The doors to the police station opened for a fourth time and a frazzled looking woman came barreling through the door.
“Mommy!” the little girl, Simone, cried out. “Oh my god. Mommy!”
The girl’s mom dropped down onto her knees beside her daughter and picked her up.
Only, when she did, she cried out in pain.
“What on…” The mother picked up the edges of her daughter’s t-shirt and my breath caught in my throat. “Oh my god.”
Oh my god was right.
The little girl’s torso—what little of it we could see—was covered in bruises.
“Oh, baby, no.”
She stood up and whirled on her ex-husband, her finger pointed in his face. “I told you if you ever hurt her, I would kill you.”
Cedrick snorted. “I didn’t hurt her that bad.”
“You didn’t hurt her that bad…” the angry mother hissed and stood up. “Is being covered in bruises not considered that bad? I’m sorry, but I think our definitions don’t match.”
I didn’t think mine did, either.
This little girl had no affiliation to me whatsoever, and I was about to throw down for her.
The only thing stopping me was doing this in front of a police officer.
I could do this somewhere private once he got out and settle it a hell of a lot better than I could in the middle of a police station.
“Now, someone here better tell me what the fuck happened, and why this piece of shit isn’t the one getting arrested instead of that woman.” The mom pointed at Calliope.
The man trying to get the watch free of Calliope’s wrist turned, cheeks blazing.
With her hands free, she ripped the watch off of her wrist and tossed it at me.
I caught it and slipped it onto my hand without thought, then crossed my arms over my chest and decided to wait this one out.
I’d like to see how this worked.
I’d be bailing Calli out if it came to it.
Hell, I’d probably fight the whole damn room of cops if it came down to it.
The fact that she put herself into danger to save my friend…
I was beginning to have a whole lot of inappropriate feelings.
I was also pretty fucking close to pointing out that they were shit at their job. I had plenty of years of policing under my belt, and I could smell a clusterfuck from a mile away.
Whatever the fuck the Paris Police Department had going on right now smelled worse than a clusterfuck. It smelled like an entire department cleanse.
“Ma’am.” A man came out of the side room. “Please, come to my office.”
The chief, then.
“Not before you let her go,” the woman seethed.
“Christian, I swear that I didn’t do anything,” Cedrick said.
