Page 107 of The Complete Truth Duet
The police officer slowed to a stop at the end of the hall and then shoved a door on my left open. “Inside.” He didn’t follow me in.
Short of a table and two chairs, the room was empty. There were no windows, no double-sided mirrors. It wasn’t like anything I’d experienced in past arrests.
It was just a white room bleached of all color—and hope.
“Sit down. I’ll be right back.” He let the door quietly swoosh shut, not even clicking it locked behind him.
Searching for a camera or any sign of outside life, I walked over and used my toe to slide the chair out before sinking down.
My leg bounced up and down as I waited. Out of habit, I reached for the star around my neck only to remember they’d taken it from me when they’d processed me in. I had two strikes against me, but assuming no drugs had climbed into my pockets of their own volition, I should have been okay.
It was false confidence like that that made the blow of seeing his face appear in the doorway feel like a knock-out punch.
“Hello, Cora,” Thomas Lyons drawled as he sauntered into the room.
He had visibly aged since the last time I’d seen him. I couldn’t remember exactly how much older than Catalina he was, but flecks of gray now showed in his dark-brown hair. His blue eyes were friendly enough to make him approachable, but I knew all too well how bottomless his soul truly was.
He opened the button on his suit coat as he sat down. My attention was drawn to the wedding ring he was still wearing on his left hand. But it was all for show. Thomas was an attention whore in the worst way.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked.
He grinned, full of arrogance. “I heard the cops picked you up. I thought maybe you needed some legal expertise.”
I buried my hands in my lap so he couldn’t see them tremble. “You heard? Or sent them after me?”
He shrugged, turning to the side to cross his legs knee over knee like the pretentious prick he was. “Potato. Patahto. All that matters is I’m here to get you out.”
Negative amounts of hope hit my chest. Thomas had never done anything out of the kindness of his heart in his entire life. He wasn’t about to start with me.
“Oh, yeah? And what’s it going to cost me?”
His eyes narrowed, but his smile never faltered. “Where is she, Cora?”
My pulse thundered in my ears, but I showed him nothing. “I have no idea who you’re talking about.”
“Right. Of course you don’t.” He intertwined his fingers and cradled them around the top of his knee. “But let’s speak hypothetically here. Let’s pretend for a second that there is a certain child who may or may not be in grave danger. See, her mother is a prostitute with several drug convictions on her record, and more than once, she has had the aforementioned child taken away from her. What do you think would happen if, let’s say, a concerned uncle who also happens to be a man of many powers called in a favor to have the child permanently removed from the mother’s care?”
My lungs burned as the air in that room became toxic, but I held his stare and refused my eyes the tears they were calling to the surface. “Well, hypothetically of course, it sounds like that concerned uncle is making quite a few assumptions about the mother and is trying to control a situation he knows absolutely nothing about. If I had to guess, I’d say he was probably compensating for some personal inadequacies, if you know what I mean. However, if I were that mother, which, clearly I’m not, seeing as you mentioned that she was a prostitute, my advice to her would be to stop talking to the asshole and wait for her attorney.”
He laughed. “You mean Frank Esposito? Yeah, I saw him out front. That man is a beast when it comes to family law.”
Oh, thank God. Drew had come through.
“Right. Then please direct all further hypothetical games his way.”
“I sent him home.”
I shot to my feet, the chair falling over behind me. “You can’t do that!”
“Cora, honey. Frank and I play golf every weekend. What do you expect?”
I expected that, for once in my life, someone would actually help me—even if I had to pay them to do it. I should have known better. The law was only fair when everyone followed the same rules.
He rose from his seat and prowled around the table. Panic exploded inside me, and I tried to scramble away, but the room was too small to allow me any space. My back hit the wall as his hand found my throat.
“Stop,” I hissed, clawing at his wrist, but it only made him tighten his grip until breathing became an impossible task. Frantic, I glanced to the door, begging for someone to walk by. But even if they did, I wasn’t sure anyone would care.
