Finally, the door opened, and Detective Gibson stepped into the room, an apologetic smile on his face she didn’t buy for a second. Her temper spiked, but she willed it back, swallowing it down as she pinned him with a cool glare.
“Am I free to go?”
They’re going to try and intimidate you. Some might try to make nice. Whatever they do, whatever they say, just keep asking if you’re free to go and to speak to your lawyer.
Killian’s advice rolled through her mind for what felt like the millionth time since they’d first put her in the back of a squad car. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t know the words by heart, but hearing his voice in her head was as close as she could get to him at the moment, so she kept replaying that conversation over and over.
Dropping down hard into the chair across from her, Detective Gibson raised both his brows in clear surprise. “Are we keeping you from something important, Aria?”
She let her smile turn sharp, and was pleased when the faux surprise turned real. “Just wondering when you’re planning to stop stomping all over my Constitutional rights and let me leave.”
“Now, Aria, you know?—”
“I know I was dragged from my home in the middle of the night for no goddamn reason. So if you aren’t going to let me go, I suggest you let me talk to my lawyer.”
“Look, Aria.” Putting on sympathy the way some men put on socks in the morning—easy, practiced, without any actual thought—Gibson leaned forward, his arms resting on the table between them. “There’s no reason to make this any more difficult than it needs to be. Just tell us the truth and you’ll be free to go.”
“I’ll be happy to tell you everything. With my lawyer present.”
“Aria.” His voice and face both hardened. “We already know the truth. Your father and your uncles are all worried sick about you. If you could just?—”
“So they are behind this.” Sickness coated her stomach. Even after everything that had gone down, she’d held out some hope…
But then Gibson hesitated, and it was as though someone had pulled a shutter down over his eyes, cutting her off completely from his emotions.
And she had her answer.
“I want my lawyer,” she repeated, though her voice sounded far more hollow than it had originally. Because hollow was exactly how she felt.
They went round and round for what felt like another hour before Gibson gave up and left her alone again. She wasn’t sure what magic Killian’s lawyers worked in the meantime, but she didn’t see anyone again until they came to tell her she was, indeed, free to go.
Sean was waiting outside for her, his expression twisted up into concerned lines as he opened the back door so she could slide inside. “Are you okay, Aria?”
“I’m fine.” It was only partially a lie. She was unharmed, but her adrenaline high had long since faded and exhaustion was dragging her down. But she still had things to do.
People to terrorize.
“Take me to my father’s house, please. I can give you the address.”
Sean’s worried gaze met hers in the rearview. “I have strict orders to take you straight home.”
“Don’t worry about Killian. I’ll deal with whatever fallout there is from our little detour.”
“I don’t know…”
“Sean.” She spoke his name softly, yet firmly. “I need to speak with my father. If you take me home, I’m just going to find a way to sneak out again, and then Killian really will have both our hides.”
“What if something happens to you?”
It shocked her to realize she could still feel anything approaching amusement after the last… Jesus, thirteen hours. And yet she felt her lips twitch at his question. “What great evil do you think might befall me in my father’s house, Sean?”
Red tinged his cheeks, and not for the first time she was struck by how fucking young he was. “None, I guess.”
“Then please take me there. I’ll deal with Killian.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Rolling her eyes, she tapped her dad’s address into the phone Sean handed her. “And for the hundredth time, don’t call me Ma’am. I’m only what, three years older than you? Four?”
