Page 18 of Beau (Sheppard’s Shadow #5)

“I think there has been a mistake about all this. They have to be told it was just a game, and no one gets arrested for playing a game. My goodness, if they lose at cards, do they have the other party arrested, too?” He said this was different and that she’d messed with their lives.

“In a game. When are you going to get that through your thick head that I was only messing with them? And since they figured it out, there was no harm, no foul. That’s the way a game works when you—I’m not pressing any charges against them about me losing all my money in setting this all up, am I?

No, I’m not. What a bunch of sore winners. ”

She was put into a cell and told that someone would come and talk to her soon. Also, the judge wouldn’t be in until Thursday. It was Friday today, so she’d have to wait an entire week to have some judge throw this out of court because it wasn’t anything to be upset about.

Her only recourse was to talk to the Watsons.

There had to be a way for her to talk to them and tell them how it had only been a game that she was playing, and that she played like this all the time, and no one got upset for her winning.

Of course, she’d have to give them names, she thought, and that wouldn’t go over too well if they checked into things.

The families that she’d scammed before would be told about her game, and they might be as upset as the Watsons were.

“This was all just preposterous. I don’t know what to tell them that will make them back off, other than what I’ve been saying all along.

It was just a game that I played on them.

And they won.” Sitting on the cot in her cell, she looked around.

“This place needs an update. No way are they allowed to keep prisoners in a room like this one and get away with it. There is no way.”

It was nearly dark in the room when someone came to see her.

They had a tray with them, so she assumed that they were going to feed her.

Since no one had asked her what she wanted, she was going to turn it away in favor of something else to eat.

In a cell like this, there was no way that the food was going to be edible anyway.

“I was going to give myself a treat tonight and have a large pizza.” She, the woman cop told her that she was only getting what was being served.

“You can take it back and bring me something else then. I’m not eating whatever is on that tray.

It can’t be as good as the pizza I was going to get, and that’s final. ”

The tray was set on the floor and slid under the bars.

She didn’t even bother looking at it and slid it back.

Without a word from her, she turned on her heel and left the meal there as well as the scent of it behind.

She’d teach them a lesson about herself.

She’d not eat at all and see where that got them.

By the time another officer came and got the tray picked up, it was getting really dark in the hallways. No one had come to talk to her, and when she asked the officer when that was going to happen, he just ignored her and kept walking. People were rude around here, and she didn’t much care for it.

She was brought a uniform, she was told, and she had to put it on.

It was a putrid green color that made her sick when they tossed it at her.

When she asked when someone was going to talk to her, she was told that she could make one phone call, and she’d get it when someone could come and fetch her.

“Fetch me? I’m not an animal like the Watsons are.” She wondered if the Sheppards were as well and thought that it had some merit to it. “Where are the all-mighty Sheppards? They’re pressing charges against me, too, right? I want to have my call now.”

Who would she call? She didn’t have a clue.

She didn’t have an attorney on speed dial.

The only time that she’d ever used one was when she had had one of the college students at the university read over the contract she’d had for one of her scams. She supposed that she should stop calling them scams and continue to call them what she had in the past, and call them games.

That’s all they were to her. A way to play with people’s lives, make a few bucks, and move on to the next game.

Messing with people’s lives was easy, she thought.

Of course, she only had two more DNA tests to use, and she thought that they might well be too old for her to use nowadays.

She didn’t mean that the DNA might be too old, but the people that she was going to scam might be too old and perhaps dead by now.

She should have thought of that before and wondered why she’d not.

“Damn it. I need to keep better notes.” She did wonder if she could get into the business of funeral hair dressing again. It had been an easy few bucks that she’d make on hair and makeup. She’d have to do something if she were going to be playing games in the future.

At just after ten, she was taken to a payphone to make her call.

Asking for and receiving a phone book had been her next question, and she had to look up someone to come and help her out of this mess.

Not that she thought it was going to be that big of a deal, once the judge heard her side of the story, he’d dismiss everything and allow her to go on her way.

But she could only find two attorneys in the phone book, and both of them were taking on new clients.

She called the first one to see if he could help her.

After telling him about the game she’d been playing, he told her that he couldn’t represent her.

He said that she’d been too cruel about her ‘game’, which he made sound like she’d killed someone, and should be behind bars.

The second man she called told her that he’d not represent her either and simply hung up on her.

Didn’t these people understand this was just a stupid game and that the other party had won?

Christ, it was like the whole world had gotten a rod up their asses and didn’t understand something that was funny anymore.

“Now what do I do?” The officer with her told her that she had to go back to her cell.

“Just how long am I going to be there before someone gets their head out of their asses and realizes that this was just a fun game that I was playing. I’m the one who’s out a lot of money and time, not them.

What did they have to spend with me, twenty minutes?

Less than that? And if you think about it, they should be arrested for not telling people that they weren’t human. That should be the law about them.”

“There is no law about people being human or not.” She told her that there should be, and she’d not be in jail like she was. “Had you not messed with people’s emotions, then you’d not be in jail. Don’t forget that you lied to them about being their long-dead mother.”

“That’s the fun part for me. No one understands the game that I’m playing with people.

It’s all fun and games.” She said, until someone gets hurt.

“They weren’t hurt by this. They never believed that I was their mother from the first time I spoke to Rogen.

She’s sort of a bitch if you were to ask me. ”

“No one asked you anything.” The officer told her again that she needed to put on the jumpsuit that was given to her.

When asked what they’d do to her if she didn’t, she was told that they’d undress her and then put it on her.

The hard way. “And it will matter little if you’re hurt or not when we dress you either.

I’d suggest that you put it on so that no one has to dress you. It won’t be easy on you.”

“We’ll just see about that, won’t we?” The smile that she was given didn’t feel right, and she stood there with her chin up, daring her to call someone into the cell to get her dressed.

As soon as the door to the outer offices was closed, she was plunged into darkness so dark that she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. “I hate this place.”