Page 171 of Unconditionally Yours
I pause, cock my head, trying to remember which demon I threw hands with. “Maybe,” I say, too sweet. “It got a little fuzzy after Hank clocked me. My brain went full Fruit Ninja. I was just swinging at shapes.”
“He needs a shock collar,” Chad mutters from across the room.
Jett snaps his head toward him, all teeth and threat. “Put it on me, coward.”
The officer sighs so deeply it rattles his mustache. “Alright, that’s enough, everyone’s going in.”
And just like that, it’s a field trip. Cuffed and collected. Margo’s mascara is running, Chad’s pouting, Hank’s bleeding from the mouth. Jett’s ready to rip the doors off the squad car.
God, I want to kiss him until his jaw unclenches.
Charges get slapped on every single one of us, because apparently Margo scratched Jett defending Chad, and none of us made it out without hitting someone. Equal opportunity violence.
It’s kinda hot.
As the cuffs click and we’re being dragged toward separate cars, Jett calls out to me. “I’ll call Walter.”
“I’ll call Rhys,” I say, as a cop yanks me forward. “He’ll let Benji know.”
We’re both grinning now. Bloody and wrecked and buzzing.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Benji
I’m absolutely crawling out of my skin.
The precinct lobby hums with fluorescent buzz and cop boots and the thud of my pulse in my ears. I’m too big for this space, too tightly wound to sit, too hot to breathe.
Rhys is calmly signing release paperwork with the desk sergeant, his pen scratching over forms that mean my girl and Jett get to walk free.
But I can’t focus on that.
“He hit her?” I say again for the thousandth goddamn time.
My fists are clenched and I’m not sure when they started shaking.
Hank. That bastard. Her ex. He laid hands on her. On my wild little chaos goblin, my tiny terror in pink and combat boots. My Delilah.
I didn’t see it. I didn’t stop it. And now there’s blood in the air I can’t taste, only feel.
“Is he here?” I ask, eyes scanning every hallway, every uniform, every breath like it might belong to him. “Is Hank in the building?”
Because I’ll teach him. I will teach him what never again feels like. I will put him on the floor and make sure he stays there.
Rhys finally strolls over, all composed like he hasn’t been sitting on the same ticking bomb as me. “Walter’s gonna meet us all at his office. We’re going to fix this. All of it. Hank. Chad. Margo. They’re going down.”
“He hit her.” My voice is low.
Rhys doesn’t react. “If they’re using Chad’s lawyer, they’ll all be out by the end of the day.”
“Good,” I say, slow and sharp. “That’ll make it easier to find them.”
Rhys gives me a look. “Benji.”
“I’ll wait here,” I interrupt. I’ll wait until Hank comes out and make sure he goes right back in. I want his teeth in my palm. I want his blood on the cuffs he wears out of here.
“No. That won’t help,” Rhys says, measured and even.
