They arrested Lucas.
It took three cops to bring him down. And by bring him down, I mean two cops surrounding him, guns aimed at his chest, and one cop placing him in cuffs. Lucas didn’t put up a fight. I know why. The threat to me—that being Bobby’s father—was neutralized. With that one single punch.
Stare locked on me, Lucas rose to his feet, stepped over the inert body, and placed his hands behind his head.
“No,” I said. “He didn’t do anything wrong.” In my arms, Bobby cried. I had no idea where Groot was. “He didn’t do any—”
One of the cops swung his gun towards me.
Lucas lunged.
“No, no!” I shouted. Were they insane? Was Lucas?
Bobby cried louder. Clung to me tighter.
“The guy on the ground,” I held Lucas’s flat, furious gaze, “is Robert Walker’s father. This is Rober
t Walker, the little boy who was stolen from his mom by his dad.”
Bobby buried his face into my neck. His tears burned my skin.
Lucas didn’t resist as the cop who’d cuffed him continued the task of arresting him. More cops swarmed the area. Two rolled Bobby’s unconscious father onto his stomach.
I kept my stare on Lucas.
I needed him to keep calm with me. To keep me from freaking out. The last time Lucas was at the mercy of the police force, he’d been—
“Ma’am?” A cop was talking to me. “Ma’am, you need to come with me.”
Bobby sobbed into the side of my neck. I held him. I wasn’t letting him go. Not yet. “Where’s my dog?”
It probably sounded like a stupid question, given the situation—Lucas arrested, Bobby’s father being searched for identification, Bobby crying in my arms, cops and stunned people surrounding us all—but I needed to know.
I also needed to distract Lucas as much as I could.
Remove his finger from the metaphorical trigger.
A couple of the cops looked around themselves.
“Call Dr. Winchester,” Lucas said. Christ, his voice was calm. Scary calm. But I understood.
I nodded, just as the cop who’d cuffed him and read him his rights began dragging him away.
“Ma’am,” the cop who’d spoken to me earlier touched my shoulder. “Who is Dr. Winchester?”
Bobby clamped his arms and legs tighter around me.
I watched Lucas being walked through the door into the police station. My stomach clenched. How many times in his past had that very thing happened to him before?
Lucas. In the hands of the cops again.
“Ma’am?”
“My dog’s veterinarian.”
I didn’t need to look at the cop to see the shock on his face. Of course he’d be shocked. Who asks for an animal doctor during a situation like this?
To be fair, he had no idea Lila Winchester was more than just a veterinarian.