Page 34 of Dirty Cops Next Door

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Toni

“Ma’am.Your phone keeps ringing. You really need to turn that off in here. It can make the equipment glitch. Take it outside, please, if it’s important.” A nurse stood over me, and I glared up at her blearily. Who was she again?

Oh right, I thought, I’m in the hospital with Grant.

“What?” I pushed myself up and tried to disentangle myself from Grant. I went over to my bag and finally figured out the noise I could hear wasn’t just one of the machines Grant was connected to.

“Sorry, I forgot to turn it off.” I took the phone out of my bag and headed down the hall. The phone had stopped ringing.

I could barely see straight as I went down the elevators. I finally managed to swipe the correct pattern on my phone as I stepped outside into the cold night air.

Sunlight was only just starting to tinge the skyline a fainter shade of black. What time was it?

The text on my phone was almost an accusation. How dare I miss a call!

Why was David so desperate to reach me? Eight calls in the middle of the night?

I closed my eyes as I hit the green call button and waited.

“Hello?” David’s voice came over the line and I breathed in sharply. Something was wrong, he didn’t sound right.

“What’s up?” I wanted to say, “What the fuck is wrong now?” but held those words back.

“I’m sending a car over to pick you up, it should be arriving now.”

The sound of a car pulling up meant he hadn’t been kidding. I glanced up and saw the marked car.

“Okay, why?”

“Don’t ask questions, Toni. I can’t explain until you get here. Just get in the car, and don’t argue.”

“Alright. Let me go tell Grant—”

“Just get in the fucking car and get here, Toni!” David’s voice exploded in my ear and I wanted to hang up on him but that niggling feeling of panic was coming back.

Why wouldn’t he tell me what was wrong? Why didn’t I have time to explain anything to Grant? What could possibly have gone so wrong now? And why did I have to be there? Nope, not good at all.

I got into the car and let a little of my anger at being talked to with such disrespect show through. “I’m in the car.”

“Good. Thank you. See you soon.” He hung up and I wanted to sling my phone out of the car window.

The officer driving didn’t even look back at me much less try to make small talk so I sat in the back fuming over the way David had spoken to me.

Sure, David was an alpha male, he was used to being listened to, but I’m not anyone’s whipping boy! He was so going to get a piece of my mind when I got to wherever this car was taking me. A huge piece of it. I might even use the f-word a time or two!

By the time the police car drove along a road I was vaguely familiar with I’d worked myself into a fine little rage. Who the fuck did he think he was? Just because we’d had sex didn’t mean he was my lord and master… Wait, wasn’t this Avery’s house? And what’s with all the flashing lights, the police officers everywhere?

“Come on.” David opened the car door before the car had even completely stopped and pulled me into a large van, the kind used by moving companies. This one had computer screens, people, and other stuff I couldn’t recognize inside of it. “Get out for five minutes. This is her.”

People looked at me with pity in their eyes and then they all moved en-masse to leave the vehicle.

“David. This is scaring me. What’s going on? Why exactly am I at this house?” I watched the people leave and panic began to strangle my heart and brain. I wanted to follow those people out to a world that still made sense, I didn’t want to hear whatever it was David was about to tell me. I wanted to run away from it all, it was just too much! I didn’t want to be here in this confined space, the walls closing in on me. Something was wrong, very wrong.

I felt that band go around my lungs once more, only this time it was squeezing tighter. So tight I could feel my pulse beating in my head. The staccato rhythm kept repeating one word… Eric.