Page 151 of Worth the Fall

GRANT

My dad pulls the blinds shut on each window in the conference room. As he pulls the cords, one by one, the metal slats drop down with a resonating thud. The sound of my fate being sealed.

“I’m being interrogated now? I thought you were retired.” I’m being a sarcastic ass, but I’m tired, and fuck, if I care about this police department right now when “To Protect and Serve” feels like a baseless catchphrase.

“This is professional courtesy extended to me by Chief Ramos to let me come down here and level with my son over why he was put in handcuffs tonight. You do realize they could haul you off to booking and charge you with obstruction, right?”

I slump back in my chair and sigh like a ten-year-old kid waiting to have his ass handed to him. “By all means. Let’s get this party started.”

“Would you rather do this out in the precinct where everyone can hear me ask you what the fuck you were doing?”

“Does it really matter? They all know why you’re here so . . . ask away.” I direct every ounce of anger I feel over the situation toward my dad. It’s unfounded, and he doesn’t deserve it, but the only thing that would calm my nerves right now is to know that both Keely and Emerson are all right.

Keely for the obvious, and Emerson because the last time she saw Keely, it messed her up. She doesn’t deserve to be messed up any more than she already is.

When the last blind falls, he takes his time moving around the conference table before sitting directly across from me.

“What the hell were you thinking?” he finally asks as his brow narrows and his eyes demand an answer.

“My job,” I state matter-of-factly.

“Your job?”

“Don’t come at me, Dad, with the holier than thou bullshit. I did what I had to do, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. You’re lucky I didn’t do what I really wanted, which was to beat the shit out of him, because I don’t think I would have been able to stop once I started. So, yeah, it’s a lot better than the alternative could have been. It’s been a rough night, so if you came to give me a lecture, thanks but no thanks. I’m not in the mood for one.”

He sighs and leans back in his chair shaking his head. “What you did was incredibly stupid and profoundly valiant.”

I grunt, not feeling too valiant at the moment since I didn’t accomplish anything. “I don’t think Ramos is going to look at it that way.”

“Probably not.” He raises his eyebrows. “What did he say?”

I shrug, not wanting to think about the consequences when the actions were damn well warranted. “I haven’t spoken directly with him yet.”

“You suspended?” he asks.

“For starters.”

“Your promotion?”

I laugh. “Most likely gone, too. Insubordination and obstruction aren’t exactly looked upon in a favorable light when you’re competing for a promotion.”

“True.”

“Sorry I didn’t live up to the Malone family standards,” I say with sarcasm he doesn’t deserve.

“I don’t give a shit about the promotion, Grant,” he says, irritated by my cheap shot. “I care that you stand by the right principles and make the right choices. I care that, at the end of the day, you can hold your head high. So you tell me, if you had to do it all over again, would you do the same thing?”

“In a heartbeat,” I say without hesitation. “It was the right thing to do.”

I think of Emerson highlighted by red and blue lights. The look on her face solidifying I was doing the right thing. Her presence telling me the time she needed is up.

God, I need to know she’s okay, but instead, I’m locked in this damn room.

My dad continues to stare at me, study me, mull over the thoughts I can see clear as day in his eyes.

“This doesn’t have anything to do Emerson, does it?”

“Christ, yes, it does,” I say with a disbelieving laugh, nervous energy eating me up. Too anxious to sit still, I shove up from my chair and pace the length of the room.