“A promise? I don’t understand…”
Letting me go, he nods, pulls a lighter out, and strikes a flame to his cigar. “I promise that I will doeverything in my powerto take down Rawls, and if you get in my way, I’ll take you down with him.”
My heart is crackling. Beads of sweat pool around my temples as I squeeze my thigh with one hand, trying to keep calm.
“What have I done…Captain Felch?”
He shakes his head dismissively like I’m a child. “Doesn’t matter, missy. You don’t play ball, and I’ll trump up some charges on you and have you in a cell by the end of the month.”
That shell inside me finally gives way as Felch reveals the truth: He’s been lying this whole time.
I don’t know who that poor woman was in the photos, but it definitely wasn’t Gareth’s ex, and that arrest report was certainly fake.
I never should have doubted you, Daddy. Never.
“But then again,” Felch says, his voice slow and sleazy like a snake as he stands and comes around my side of the table, “if you felt like doing me a…favor…I might be willing to let you out of this.”
Without even hiding it, he reaches down between his legs and cups his bulge. He squeezes it and winks down at me like it will turn me on. All it does is make my stomach turn.
If only Gareth was here. I can’t even imagine the amount of ‘excessive force’ he would use.
Grabbing my purse, I quickly stand, and getting right up in Felch’s smoky, disgusting face, spit, “I’d rather suck off a hippo!”
He snatches out at me, but I duck, and his fingers close around empty air. I race for the door, and my hip catches the corner of the doorframe. I’ll have a bruise tomorrow, but so what?
I dash out of the room and back into the station. My heart is pounding as men glance at me while I run for the door. All it takes is one shout from Felch and any one of them could grab me, hold me here indefinitely.
But to my surprise, no one intervenes. I manage to make it out to my car without being caught or having a heart attack. My body is still ready to give out on me, but I can’t help but smile as I pull out of the parking lot.
It’s only a few minutes’ drive to Gareth’s, but it feels like an eternity. I watch every tree go by out the windows, counting every second that passes. I’m so on edge as I get out and race up his steps that I nearly collapse into his arms as he opens the door.
“Briar. Where have you been?” he asks, concern in his voice. “I’ve been trying to reach you all morning.”
“I’m sorry,” I sob, tears flowing from my eyes as the tension in my body releases. “I’mso sorry.”
The warmth from his body and the strength from his arms as they hold me up, cradling me with such love and such care, is enough to break me down.
“For what?” he asks. “Not answering my texts?”
Shaking my head, I reach into my purse pocket and pull out my phone. The recorder app is still running. I press stop and rewind it to the start. “You need to hear this, Gareth.”
He looks at me, confused, but I just stare up at him with trust and admiration. Every fiber of my being is his. I belong to him. I know he’d protect me with his life, so being able to do this one tiny thing to help him fills me with more joy than I can process.
“What is it?” he asks, guiding me to the couch.
“It’s the end to your problems.” I smile. “It’s your freedom.”
10
GARETH
Felch is going down.
Thanks to Briar. My woman. My forever.
I’m still reeling from the recording she played me. Hearing Felch admit to threatening her, to fabricating evidence against me. I’m stunned, but not surprised. Felch is definitely the type of man to do something like this to me. I just didn’t think he’d involve her.
And I willnotlet that happen.
