In her fury, she launched herself at the nearest officer. “Stop this!” she screamed. “Get out! I’m calling his lawyer right now. Swear to God we’ll sue your asses. Every single goddamn one of you!”
“Back off,” one of the cops told her in an icy voice. “We have a legal warrant to search the Impulse offices of one Drake Donovan and to confiscate anything we feel may aid us in our investigation.”
“Bullshit!” she yelled. “I’ll have your fucking badge!”
She was so furious that she was screaming words that would have her mother washing her mouth out with soap for a year. But she didn’t care. She was fighting for her life here. Oh God, Drake hated her. It was there for everyone to see in his eyes as he coldly stared her down.
For an excruciating hour, they tossed the entire contents of Drake’s office while Evangeline stood there sobbing. She’d never felt so helpless in her life as she stood there watching her life slowly drain away.
Evidently frustrated with their efforts to find whatever it was they were looking for, the lead officer called a halt to the search. They uncuffed Drake and all his men and then advised Drake not to leave the city any time in the next several days and that they would be contacting him for further questioning once they’d analyzed all the evidence against him.
That was the most ridiculous, trumped-up thing Evangeline had ever heard of. She might not have a law degree, but this wasn’t the way the police conducted an investigation. They didn’t barge in with a search warrant and then tip their hand when they found nothing and basically tell Drake exactly what their plans were. Did they think he was stupid? Unless . . . it was all a plan to get Drake to do something stupid. Like panic and make a mistake and lead them right to whatever it was they were searching for.
If that was the best plan they could come up with to take Drake down, they were incompetent idiots. He would never fall for something this absurd. It was like freaking amateur hour. And she was supposed to feel safe with guys like these protecting the city she lived in?
As the police filed out the door, leaving the shattered remnants of it behind, Evangeline launched herself across the room and against Drake’s chest, horrified at the humiliating treatment he’d been subjected to at their hands.
Tears streamed down her face as she stared up into Drake’s cold one. “Oh my God, Drake, what did they want?”
“You tell me,” he said in a frigid tone.
He roughly shoved her away from him, causing her to trip and stumble in the heels she wore. She would have gone down, but Silas caught her. He steadied her on her feet, a look of grave concern on his face.
“Are you all right, Evangeline?” he asked, worry evident in his tone.
Silas’s actions served to only piss Drake off even further.
“Get out,” Drake said flatly. “Get the hell out. So help me God, if I ever see your face again, I’ll have you thrown out and I’ll serve a restraining order against you so that you can’t come within a hundred yards of me. Ever.”
“Drake!” she cried, numbness invading her. Coldness overtaking her skin, her blood, her heart. “Oh God, Drake, don’t do this. Please. You have to listen to me. I know you’re upset right now, but you have to see this whole thing was a ridiculous setup. Can’t you see that?”
“Setup? Yes, I suppose you could say that’s exactly what it was,” he said bitterly. “You played the part very well, Evangeline. You’re to be congratulated. Did it give you an extra sense of victory to know you’d gotten further than any woman ever had before?”
“That’s enough, goddamn it, Drake,” Maddox swore violently.
Drake turned on his man. “You stay the fuck out of this. All of you.” Then he turned back to Evangeline, so much hatred shining in his eyes that she realized the futility of her ever thinking he could love her. “The price of betrayal is everything,” he said, his voice growing colder with every single word. “I want you out and I don’t ever want you near my apartment, the club, any of my businesses, and Evangeline, you don’t want to know what happens to people who don’t heed my instructions.”
His voice had dropped to a dangerously low level, but she was beyond caring, beyond pride. If she lost him, she lost everything anyway. What did it matter if she had nothing else?
She went to her knees in front of him, her eyes begging him to listen to her. To believe in her.
“Drake, please, you have to listen to me. I have never betrayed you,” she said softly, painfully. “Not once. I have always had faith in you. I’ve always believed in you. I’ve never questioned you. And now I’m asking for the same from you. I’m begging you to trust me. To believe in me until I have a chance to prove I had nothing to do with this.”