid heart was so battered it should be broken beyond repair, but when she’d seen him on the ground with two police officers on top of him…
She wasn’t giving in. She couldn’t. Of course, she also had nowhere to go.
Taggart sighed as though that was what he’d expected to hear, but it still disappointed him.
She stared the big guy’s way. “What am I supposed to do? He lied to me. He used me. I’m almost certain he did something to the gate at my housing community so I couldn’t go back. Hell, maybe he was the one sending the rocks through my window.”