“And?” Detective Smith huffs impatiently.
“And despite my client inheriting this property, she does not in fact live here. Yesterday she wasn’t here at all, and I suspect you knew that, which is why you’re here, serving this today. Anyone could have gained access to the property before, and since Sorrow’s return, and she’d likely be oblivious to it. You know this. Even if you find something here today, and I find it hard to believe you will, you’d have a hard time proving it was my client’s.”
“Your client has proved she has issues with substances, and I’m sure it’s a condition of her parole that she avoid them at all costs. After searching her vehicle yesterday, enough suspicious items were found for a judge to sign off on this.”
Except I’m no longer on parole, and nothing in my van would make me look like I took or dealt in drugs.
“I’m not sure where you’re getting this information, but you are dangerously close to crossing lines you can’t come back from, Detective Smith, especially as this warrant predates the time in which Sorrow was arrested. I know, because I was there and watched the whole fiasco myself,” she warns the detective before casting her eyes over the rest of the cops, who look chagrined.
“I’m searching this property, and if I have to arrest you for impeding an investigation, Mrs. Hawkins, I will.”
“You arrest my wife, Smith, and you’ll have more than Olivia to deal with.”
My whole body relaxes when I hear Wade’s voice, only to tense when I hear Banner’s.
“What the fuck is going on here?”
Chapter Fourteen
BANNER
When my sister called Wade, I was sitting beside him, eating a burger and putting together a plan of action for Sorrow. Thankfully, we were only around the corner. When we pulled up, I could see things quickly devolving into pandemonium.
I leave Wade to deal with the cops and move straight to Sorrow, ignoring the asshole telling me to back off.
“You okay?” I ask, noticing how pale she is beneath the bruising and paint smeared on her face.
She nods, but winces. I follow my eyes down to her wrists and curse when I see she’s in cuffs again.
“Someone needs to take these off her right fucking now.”
“She’s—”
“Fucking bleeding,” I snarl.
Everyone is quiet for a minute. Eventually, the cuffs are released. She hisses when I turn her around and ease her sleeves up, which are now coated with blood.
“Shit, you’ve torn your stitches.”
“Didn’t know she had stitches,” someone voices. I look over and see the other cops looking at her wrists.
“I’m surprised, as it happened at the station only yesterday,” I snap back.
I look around for Wade, but he’s gone along with Smith, which is just as well. I didn’t like the way Smith was looking at her.
Olivia shuffles forward, her arm around Katy. I offer her what I hope is a reassuring smile.
“As much as I want you to clean those up for her, Banner, I think she should go back to the hospital. We need this on record. I’ll take some photos.”
“Ma’am,” a cop who is standing just behind me starts. I turn, but his attention is on Olivia.
“Don’t ma’am me, Jason. I’ve had you at my dinner table. Hell, a few of you have been there. I don’t invite people into my home or around my daughter that I don’t trust. I thought I could trust my husband’s coworkers, but now I’m questioning how stupid that was.”
“Come on, Olivia, we have a job to do,” Someone else says. I recognize him, but I can’t remember his name.
“Do you see her wrists? Those stitches that are torn were from the rookie putting cuffs on too tightly yesterday and leaving them on for far too long. And the best part is that she did nothing that warranted her being dragged in and detained then, either. Noticing a pattern?”
“We’re just following orders,” Jason tries to interject, but Olivia is having none of it.
