Page 8 of Wrecked

“Looks like I messed with the wrong girl. Didn’t know she was yours,” Nico says through short breaths.

I’m surprised to see a smirk on his face.

“You ever touch Leah again, and I will kill you. You hear me?” Adam says each word with perfect articulation, ensuring Nico doesn’t miss the threat.

“After everything we’ve been through, it’s a girl that finally has you threatening my life? Wouldn’t Brad be disappointed? Besides, wasn’t she his first?”

No sooner are the words out of Nico’s mouth than Adam lifts him up and slams him into the corner and down onto the floor. With Nico down, Adam leans forward and cuffs him to the foot of the bench. He won’t be able to move further than a few inches now.

When Adam looks back at me, I finally take an assessment of myself. My hands are pressed tight into my body, protecting it from being violated. My breaths are deep and fast. I feel like my heart is crawling into my stomach with each breath. My eyes are wide as I stare at Adam. He’s examining me like I’m a wounded dove. He hasn’t looked at me in years, and this is the state I’m in when he finally decides to take notice.

I stand up straight and wipe the hair away from my tear-stained face. “I can’t be in here with him anymore.”

“You shouldn’t be in here at all.” Adam walks toward me.

He attempts to grab my hands, but I flinch. With slow, controlled movements, he tries again. In the gentlest way, he lifts my palms and unlocks the cuffs around my wrists. The skin of his hands is rough and calloused, yet he’s grasping onto mine with the touch of someone holding a newborn baby.

I stretch out my fingers and circle my wrist. “Thank you.”

“Come with me.” He places his palm on the small of my back and guides me into the main room.

Just as he’s locking up the holding room, Officer Harper walks in from the back.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Adam spits.

“In the restroom. Do I have to tell you every time I take a piss?”

“What the hell was she doing in the holding room with Nico Martinez?”

“You know the lock is broken on the other cell. I chained her to the opposite end of the room.”

“He attacked her!” Adam shouts into the startled expression on Harper’s face. “You don’t put a female in the same cell as a man, especially that piece of shit. Ever. And who the fuck moved his cuffs to the front? Right now, he’s chained to the fucking floor, and he is not to be moved until I say so, you hear?”

“Yes, sir,” Harper says, indicating Adam is above him in authority.

“Come on, Leah. You’re spending the night in the conference room.” Adam ushers me to a room in the back.

It’s sterile, beige, and freaking heaven compared to the holding room.

Once we’re inside, Adam holds up the handcuffs and dangles them in my face. “Don’t give me a reason to put these back on you.”

I take a seat in a wooden chair. “How do you know I’m not a flight risk?” I ask sarcastically.

In one breath, he says I’m not a criminal. In another, he’s accusing me of becoming one. Looks like cold Adam is back in action.

“You’d never do that to your parents. That’s why.” He adds, “I’m going to walk to my desk and grab some files. Do not move from that seat. If you do, I will cuff you to Nico’s fucking foot, you got it?”

This good-cop, bad-cop thing he has going on is a real drag. Then again, no one can top the mighty McConaughey as a man of the law in the movie Lone Star.

Adam walks away, and I’m left by myself. My foot can’t stop shaking. Nerves, fright, or who knows what? Maybe it’s the alcohol wearing off. Either way, I’m a mess.

There’s a phone on the center of the table. My friends are most likely all drunk and passed out by now. Luke, I’m sure, is in no shape to get me. I should call my sister, Emma, and let her know what’s going on. She’ll be disappointed, but she won’t tell my parents. Emma is the perfect daughter, a violinist for the Pittsburgh Symphony, who has never gotten in trouble a day in her life. She’ll give me hell; that’s for sure. I can take it from her. What she’ll probably hate the most is getting woken up in the middle of the night.

I stand up and walk over to the table. I pick up the receiver. I’m punching in the numbers when Adam comes in.

“What the hell are you doing?” He throws his files on the table and rips the phone from my hand.

“I’m allowed one phone call, aren’t I?” I ask incredulously.