Tipsy, p.15
Tipsy, page 15
When I pulled up to the curb at Dom’s, Tony opened the door before I could cut the engine. “Dom said you didn’t have to come in.” His voice was wary.
“Is there a problem?” I asked, finally realizing there might be something going on.
“No, I don’t think so. He just wanted to talk supply business with me.” His eyes shifted away.
“Ahhh, crew business that I’m not allowed to be involved in.”
Tony’s face blanched. I could tell he felt bad. “Yeah. Look, I’m sure Dom will come around.”
I held up my hand and cut him off. “It’s cool, Tony.”
“Really?” he asked, looking hopeful. If I hadn’t just witnessed him giving drugs to a kid, I might actually like the guy.
“Yeah. I’ll see ya later.”
He slammed the door and it took everything in me to not peel away from the curb like a bat out of hell. After letting the engine idle for a few seconds, I pulled out onto the street at a normal speed. A few blocks over, I couldn’t take it anymore and I pushed on the gas pedal and sped toward the station.
23
Julie
Interrogation rooms smelled. Well, I don’t know about all of them, because this was the first one I ever had the dishonor of being kept in. But still, it smelled. The tiny square room was filled with stale air tinged with sweat and possibly urine. It made me very afraid about the chair I was sitting in and who may or may not have peed in it.
I thought for a long time about asking for a Lysol wipe.
I figured there was no use because I likely wouldn’t get it. They wouldn’t even take the handcuffs off my wrists.
Aside from the Lysol wipe, the only other thing I could think of was if I was going to have to mark that box on every application that I filled out from now on:
Has been arrested for committing a felony.
Did that mean I would forever be considered a criminal? Or was that only if I was found guilty? Wait. Was this going to go to trial?
Clearly, I was not handling this well.
And I hadn’t even been questioned yet. They literally stuffed me in the back of a squad car, drove to the station, and shut me in this interrogation room. They tried to ask me one question, and I demanded to speak to Blue.
Not a lawyer. Blue.
Except the minute I asked for Blue, a hush fell over the room and everyone left. I heard some yelling a while ago, but no one had been in since.
I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
I kind of wished I hadn’t drunk that coffee earlier. I kinda understood why my chair smelled like urine now.
I had to pee.
How long were they going to leave me in here? I felt like an animal chained up and shoved in a cage.
Holy moly… were they going to put me in a cell? That was like an actual cage.
It would serve them right if I peed right here and now!
Take that, idiots who arrest law-abiding citizens! Clean up my pee!
Yes. Clearly being incarcerated made me unstable and dramatic.
Whatever.
As more minutes wore on, some of my anger and frustration wore away and was just replaced by anxiety. I realized things looked really bad for me. I was literally caught with a huge stash of drugs, with some of them in my hand.
Yeah, I was going to try and tell them it was all a misunderstanding. I would tell them about the conversation I overheard, about how I went looking for stuff I really didn’t expect to find.
Would they believe me?
I didn’t know and frankly, I was kind of scared to talk. I was afraid I would just make things worse. I guessed I was going to have to get a lawyer. I would probably lose my job over this.
I wanted Blue.
If Blue were here, he could vouch for me. He would believe what I said. Maybe he would convince the other guys I wasn’t lying. He could be like a character witness.
Only I didn’t know where Blue was or where he lived. Hell, I didn’t even know what kind of car he was driving. I wasn’t sure if they would let him come to the station for this; it could compromise his cover.
The headache threatening me earlier decided to add to my torment by beginning to scream behind my eyes. My stomach felt nauseous and my hands and knees were shaking from all the stress I suddenly felt.
I closed my eyes against the harsh fluorescent light overhead and leaned forward, resting my overheated forehead on the table. It was cool and felt a little soothing against my headache.
I needed a plan.
A plan would make me feel better. More in control.
Whenever the officers came back, I would make them let me go pee. Then I would demand my one phone call. I would call Dee and she could post bail (would I need bail?) and get me out of here. I would get a lawyer, who’d probably charge all of my savings just to talk to me. But I would hire him anyway. I would rather be poor than in the big house with burly women named Wilma.
After that, I would let the police question me. I would tell my story. I would stick to the truth.
The truth would set me free.
Why did that sound like the most pathetic line ever?
I took a deep breath. It was a good plan.
I turned my head and rested my cheek on the brown tabletop and stared at the wall across the room. I wondered if someone was watching me through the two-way mirror behind me. If so, they were going to be very bored.
I heard the doorknob rattle, but I didn’t bother to turn my head and look. I had no desire to see disgusted looks of the men who brought me in. Being treated like a criminal sucked. I guess that explained all the chase scenes in movies when the bad guys were running from the cops. Running was better than this.
The door flew open and all the air in the room shifted, like it was being sucked out with the force of the opening door. Fresh air from the station leaked in; it was much cooler and fresher smelling.
A string of expletives echoed around the room. Someone was good and pissed off.
I knew that voice.
I jerked upright, blinking against my headache at Blue, who was striding into the room.
“Blue,” I said, relief so palpable in my tone that I could taste it in the back of my throat.
“What the fuck is this!” he roared, throwing out his hands and turning around to face whoever was standing in the doorway. “You fucking cuffed her!”
Another voice from out in the hall, a more calm and authoritative voice, said, “Give him the damn cuff keys.” I heard the jangle of keys and saw Blue snatch them out of the air. Then behind him I heard the same voice mutter, “Idiots.”
Blue was at my side in seconds, kneeling down so we were about eye level. “Hey there, sweetness.”
I didn’t say anything because all of a sudden I felt like crying. His gentle tone meant just for me was going to be my undoing.
I had missed him. Yeah, it hadn’t been very long since our night together, but it seemed that the only time I ever got with Blue was stolen moments. Little pockets of time where he filled me up so completely but then left, leaving that fullness to drain away like a too-old battery.
Not only that, but worrying about his safety, where he was, who he was with. Not being able to talk to Dee or anyone about him. And then this… the drugs, the arrest.
He reached around behind me, looping his arms around my waist, and had the cuffs gone within seconds. My arms fell forward in my lap and my shoulders felt numb and prickly from being in the same position for so long.
Blue grabbed my wrists, rubbing them, like someone would do when they were out in the snow too long and needed to generate warmth.
“Rough night, huh?” he asked gently.
I nodded. “I have to pee.”
He chuckled. “Come on.” He stood, drawing me to my feet, and led me to the door. Two officers who had been at the salon stood in our path.
Blue angled himself in front of me. “Step aside,” he said. His words weren’t demanding or mean, but there was steel in them.
The men moved and we walked out of the tiny room. I breathed a sigh of relief. Blue walked beside me, glancing out of the corner of his eye.
“That room smelled like urine.”
He made a face and looked over his shoulder. “You put her in Potty John’s room?” he growled.
“It was the only room open!” one of the guys defended.
We stopped in front of a bare door to what I prayed was the ladies’ room. “Who’s Potty John?” I had to know.
Blue grinned. “One of the local drunks. He gets hauled in here all the time and the guys put him in one of the interrogation rooms to sleep it off.” He cleared his throat. “He has a tendency to, uh… piss himself.”
I laughed but quickly slapped a hand over my mouth. Nothing about this night was funny.
Blue got an angry look on his face and gestured to the door with his chin. “I’ll wait here.”
I nodded and rushed inside to quickly do my business. At the sink, I ran cold water from the tap and splashed it over my face after I washed my hands. Using a paper towel, I dried my skin and then wiped up the raccoon eyes my mascara had given me.
I felt bone tired. Not just bone tired, but weary. I knew it was the reason I felt so emotional, and damn, if looking at Blue wasn’t making it worse.
I wanted to go home, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen for a while.
After glancing at my less-than-stellar reflection in the mirror, I gave a sigh and trudged to the bathroom door. Before pulling the handle, I stood up and pulled my shoulders back. I might be exhausted and scared, but I wasn’t going to show all the men out there that.
Blue wasn’t in the doorway like I thought he would be. He was a few feet away. His back was turned and he was speaking to a few nearby men in uniforms. Judging from their expressions, he wasn’t saying very nice things.
One of the officers who arrested me looked up, noting my reappearance. Blue stilled, said something, and the officers walked away. They didn’t go far, though, stopping at the end of the hallway and watching me.
Like I was a criminal.
Something inside me snapped.
I glared at them. “Y’all are a bunch of idiots!” I spat. “You’ve done nothing but waste everyone’s time tonight.”
Blue was at my side instantly, wrapping a warm palm around my elbow. “Julie,” he murmured.
I glanced at him, anger bubbling up inside me like a soda that was shaken up too much. “Don’t.” I growled. “Don’t you dare tell me to shut up. That was nice compared to the things I’m thinking about them.”
I swear his lips twitched. “I wasn’t going to tell you to shut up. You can yell at them all you want.”
“Thank you.” I sniffed and resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at the men in the hall.
“Come on,” he said, tugging me gently and leading me down the hall and past the officer’s on my shit list.
“I am not going back in that room,” I said, dragging my feet.
“That’s not where we’re going,” he replied calmly. He led me into a private office with a desk and all the usual office furnishings. The most interesting thing in here was a half-dead plant. Once I cleared the threshold, Blue shut the door behind us.
“Are you going to interrogate me now?” I asked a little bitterly.
He didn’t say anything, but I felt his penetrating sapphire stare. He took a step forward. Then another. He came so close that I could feel the heat off his body and smell the scent that seemed to be his calling card. His chest rose and fell evenly with his relaxed breathing. He was wearing the same leather jacket he wore the other night, and the gray knit cap was on his head.
I was ready for the barrage of questions. I was ready for him to ask for my statement.
I was less prepared for his arms.
He wrapped them around me, pulling me tightly against his chest. Basically wrapped himself around me, making me feel small. In that moment, if I would fit, I would have let him put me in his pocket.
I buried my nose in the soft fabric of his red T-shirt, wrapping my arms around his middle, beneath the leather of his coat. His palm came up to stroke the back of my head, and I felt the brush of his lips on the top of my head.
“I’m sorry.” He murmured, rocking us both a little. The swaying motion was oddly comforting.
“What’re you sorry for?”
“That it took me so long to get here.”
“How’d you know I got arrested?”
“You asked for me, didn’t you?”
I snorted against his chest. “Yeah. But after I asked for you, they pretty much left me in that pee-ridden room to rot.”
He chuckled. “They knew they screwed up. Soon as they told Watson who they arrested, he contacted me.”
I glanced up. “But how would he know who I was?”
He kissed my forehead. “Because I told him.”
“You did?”
He nodded. “You matter.”
It was a simple two words. They carried so much weight. I felt tears well up behind my eyes.
“You matter too,” I whispered.
He smiled.
“I had a plan to help you.”
He groaned, cutting me off. “Please tell me this isn’t the result of one of your plans.”
I nodded. “It was a good one.” I paused. “Well, until the cops showed up.”
He looked horrified. “What the hell kind of hare-brained plan are we talking about here?”
I released his waist and stepped back so I could meet his eyes full-on. “I know where the drugs are, and I know who’s been helping Dom.”
24
Blue
Being back at the station was slightly jarring. It was so familiar here, yet it seemed foreign. I spent so much time over the last several months undercover, I had barely been here at all. Just when I was getting back into things, they pulled me back undercover again.
Being here was almost like walking into the past, or having a strange sense of déjà vu. Of course, I couldn’t really think about that because I was so focused on the reason I was here. Julie got herself arrested.
For drugs.
I would have laughed at the ridiculousness of it all if I wasn’t imaging her here somewhere… scared. What the hell was going on? How the hell had this happened?
Fuck, if I hadn’t called and told Watson about her, they might have ignored her request when she asked for me.
Please don’t let this have to do with my case. The whole drive here, the thought replayed in my head over and over like a bad song on the radio. The thought of her caught up in any of this—with those drug-dealing lowlifes—made me want to put my fist through a wall.
As a cop, I knew what I would find when I walked into the station. Yet seeing her hunched over the table, with her hands freaking cuffed behind her back, was something I could never have been prepared for.
The rage that swept through my body was like a sudden tsunami, rising up out of the calm ocean and sweeping everything out of its path. I knew those men thought they were doing their job, but I wanted to beat them all to a pulp.
Couldn’t they see what I saw?
Didn’t they see the innocence behind her eyes, the honesty in her expression? How is it that anyone could look at her and think she was guilty of being involved with drugs that were killing kids?
Fucking idiots. All of them.
Yeah, okay, maybe I was being harsh. They were doing their job. They were trying to protect people. Looks could be deceiving… I kind of built my undercover identity on that, but I couldn’t help how I felt. Even if it was biased.
Then she uttered the words I had been praying she wouldn’t say. I know where the drugs are, and I know who’s been helping Dom.
I tried to reign in my reaction until I had all the facts. It was a good exercise in self-control.
“Sit down,” I told her after she dropped her bomb. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”
“It’s been a long day,” she murmured as she sat.
“You hungry? Want some coffee or something?”
She shook her head. “Maybe just some water.”
They haven’t even given her water? “How long you been here?” I asked, a little more harsh than I intended.
She shrugged. “I really don’t know.”
I yanked open the office door. “I need some bottled water in here,” I barked.
Watson appeared in the doorway, giving me a measured look. “You getting comfortable in my office?”
I had to admit this crappy, depressing office was a lot better than my tiny house in the ghetto. “No, sir. Didn’t mean to take over. I just wanted somewhere private to talk to her.”
Watson nodded and stepped into the room. “Julie Preston I presume,” he said, stopping before her chair and looking down.
Julie straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin to meet his gaze. “Yes, sir,” she said and offered her hand to give him a solid handshake.
Watson looked impressed.
“I do apologize for the way you were treated. The arresting officers are young and eager.”
“It’s fine,” she said coolly.
“I admit, it doesn’t look good—the way you were found, I mean.” He continued.
“I wasn’t aware people were looking for me. A simple phone call and I would have come in on request.”
I smothered my smile as Julie held her own with my boss. One of the secretaries out front appeared with several bottles of chilled water, and I gave her a wink as I took them and shut the door to the office.
“We weren’t looking for you specifically,” Watson said, glancing at me.
I twisted off the cap to a water and handed it to Julie. She took a small sip. “Right before you came in, she said she knew where the drugs were coming from and who was helping Dom.”
Watson sat forward with an eager look in his eyes. “Tell us.”
She opened her mouth to explain, but I stepped in front of her, silencing her words. “She’s getting immunity for this, right?”
