Without thinking, I turned on my heel and followed them. As soon as I got inside, I heard Miller pleading with the receptionist.
“My grandmother has been detained, and I need to see her.”
“Name.”
“Miller Hobbs,” he said in a rush.
The receptionist’s lip twitched. “Name of incarcerated.”
Miller groaned as if in pain. “She’d better not be incarcerated. She didn’t do anything wrong… or, well, she didn’t mean anything by it if she did.”
The receptionist shook her head and sighed. “They never do.”
The man with the white hair stepped forward. “My name is Harold Cannon. Matilda Marian is my wife.”
As soon as I heard him give his name, I realized why he looked familiar. Senator Cannon, father of President Cannon, was political royalty. What was Miller doing here with him in the Rockley County Sheriff’s Office?
“Miller?” I said softly. Miller turned around and spotted me by the doors, but before he could say anything, the receptionist told Senator Cannon he could go back and see his wife.
The senator murmured a few words to Miller before leaving him alone in the lobby to disappear behind a locked door. Miller turned back to me and twisted his hands together in front of him as if trying to keep them from doing something else. “What are you doing here?”
“I saw you out on the street and wanted to find out if you needed any help.”
“I… I don’t know. It’s my grandmother. She and her friends were arrested. We came to find out what’s going on.”
The door to the street opened behind me, blowing in frigid air from outside. I quickly moved closer to Miller just as a crowd of people came in. Everyone was talking at once, and the noise level skyrocketed.
Within seconds, I was jostled to the side as several men approached Miller. One pulled him into a tight embrace. “How are you holding up? Any news?”
Even though I had no right to feel this way, I was annoyed at the man’s familiarity with Miller. Everyone swarmed around him, and it didn’t take me long to determine this was the lovably chaotic family he’d mentioned to me. I let out a breath and started to move back toward the door to leave them in peace. Clearly, he’d have all the help he needed. Senator Cannon would have unlimited resources with any law enforcement agency, and there had to be an attorney or two among the large group surrounding Miller.
“Wait,” Miller blurted, grasping my hand and holding it tight. “Don’t leave. I mean… unless you need to. I’d really like you to stay. If you don’t mind.”
I stepped closer again and squeezed his hand. My heartbeat ticked up. “Of course I don’t mind. I’ll stay as long as you need me.”
As soon as the people around Miller realized he was holding a stranger’s hand, they began to demand an introduction. I met more people than I could ever recall names for, but a few notable ones stood out. One of his cousins was a famous country music singer, more attractive in person than I’d ever seen him on television or the internet. Another was an actual royal consort, which had to be some kind of joke. I’d put Google to the test later to see if I was being pranked. And then there was a man with long red hair who spoke in a lovely Irish accent and whose husband looked at him like he was the second coming of Christ.
For that matter, many of the men looked at their spouses that way in this group, and it only took a few moments to determine the rumor was true. Mikey and Tiller were hosting a large collection of beautiful gay men at the lodge this week. I just hadn’t realized they were almost all already taken.
That was fine by me. As long as Miller wasn’t taken, I was happy.
“She’s probably being strip-searched,” someone said. Someone else mumbled something about her most likely enjoying it.
I felt Miller tense beside me.
“Knowing Granny, she’s probably already trading sexual favors for a better bed,” someone else suggested with a laugh.
“Or she’s giving lessons,” another guy added.
As they continued to joke around, Miller got more and more restless until I offered to walk him outside for a breath of fresh air.
“No, I… I want to ask for an update. Why is this taking so long?”
Another older gentleman I hadn’t noticed before made his way through the throng to pull Miller into a hug. “She’ll be okay. You know how much she loves a good story, and this will inevitably turn into one of her favorites.”
“Why does she always have to do stuff like this?” Miller said into the man’s shoulder. “I worry about her. What if…”
The gentleman pulled away and held Miller by the shoulders. “There’s not a chance in hell they’ll keep her locked up for hijacking a sleigh ride. At most, they’ll charge her a fine and give her a warning. She’ll likely make a large donation to the sleigh owner regardless, and that’ll be that. Not many people begrudge little old ladies a moment of temporary insanity.”