“Trust me, Jimmy,” Cold replied, offering him a surprisingly confident smile.
Jimmy barely heard the rest of the Miranda Rights, his heart slamming itself down into his stomach as Duplin took Cold away. He thought he was going to throw up. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and he couldn’t even find the words to say goodbye.
Cold, the love of Jimmy’s life, was being led out in handcuffs.
Murder, there were murder charges against him—but how? Wait, no,who?
Jimmy knew the name, Marco Luchesi, sounded familiar. He was too frantic to think straight and place where he’d heard it before. He watched the cops haul Tamerlane away for having guns as a convicted felon. Lorre was screaming and cursing to see his boyfriend being arrested, and Jules grabbed him in a tight hold to keep him from swinging at anyone in a uniform.
Jimmy could relate.
Numb and afraid, he sat down on the edge of the bed as the cops continued searching the room. This was supposed to be the safest place in the world, and he felt horribly vulnerable to see it all being ripped apart.
He flushed with shame when they dumped out the drawer of sex toys, and he jumped when he felt a strong hand on his shoulder.
“Come along,monsieur,” Jerry was urging him. “Let’s go somewhere else, eh?”
Jimmy nodded sadly, letting Jerry guide him downstairs. Everywhere he looked, he saw cops searching the house with little to no care. A vase of calla lilies had been broken, and its shattered pieces had been left strewn across the hallway floor.
He felt like that vase, broken and lost. His chest was burning from all of the emotions threatening to steal his breath away. He was almost in tears and despair was beginning to take over.
No.
Jimmy closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and held his head up high. Cold had shown him how strong he could be, drawing on all of the confidence they had been building together over the past year.
This wasn’t the time to cry; his tears could wait.
Right now, he had to think.
Cold had been arrested, and considering his notoriety, Jimmy was certain his arraignment would be soon. He knew Cold had strong influence over the courts, but he didn’t know if it would be enough to get out on bail.
“Mr. Poe?”
Jimmy scowled as one of the FBI agents approached him, and he stepped back instinctively. “I have nothing to say.”
“My name is Agent Richard Champignon,” the man said with a forced smile. “I’d like to talk to you about yourhusband.”
The sarcasm dripping off of the last word made Jimmy’s stomach clench up uncomfortably.
“I have nothing to say,” Jimmy repeated stubbornly. “Unless I’m also under arrest, I’m leaving. If you try to hold me unjustly, I’ll file a civil suit against you and the entire bureau for harassment and unlawful imprisonment.”
Champignon’s smile vanished and all pretense of being nice fell away. “Don’t even think about skipping town, Mr. Poe.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Jimmy said curtly, brushing by him to exit the mansion. He was shaking with adrenaline by the time he reached the limo and collapsed down into the plush leather seats.
Jerry didn’t close the door right away, waiting for Jules to join them. Jimmy looked out the window as they drove away, watching more police vehicles crowd the driveway and scads of officers filtering into the house.
Jules clapped his hand on Jimmy’s shoulder, grunting, “You did good, Twig.”
“I feel like I’m about to faint,” Jimmy mumbled. He tried to remember to breathe and raked his fingers through his hair. “Where’s Lorre?”
“Keeping an eye on shit,” Jules said. “Makin’ sure those pigs only get their paws on what’s covered with that search warrant.”
“Thought he was mad about Tamerlane getting pinched.”
“Nah, not really.” Jules shook his head. “We all knew that was happening. Why do you think he’s the only one who was packing heat?”
“Wait... that was planned?”
