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“Makes sense.”
“Uh huh. When I tell them it’s because I’m pregnant, they’re going to want to meet you.”
“Ah, I see.”
“So you’re fine with that?”
“What, exactly?”
“Family dinner at the Wrights.”
“Oh, sure.”
“Wow. That was easy. Thank you.”
“It’s weird when you’re polite to me. You should stop.”
CHAPTER 21
Scarlett
Jesus fucking Christ. How was I going to get out of this? I glanced at my watch. It was already after four o’clock and I had no way of knowing how much longer the police were going to keep us. Spending the night at the Four Oaks Police Department was not what I planned.
The foyer area we were in was barely big enough to accommodate the nearly one hundred protesters that had been rounded up from both sides of the demonstration.
Instead of individual cells, we were all packed together on hard benches lining the bare walls. I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing, but either way, my ass hurt from sitting on the bench for two hours.
“I’m so, so sorry about this.”
This was about the twenty-seventh time Marissa had apologized and I was about done being polite about it. “It’s fine. I’m your lawyer. It’s my job to uh…” Drop everything and race the hour and a half from Esperance to stop her from getting arrested?Along with the other members of ASS. It hadn’t worked, and here we were.
“But I’m really worried about that.” Marissa gestured to my face, where I was pretty sure a nice big bruise was already coming through. It hurt like a motherfucker, not gonna lie. “You should really get it looked at.”
I gritted my teeth so hard I’m amazed my jaw didn’t snap. Like I could just wander out of here at my leisure. “They had someone look at me when we were brought in, remember? It’ll be fine.” No sign of concussion, no bleeding.
I couldn’t even say the other guy came off worse. He was on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall, his arms folded across his fat belly. Every time I glanced at him, he was watching me. Eyeing me with a hard stare. Asshole. He’d hit me and yeah, maybe it had been an accident, or I just got in the way of whoever he was actually trying to whack. But it had started out as a perfectly peaceful protest, with Marissa and others chaining themselves to an ancient oak tree to prevent it from being cut down. It had quickly spiraled into a fight when a bunch of dudes in huge pickups had turned up with bolt cutters.
Who do you call when your protest goes bad? Your lawyer, of course. One of the other Alliance members, Gerald, had picked me up on his way through. We arrived just in time to witness the dudes trying to cut the protesters free. Marissa was distraught, yelling and trying to kick anyone who came near her. Somehow, I’d ended up in the melee and had been hit moments before the police arrived.
“You don’t know you’ll be fine. Your cheekbone might be fractured.”
“It’s not.”
“Or there could be permanent damage. Scarring. You could sue someone.”
Jesus Christ. Marissa was still talking when I got up from the bench and approached the counter.
I cleared my throat loudly, trying to get the cop’s attention. He ignored me, just clicking away on his computer like I wasn’t there. After a few moments with no response, I spoke up politely.
“Excuse me, officer?” He finally glanced up at me with a bored expression. “Do you have any idea when we’ll be released? Some of us have been here for hours already.”
He shrugged lazily. “Not my call. You’ll have to wait for the sergeant to finish processing everything.”
I frowned, feeling my frustration building along with my headache. This was completely unacceptable. “With all due respect, keeping us detained like this for so long is a violation of our civil rights. I’m an attorney, and I can assure you this will not stand.”
The cop smirked, clearly unfazed by my words. “Is that so? Well, you can take it up with the sergeant when he’s done.” He turned his attention back to the computer, effectively dismissing me. Asshole. There were assholes everywhere I fucking turned in this place.
Gritting my teeth, I spun on my heel and rejoined Marissa on the bench. She gave me a questioning look, but I just shook my head, too riled up to repeat the useless interaction.