“We’ve got a full house tonight, kid, so you’ll have to adjust,” he said, then jerked his head toward the other cell, which was full of people I’d rather not share a close vicinity with.
Because of the damn smell, of course.
When I didn’t respond to him, the sheriff rolled his eyes, took the handcuffs off my wrists, and all but shoved me inside the surprisingly empty cell.
I turned, just as he shut the door and locked it with a resoundingclank.
I wrapped my fingers around the bars and shifted on my feet. “So…this is goodbye, then,” I told him.
He let go of a tired breath and shook his head at me. “You’re trouble, you know that?”
I grinned. “Of course.”
He clicked his tongue, then swiftly glanced sideways before leaning close to the cell. “Gimme a few hours,” he whispered, and his expression softened as he smiled faintly. “I’ll be back for the two of you.”
I stared at him in confusion. “Wh–” I clamped my mouth shut when he gave me a quick nod and walked away from me before I could ask him what he meant.
Alright, then.
Sighing, I stepped away from the bars, and was about to sit down when a voice stopped me in my tracks.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
I turned around so fast that I stumbled a little. My heart was in my fucking throat as I looked at the figure sitting opposite me – with the back of his head resting against the wall behind him, his knees folded and his forearms perched atop them, and a bemused smile playing across his young face.
No wonder Sheriff Solo had said he’d be back for thetwoof us.
“I may or may not have taken a piss on the floor over there just to annoy the in-charge outside,” the guy said to me.
I swallowed and straightened, then walked further into the cell. “You fucking scared me, man,” I told him.
He chuckled and raised his hands. “Sorry.” He then gestured at the empty space next to him. “Come, join me.”
“How chivalrous,” I quipped, then settled down next to him.
“I am, after all, a complete gentleman,” he said, and grinned when I looked at him.
Up close, I could easily see the bags under his brown eyes, the streaks of dirt on his jaw and neck; the holes and tears on his purple Henley and faded jeans. His hair was buzzed close to his scalp, and while that made him appear disheveled, his tone and posture were anything but.
“A gentleman who takes a leak on the floor just to rile a cop?” I asked.
“Obviously.” He gave me a once over, so I brought my knees up and wrapped my arms around them.
“Don’t fucking ogle,” I muttered, then looked around the cell.
The walls and floor were nothing but hard concrete. There was a metal pissing pot in one corner, a bunk bed in the other, and a sorry excuse of an air vent on the top left side of the cell.
“I’m notogling,” the guy responded. “I’m…”
“Curious? Perplexed?” I provided, then looked at him again. “Amused?”
He searched my face for a moment, then shifted so that he could face me. “Why would I be amused?”
I shrugged. “I must look funny to you. A guy in a woman’s dress – arrested for Christ knows what.”
“I’m here too, y’know,” he countered.
“But you aren’t–”
