Page 135 of Bene

It was the others coming in through the front of the church. And the ones she heard shouting from within the church, too.

“Police! RCMP, everyone put your hands up!”

“Police! RCMP! Les mains en l'air!”

Vanna’s hands flew up high. She was one of the first to be arrested, RCMP officers spilling into the church through all entrances and exits. Hell, they brought everyone, it seemed. She hadn’t seen that many cops in one place in … a long time.

She didn’t get the chance to ask questions. Not anything beyond, “What am I being arrested for?”

The cop’s answer?

“Precautionary.”

What the fuck did that mean?

She also didn’t get to appreciate they ruined the wedding in the nick of fucking time. And after the cop who slapped the cuffs on her had dragged her out of the church and put her in the back of a cop car, Vanna was sure she saw a familiar figure watching from across the street. He looked the same as he always did—black leather, a face made to sin, and a dark gaze she could feel on her long after it was gone.

Bene.

He’d been there.

Waiting.

“Miss Falco, is it?”

Vanna glanced up from the sleeves of her hoodie where she had been pulling at the fabric to keep her hands busy. The plain-clothed cop that slipped into the room she had been housed in after arriving at the station gave her a smile.

A tight one.

It wasn’t warm at all.

“That’s me,” she said, “but I can’t say I know who you are.”

He arched a brow. “Constable Andrews, but you can call me Detective, if you’d like. I work with the division for—”

“Am I under arrest?”

“No.”

“Then, why I am I still sitting here?”

At least, someone had the decency to grab the bag of her clothes from the private dressing room in the church. A female cop accompanied her to a bathroom to change, and pack away the wedding dress and veil she hoped to never see again.

No one answered her questions.

She asked a lot.

“We’ll get to that in a moment,” the detective said, closing the door behind him. “Before I ask a few questions, is there anything I can get for you?”

Vanna scowled. “A lawyer?”

“Do you think you’ll need one being you’re not under arrest, and I’m only here to ask a few cursory questions relating to your connection to your fiancé’s family, their business, and your previous status as an informant for a … Constable Keefs?”

She straightened in the chair.

No one should have known about that, but especially not another cop. Her informant business with Keefs had been strictly between him and her, and when she refused to keep feeding him information, well it was over.

That was it.