Chapter 14
Elijah
I bit my nails way too short as I stared at the two-way mirror in the room. I had no idea if someone was back there, watching me. All I really knew was that I’d been locked in an interrogation room at the police station, and no one had come back in to tell me what the hell was going on.
I was working when they came right into the vet clinic and asked for me.
My boss had to pull me from an exam room, and I walked out to the lobby that was decidedly not empty to find two police officers waiting for me.
Chase was there, which was fantastic, because I wasn’t sure if he’d changed since high school.
The other one was older and I didn’t know him, but he was the one who read me my rights.
Rory ran her mouth incessantly as my boss tried to get her out of the room, since she was using colorful language to make sure everyone knew they had the wrong guy.
The people in the waiting room with their barking dogs and cat carriers watched in horror as I was handcuffed right in front of them.
It was probably the most humiliating moment of my life, or at least a close second behind Chris staring at the dildo in my bed.
Chris had yet to show his face, and I wasn’t sure where he was, but I had a feeling that since he was one of the two detectives in town, the reason I hadn’t been interrogated yet was because he wasn’t here.
I took a slow breath as I fought off panic while I sat there for what seemed like an eternity.
I had no idea why I was here. I knew about Brock, but while Chris had mentioned questioning, he certainly hadn’t made it seem like I’d be arrested. Especially not at work.
I finally heard a distant commotion from what I thought was the direction of the lobby, but I couldn’t tell what was going on.
A few minutes later, the door to the interrogation room burst open.
Chris stepped inside, out of breath and looking pissed.
“Elijah,” he said. “Fuck, I’m so sorry. Come on.
You’re free to go. Just don’t leave town, okay?
I told them you wouldn’t.” He was shaking his head.
I stood up, confused. “We still might need to question you,” he said gently.
“But not like this. I went the hell off on them for doing this, especially for the way it was handled. I’ll talk to your boss, okay?
I’m going to make sure everything gets smoothed over.
” I was grateful to him but still uncertain, until he said, “Heads up, several people in the department know about you and Mason now. Um. Quite graphically. He even offered up his handcuffs for DNA testing, so . . .”
I walked over to the door he was holding open for me. “What the fuck is going on?” I cried. “You didn’t seem to think it would come to this just a few hours ago.”
“I’m sorry,” he said again, walking with me into the hall. “I wasn’t here when it happened, or I never would have let them do this. They found something of yours at the crime scene. I didn’t know about it.”
I looked at him, even more confused. “I never left anything at his house,” I said. “I’m sure of it. But even if I did, so what? They already know we fucked a few times. I mean, I’ve been to his house.”
He glanced around and lowered his voice.
“Listen, I’m not supposed to be saying anything yet, but it’s a bracelet.
And it has your name on it.” I started to speak but he stopped me.
“It had Brock’s blood on it. It was found in an area of the house where there was no blood, so it was moved after the murder.
It’s broken, and it appears it was dropped on the way out.
So you can see how this looks. That’s all I can say right now.
The bracelet is in the lab and they never should have arrested you, but we have a few hard-asses who think they know everything and don’t give a fuck about due process.
” He looked so annoyed that it almost made me feel better. Almost.
“What the fuck?” I hissed. “You don’t understand. I’ve only ever had one bracelet with my name on it, and I lost it over a year ago! I never had it at Brock’s house. I lost it before I ever hooked up with him, and I’m sure of that.”
Chris looked intrigued, but he paused as we reached the end of the hall.
“I’m going to talk to you about all of this later, alright?
And it’s me, so if you need to go off-record when we talk, you can.
But right now, I have to clean up this mess a little bit.
You, uh, might get some weird looks. Mason went ballistic.
I mean, he did what he had to do.” He gave me a pat on the back but turned into an office, leaving me to walk out to the lobby alone.
I hesitated in the doorway and peered into the room.
It wasn’t too crowded, at least, and my arresting officers were nowhere to be seen.
The first officer I made eye contact with stared at me with slightly widened eyes and I looked away quickly.
There were only two other officers in the room—one male and one female—and a receptionist. A couple of them looked slightly traumatized, the others just looked amused.
Mason was standing near the door in a wide stance, arms crossed and looking like a pissed-off bodyguard.
“Come on,” he demanded, in that cop tone of voice.
“We’re getting the fuck out of here.” The occupants of the lobby turned their eyes from me to him, then averted them completely.
I slunk through the lobby to meet Mason, who took my arm in a way that was gentle yet conveyed clearly that he owned me, and he pulled me through the front door.
I let him hold my arm until we reached his car, then I pulled back.
He let go immediately. “What the hell is going on?” I cried, as the adrenaline and confusion wore off and the weight of the last hour’s events started to catch up with me.
“It feels like this day has been fucked since the moment I woke up!”
Mason nodded. “It has,” he agreed. “Something’s going on in this town and it involves you, and I don’t like it.
We need to have some serious talks. One as old friends, and one in which I’m a police detective shoving his nose into business outside his jurisdiction.
Because, Elijah, this business is about you, and that makes it my business. ”
His possessive tone gave me a shiver that I tried to hide.
How had the person I hated the most in high school become the one damn thing I needed?
How the fuck did he even know what I needed?
The person I’d never found in any of the other red flags, but of course in someone who wasn’t even planning on staying around long.
Why did my heart let me feel things I shouldn’t, every damn time?
I was tired of it being broken so often, but I wasn’t sure it would matter this time, because by the time Mason left, I probably wouldn’t be here anyway.
“Let’s go back to your house. We’ll have our talks, but we’ll save the detective talk for last, okay?
” I wasn’t sure what he was implying, and I wasn’t completely certain that some part of him didn’t suspect I was somehow involved.
But then he put his hand on my arm again, just a touch, and said, “It’s going to be okay.
” It was a simple sentence, but the words calmed me in a way I couldn’t begin to explain.
Why I trusted him, I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t ignore the warnings I’d been getting in my dreams for months, but it did make me feel better.
He moved his hand to my chin, made me look at him.
“We’re going to figure this out. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I’ll take you to your car.”
“I’m still supposed to be at work,” I said weakly.
Mason rolled his eyes. “You aren’t going back to work today,” he said firmly.
“You were just arrested there. Let Chris smooth things over with your boss. He told me he’d make sure word gets around town that the arrest was uncalled for, since people were there.
You need to let things cool down for a bit, and we need to try to figure this out. ”
I conceded and got in the car with him, and he drove to the clinic and parked right next to my car. I got out and glanced at the building. Rory was watching out a window, and she waved when she saw me getting in my car, and I waved back before heading home with Mason right behind me.
◆◆◆
Enyo ran to greet me as soon as I walked in the door, excited to see me home early, and I wished my life could be as simple as hers, just worried about the next nap and happy for unexpected surprises.
I picked her up and let her joyful little purr comfort me as Mason walked into the house behind me and closed the door.
I heard him lock it. I put Enyo down and gave her some treats for being such a good friend, and she kept purring as she ate them.
Mason walked over and gave me a hug, and I didn’t fight him, I just relaxed into his arms. He didn’t speak, just stood there holding me in my kitchen. It was somehow everything I needed. We stood like that for a long time until he finally said, “Are you hungry? You want me to make you some lunch?”
It was later than I normally ate lunch, but I didn’t have an appetite. I shook my head.
“Okay,” he said, pulling me into the living room and guiding me to the couch. “Look. We need to talk. About everything.” He sat me down beside him and looked at me. “Let’s start with the fact that we haven’t had a serious talk about everything that happened between us.”
I hesitated, because I wasn’t sure I could handle that particular conversation with everything else that was going on. Why did he want to talk about us? My brain could only handle so much, it was already on overload, and I was pretty sure he was getting ready to add to the things it was working on.