Page 84 of No First Kisses

“In your fat.” Emma pipes up from her desk. “It doesn’t count because you were stabbed in the fat.” When I turn a glare at her, she doesn’t even flinch. “It’s the truth. But I’m super happy that it was just the fat.” She winks at me, playing it off.

I hear the back door to the station open again and know it has to be the trooper coming in.

“You all had nothing better to do with your day?”

“Nope,” Chief Townsend adds from his office doorway. “They really don’t, I’m sure. Come with me. I’ll supervise the questioning in my office.”

“That’s not protocol,” Trooper Douche remarks snidely. “We really should use an interrogation room.”

“You’re aware, I’m sure, that Poppy is a dispatcher here. Before here, she worked for the county. She’s not getting special treatment. She’s getting the respect that she deserves due to her station and position within this department.” With that explanation, the chief walks into his office and waits for us to follow.

When Logan steps forward, I place a hand on his arm.

No one in the open space of the room misses it.

“Stay out here,” I tell him quietly. “I’ll handle this.”

“No.” He shakes his head. “You don’t need to do anything on your own. I’ve got you.”

“I’ve got his entire life on this drive,” the man Logan introduced as Niles adds. “Plenty of ammunition to get you out of this.”

“No.” It’s my turn to shake my head. “I’m not going to do anything other than tell the truth and face whatever comes as a result. Anything else would be disrespectful to the situation and what I went through to get away from that asshole.” I stand on my tiptoes to kiss Logan on the cheek. “I’ll be done in a few.”

But I do grab the food bag from his hand and take my snacks with me.

I’m hungry, what can I say?

“Does she have a sistah?” Angelo, the other man I only met just a minute ago, asks Logan. “If she’s got one that’s anything like her, I wanna meet her.”

“You and Niles are going to stay with us for a little bit.” I stare at them over my shoulder. “We’ve got the space, and I want to hear what favors Logan did for you before that had you up here to help. Plus, I do have a sister, and I can’t wait to see her eat you alive.”

With that, I step into the chief’s office, doing my best to ignore Trooper Douche. The office is clean, if cluttered, and I’m quickly struggling to find something to focus on besides the tense and obviously pissed off trooper.

“Your statement leaves a lot of questions,” he starts, pulling out a notepad. “The one that you gave at the hospital. You state that you were able to grab the weapons before you were forced from the house. Why didn’t you use them there, to defend yourself? Why wait until you and the victim were hours away?”

My blood pressure, which I feel like I’d been doing a good job of keeping under control, skyrockets.

Instead of screaming in response, like I know he wants me to, I reach into my snack bag and grab a Twizzler. Only once I have a bite of the amazingness in my mouth do I calm down a little and take a deep breath.

“Not a victim,” I correct him. “Ortega wasn’t a victim. He shot three men at my house, and then he forced his way inside. I was on the phone with 9-1-1. Which is the correct thing to do in that situation. I called for help and then tried to get to safety. I know there’s a recording of it. So, for you to show up at my house is completely unacceptable.”

I look up at him, still taking my time and eating my snack. He’s obviously uncomfortable with how much knowledge I have and the fact that I’m not afraid of him. But why should I be?

Outside the door, I know that I’ve got Logan. The other people out there, I couldn’t care less about. But him? Logan will always be there for me. He’ll always find me.

“I’ve reviewed the tape,” he concedes. “But you’ve yet to explain why you had a weapon of such force and didn’t use it when you could.”

“Then…” I reach into the bag and pull out another snack, this time some jerky. “You weren’t listening to the same audio. I used the knife. I did defend myself. And I slid the brass knuckles into my pants in case he did get the upper hand. Which he did. I was forty weeks pregnant. Do you know how hard it is to move when you’re that pregnant? No. You’re a man. I did what I had to in order to protect myself and my son. And when I did get the chance to defend myself and get away again, I took it. I’m not sorry that I hit him too hard. He killed two men, and he was going to kill me and my son. If you’re going to arrest me, do it. But if I were you, I’d get the security footage from all of the game cameras that I saw at the cabin.”

He raises an eyebrow at that, clearly surprised. “Cameras?”

“Yes.” I nod my head while eating my jerky. “I counted five, I think. And they’ll show exactly what happened because at least two were pointed at the house.”

The entire time, Chief Townsend doesn’t say anything, until I see him picking up the office phone. “Yeah,” he says quietly. “I want you to get the game camera footage at the cabin where Poppy was taken.”

He nods at the trooper and then hangs up.

“I don’t know why you thought it was a good idea to bring her in,” he tells the trooper. “But all of this could have been done at her house or even over the phone.”

---