“Why? What’s going on?”
His hand goes to his gun, and my blood goes ice cold. Sweat breaks out over my palms and slicks down my spine. Fear is salty and dirty on my tongue.
“For the last time, exit your vehicle.”
Numb, I unlock the car and push the door open. As soon as I step out, he pushes me so my chest slams against the rear door and in seconds, he’s hauling my arms behind my back and snapping on cuffs.
“You’re under arrest for an outstanding warrant. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right…”
The rest of my Miranda rights fade into the dull roar inside my head as he marches me back to his cruiser.
I can’t just jerk myself awake and this will be a bad dream.
No.
I’m going to jail.
9
King
Iwent to jail.
For parking tickets.
I went to jail for parking tickets from ten years ago.
Fuck Terrance Ward.
“King, now you just got out of jail. Don’t do anything that will get you tossed back in,” Darryl Walker, my attorney, warns. His lip curls up at the corner as he descends the front steps of the courthouse with me, Kade, Mac and Gideon. “Apparently, merely existing in this town will get you thrown in the slammer, so step lightly.”
He flew in from L.A. after Mac called him Saturday and told him I’d been locked up. His first impression of Pike’s End has not been positive.
“This has nothing to do with the town and everything to do with the judge,” Gideon growls, his frown so fierce that a couple of women walking past do a double take. Nope. Correction, they were just getting their phones out and snapping pictures. “He’s got a hard-on for our boy here because he’s fucking his precious daughter.”
“Damn, Gideon,” Mac mutters, rubbing a hand over his head. “Say it a little louder. The old woman over there, trying hard not to look like she’s listening, didn’t catch the beginning of it.”
Said “old woman” turned up her nose, sniffed but didn’t walk away.
Goddamn. Small towns.
“Two days,” I snarl. “Two days that fucker had me in jail on some parking tickets from a decade ago. And he had those cops lying in wait for me. Stop sign my ass. I didn’t run shit. And he knew if they picked me up on a Saturday, I would have to sit in jail until Monday because no courts are open on the weekends. That’s two days away from my son. But he didn’t give a shit about that. This was all about sending a message to stay away from Lennon.”
“No shit,” Kade says, his face the hardest I’ve ever seen. “And what are you going to do? Are you going to leave Lennon alone?”
I smile and it must look as mean as I feel because Darryl rolls his eyes and heaves a sigh.
“What do you think?” I ask.
Kade grins and his is straight evil. “Good.”
“Great,” Darryl drawls. “I should probably get a room at that little bed and breakfast I saw on the way into town. I have a feeling I might be needed.” Then he smiles, and damn if it isn’t mean, too. “And I’m looking forward to it.”
* * *
I waituntil late that evening before I drive over to Terrance Ward’s house. Darryl’s been hard at work since we left the courthouse this morning, and in my hand as I walk up his walk and front porch is a manilla folder in my hand. Gideon, Mac and Kade’s gazes are like physical hands on my back, and I had to emotionally blackmail them with Gunner to stay in the car. They don’t like the idea of me facing Terrance alone, but as I told them, this is between me and him. He started this ten years ago, and now I need to finish it.
Terrance made me run then. Today’s when I stop.