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I glanced at her cuffs hanging from her belt. She was here to put those on me and haul me away. There was no way she didn’t. I could see it now, her twisting my arms behind my back and throwing me against the brick wall by the coffee shop like they did in the movies.
“Audry Santora?”
I nodded, refusing to say anything else. She glanced at Kai but said nothing. There was a knowing glance between the two that I tried my best to place, but with the cacophony of buzzing in my ears, I lost the ability to keep a single thought straight.
“You’re very hard to track down,” she said, running her tongue along her teeth. “I was hoping to ask you a few questions if that is okay?” She tapped the badge at her side, smiling widely. Her blue eyes narrowed on me, two icy orbs ready to tear me apart.
“We have somewhere to be,” Kai mumbled, trying to move us past her.
But she sidestepped, blocking his path.
“We can always have this conversation downtown, Audry. All formal like. Attorneys, your name on a list…" She tilted her head back and forth.
We can’t keep any of the evidence, nor can you go to the police or report this, Carson’s warning from so long ago bounced around my head. Nothing could be formal. The moment it was, the moment things went on paper, my life would be destroyed beyond repair.
Kai glared at her harder, shaking his head, disgusted. The muscles along his arm that I clung to tensed harder.
Maddison flashed him a wide smile, revealing her teeth. She ran her tongue between them, not backing down from him. I watched Kai a bit closer.Did he know her?
“What do you wanna know?” I asked, swallowing down my fear. I wanted to get this over with. If Kai had run into this cop before, chances were, it wasn’t for being a good samaritan. His ‘construction’ job was obviously a front, but I didn’t want to push too hard. The harder I pushed, the more he pulled away.
“Were you at the Dockside Bar about two months or so ago? A band called Dreams was playing,” she asked, crossing her arms.
A lie was ready to fall out, a simple, singular syllable, but Kai turned to me, nodding a singular time.
“Yes,” I said.
“And you frequent that establishment?” She rested her hands on her hips.
“I mean, I’ve been there a few times. Sure. They bring in a lot of good bands.” I shrugged.
“So, were you there on July 29th?”
I licked my lips, confused. Why would she care about beforehand? It wasn’t like I’d met Nate before that night, the first of August. The image of texting Lexi popped into my mind. The date right in the corner.
“Audry? Were you there?” she asked.
“Yeah, probably. The band was there all week, different sets every night.”
“Do you know Quinton Johnson?” She pulled out a photo from her pocket. Quinton’s narrowed stare from a mugshot photo glared back at me. The single cut in his brow and the harshness of his jaw was him. It wasn’t Nate. Why the hell did she care about the asshole Quinton? He wasn’t worth anyone’s time.
“What’s this about?” I glanced at Kai, confused.
“Two men have gone missing from that establishment rather quickly. If you haven’t seen the news, one of those men was found on the beach recently. Dead. Someone had stabbed some form of glass implement, possibly a beer bottle, into his neck.” She pointed to the area where I had stabbed Nate.
They knew how Nate died. Would my DNA still be on him? How long till they traced him back to me, and this was no longer about Quinton? I schooled my expression as best as I could. No accusations had been thrown yet. She was merely fishing.
“That sounds awful,” I said. “Do you think Quinton had anything to do with it?”
She smiled politely but continued her questioning without missing a beat. “When was the last time you spoke to Quinton?”
Fuck, I thought. I walked right into her trap with that one. I shouldn’t have repeated his name to her or acted worried at all.
“I guess that night,” I said, seeing no harm in answering questions about that asshole. Kai squeezed my hand in warning this time.
“Are you aware that he’s a known criminal?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“A criminal?” I laughed. “He might have an attitude, but…" I shook my head. I didn’t know much about Quinton. Getting to know someone was kinda hard when they fucked you into orgasmic heaven over and over again.
