16. Char
CHAR
The psychiatrist moved gingerly, though the shock was prevalent on his face. He slowly backed up as my urine trickled from the holding cell onto the floor at his feet, and I had to hold back laughter just to make it through the moment.
“I need a clean-up crew in here!” the psychiatrist bellowed.
Man, if I were actually crazy, his yelling would’ve probably spun me out.
I wondered if he had even done this before, out here in a small town like Layborn.
Hell, we were surrounded by small towns.
For all I knew, this was this fucker’s first time evaluating someone for anything remotely close to what he evaluated me for.
God, it was almost too easy here some days.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Marcie said as she shoved the heavy metal door open, “everything all right?”
I heard the psychiatrist and her murmuring with one another, but I didn’t know what they were saying.
It didn’t matter, though. Not really. I knew my men were working on something in the background.
Nielson was weirdly absent lately, and that wasn’t like him.
Something was going on. Something that took him away from the precinct.
I hoped that it was something good, and not my guys fucking shit up simply because they could.
Just a little bit longer, guys.
“Oh! Well,” Marcie said as she came into my field of vision with a bucket and a mop, “that’s not so bad. I’ll get this cleaned up really quickly so you don’t have to smell it while you’re here.”
I hoped that it would’ve been Nielson to come check on me.
Hell, I would’ve even settled for Carlyle, or one of his other deputies.
Anyone other than the bitch doing this to all of us.
I kept my stare locked with the wall beyond her crouched body as she cleaned up my urine.
Part of me wanted to shit myself just to see if she’d clean that up, too.
But even I wasn’t willing to dig my heels in like that unless it was absolutely necessary.
Maybe now that I had another incident, Nielson would come see me whenever he got back.
I had some questions for him to answer.
The psychiatrist helped Marcie clean up the mess I created, but the two of them talked so low to one another that I couldn’t make out what they said. I’m not sure why it needed to be so damn private, but as Marcie pivoted more into my field of vision, I noticed something that made me shiver.
The smile she kept flashing the psychiatrist didn’t quite reach her eyes.
And I wondered if he saw that.
“Knock, knock,” Commander Hadley’s voice rang out as the metal door to my makeshift prison popped open again.
“Hey! Commander!” Marcie said as she pushed herself to her feet. “Everything okay?”
“You guys need any help in here?”
Marcie shook her head. “Nah, this mess isn’t as big as the last one we cleaned up. I’m almost done anyway.”
“You sure?” the commander asked.
“Actually, if she doesn’t need your help, I was just about to come looking for you,” the psychiatrist said.
I already forgot his name. Another face in a long line of faces that either wanted to help me or sink me.
“Sure you don’t need any help?” Commander Hadley asked.
Marcie flashed him that fake smile, and I wanted so badly to rip the damn thing off her fucking smug little bitch-ass face.
“Oh, I’m fine here. You two go. Clean-up is almost done anyway, really.”
“Well,” the commander said as he followed after the doctor, “if you’re sure.”
“Trust me, I’m always sure,” Marcie said.
And when she said those words, she flashed me the fieriest stare I’d ever seen in my life.
She was gunning for blood. My blood. I couldn’t help but focus on her as she tilted her head.
As that smile slithered down her features until nothing but a heavy frown sat in its place.
The lock to the metal door separating me and her from the rest of the world latched back into place.
I heard the doctor and the commander walking down the hallway, discussing whatever the fuck there was to discuss.
Leaving me alone with the one woman I wasn’t safe with.
“I know you’re faking all of this for an insanity plea,” she said as she snatched the mop up from the floor.
I didn’t give into the bait. I simply went back to staring at the wall. But I knew that so long as we were alone, Marcie would dig her heels in. Anything to get me to break.
Anything to get her case back on track.
“So,” Marcie said as she continued mopping, “how do you think this is really going to pan out? I’m honestly curious.”
I didn’t even blink. I just sat there, staring, while she finished cleaning up my piss.
I had half a mind to do it again just to infuriate her.
“Ah, so that’s how it’s going to be,” Marcie said as she shoved the mop into the bucket one last time. “Well, let’s see if we can change that.”
I heard keys rattling before the door of metal bars in front of me slid open.
I did my best to contain the shock on my face, but I honestly wasn’t certain if I did a good job of it.
Marcie walked up to me, stepping into the holding cell before she bent down toward my face.
She locked her eyes with mine. She stood so close that I felt her breath billowing against my face.
I did my best to stay put.
Even though I had the best angle to clock that cunt right in her nose.
“I will admit, you put up a hell of a fight,” she said as she rested her hands against her knees, “but proof always wins out in a court of law, and your men are soaked in it.”
I took a chance and tilted my head up just enough to bring my eyes to meet hers. I stared her down, watching as her gears turned behind that icy stare of hers. She had the same kind of eyes as mine. Icy blue, but rich in color in the right light.
“I’m going to get you to talk,” Marcie glowered as her face turned red, “and when I do? You’re going to spill everything. Do you want to know how I’ll make you do it?”
I forced myself not to flinch as her disgusting unbrushed breath pulsed against my chin.
“I’ll make you watch as I arrest every single man in that crew you’re fucking around with.
Deac. Gauge. The whole nine. One by one, I’ll haul them out, and I’ll relish every single time you cry out for them.
You don’t want to value the hard work I put into your life?
That’s fine by me. But don’t be shocked when you shit on people and they shit right back. ”
“What are you doing, Special Agent Dickerson?”
The shock that rolled across her features was something I knew I’d never forget.
Her face paled as she yanked herself upright.
She stepped quickly out of my holding cell before grabbing the door and throwing it closed.
The bars clanked with a thunderous thud as Commander Hadley came toward us.
And as he stood in front of my cell, the stern look on his face brought me some relief.
“Why was her cell just open, Special Agent Dickerson?” he asked curtly.
She shook her head quickly. “I just wasn’t sure if she needed another pair of bottoms or something. I was going to check what size she needed and go see if the precinct had something in the lost and found.”
Commander Hadley dipped down to face her, placing his hands on his knees just like she did with me. “And does that require being in her face the way you were?”
Her temples pulsed as her jaw clenched. “No, sir.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s not. So thank you for cleaning up. I’ll have someone else take care of the rest.”
“But, Commander?—”
“You’re dismissed, Special Agent.”
Marcie tossed me a look before she scoffed, and she murmured something underneath her breath about, ‘that’s what she gets when she helps.
’ Now, I’d never been the killing type. That was more of my father’s groove.
But with every step that woman took away from me—with every click of her shoes against the concrete floor—I wondered what her blood might smell like spilling on the floor.
I wondered what her dead eyes might look like staring up at a heaven she’d never step foot in.
I wondered if I could send her to the bowels of hell, just so Bait could enact his eternal revenge on the woman responsible for his death.
I couldn’t wait to sink that bitch’s fucking boat.
“I’m so sorry about her. She gets… a bit too wrapped up in her cases sometimes,” Commander Hadley said.
I suppose that’s one way to put it.
I watched him fiddle with keys before he unlocked my cell door again. “Here, we can transfer you to this one over here so you’re not sitting in… all this.”
He motioned to the wet floor at my feet, and I simply nodded my head. I stood, watching as he ushered his arm out for me. I followed in stride, waiting for him to open up yet another holding cell so that I could be trapped like a caged animal for however many more days this took.
At least the wooden bench in that cell was a bit wider than the other one. My ass felt half a percent more comfortable, which felt like a goddamn all-expenses-paid resort.
“You know those men can’t get to you in here, right?” he asked.
I slowly pivoted my head toward his voice, but I didn’t speak. He was such a kind man. At least, he seemed like it.
Too bad he hired shit people to work for him.
“You’re free to speak with us about anything,” he said as he took a small step toward me. “We can protect you now. There’s no retaliation that will come from whatever you tell us in here.”
I locked my stare with his and freed my voice. “You really have no idea who I’m scared of, do you?”
The commander’s eyes widened as he stepped closer to the bars. “Whoever is scaring you, Miss Char, we will protect you. Who did this to you? Who has you so frightened?”
God, I wanted to believe that he wanted to help me so badly.
I wanted it so much that my emotions ran away with me.
My lower lip quivered as tears sprang to my eyes.
He got so close to the bars that his face fell against them.
He threaded his arm between the cold metal columns.
He wiggled his fingers for me, offering his hand in some sort of peaceful gesture.
I didn’t take his hand, but I did decide to indulge him.
“You’d never believe me,” I whispered as I continued to stare at his outstretched palm.
“Try me,” he said as he stretched his arm a bit further. “Just trust one of us. It doesn’t have to be all of us. Just one is enough.”
No. Don’t do it. She works for him, for fuck’s sake. Of course, he’s going to take her side.
I let the blank stare come back over my face. I allowed my eyes to gravitate over his shoulder, locking with the wall. It was my signature look. Everyone in the precinct practically knew it by heart at that point. And as Commander Hadley ripped his arm back to his side, he grumbled to himself.
He stormed out of the holding cell area.
“Knight! Torres! I need that psychiatrist ASAP!” he bellowed.
And I thanked my stars that the door quickly latched behind him.
Because I couldn’t contain the smirk that crossed my face.