Page 18

SAMMY

Whatever the floors in jail cells are made of, they had to be pretty hardy stuff. I’d paced back and forth over the same four-foot stretch for about an hour, and amazingly, the ground didn’t show a sign of it.

I was still wearing the ridiculously floofy and too-tight maid of honor dress, though I’d removed my heels the second I’d been freed of my cuffs. Hugging myself, I marched back and forth behind the bars, my teeth chattering. It was cold, but in spite of everything ... I did have one thing going for me.

I waspissed as fuck.

Fury is good for keeping you warm.

I’d never been arrested in my life. Initially, I’d been terrified for myself—for everyone. The mayhem had been deafening, making me sure that it had to end in violence somehow. When I’d been set on the grass away from the still-gathered-but-dispersing wedding attendees, I’d gotten to finally look around.

Black cars and more obvious police wagons hovered on the fringe of the estate. I could see them around the edges of the house and rosebushes. Slowly a parade of cuffed people began marching up toward the vehicles.

Francesca in her wedding dress ... lord, that cut hard. But she wasn’t crying; her makeup was clean and crisp. When I followed her glare, how she kept wrenching around to glare at one of the others behind her, I began to get a bad feeling.

“Daddy!” she screamed, shaking her wrists and yanking at the officer who was struggling to hold her back. “What the hell did you dothistime?!”

“Francesca!” Mama Badd snapped, dragging the officer on her forward from the pack. “Keep your mouth shut! Mister Finch will straighten this all out.”

“This is supposed to be my wedding day!”

“Francesca, shut it!”

“Up,” someone said, ripping me onto my feet.

Stumbling, I eyeballed the cop and said, “Please, this is wrong! I didn’t do anything, why am I being arrested?”

Mama Badd looked my way as she passed. “You, too,” she growled. “You keep your mouth shut. Don’t say anything to the cops.”

“Anything aboutwhat?”I shouted.

That was the last I saw of the Badds before the police cars carted them off.

Dropping my forehead on the cool bars, I took a moment to consider all the mistakes I’d made in my life. What had led me tothis,of all things? Jeez, I’d never been more embarrassed in my whole life than this morning.

Even waking up, remembering that I’d hooked up with Kain when I’d explicitly instructed myself not to, hadn’t been as bad as this.

Keys jingled, and I glanced up anxiously at the sight of another nameless police officer. “Come on,” he said, wriggling the cell door open. “They’re ready for you.”

“Who’s ready for me? What does that even mean?” I didn’t like how my voice broke; I was just too exhausted to hold it together. “Why am I being held here at all?”

The cop was older than me, and I guess he’d seen all sorts of people pleading in the cell I was standing in, because not a flicker of sympathy lightened his gaze. “Are you coming out of there or not?”

Scooping up my high heels, I walked past him with the last of the quiet dignity I could muster.

He led me down the hall, past other cells where people either curled up in drunken sleep or watched me with curious eyes. While I wondered what they had done, it was obvious they were thinking the same about me.

Except I hadn’tdoneanything! I had no clue why the wedding had been raided, or why I’d been swept up in the mess and carted off to the police station. All I knew was that I was tired, hungry, and beyond frustrated with the world.

This is all a mistake,I told myself, forcing my heart to calm.Once I talk to someone in charge, they’ll release me.They had to. Didn’t they?

Mom.

The thought of her sitting alone in her apartment filled my guts with razors. She wasn’t going to know what had happened to me, why I hadn’t come by yet to help her with her meals or to keep her company. If anything happened to her because I wasn’t there ... I’d never forgive myself.

And I’dneverforgive the Badds.

“Here we are,” the cop said, pausing beside an unremarkable white door. Through the tiny window in it, I saw there was a new man waiting at a table inside. His head came up, like he’d sensed us before the officer even opened the door. “Detective Stapler will take it from here.”