Page 94 of Forever Never
“Why don’t you blame that on me, too,” Remi shot back. The adrenaline was making her chest feel tight. But it was the most alive she’d felt in a while.
“Remington,” Brick threatened.
“If you reach for those zip ties on your belt, I will not be held accountable for my actions,” she warned him.
“Don’t make me use them.”
“Goddamn you! How am I supposed to pretend you don’t exist if you keep showing up?” Remi demanded, shrilly. Between the cold, the yelling, and her generalized fury, she could feel her throat tightening.
“Because you always need him. You always need someone to bail you out,” Kimber shot back.
Remi’s gasp was more of a wheeze.
“You know better than to get her riled like this,” Brick snapped at Kimber. “Where’s your inhaler?”
“Fuck you, Brick,” the sisters shouted together.
“If you two don’t knock it the hell off right now, I swear to God I will take you both down to the station and call your mother.”
It was the wrong move for him to make. Sisters divided were still sisters. And he’d just united them against a common enemy.
Remi picked up a fistful of snow.
“Don’t even think about it,” he growled as she formed it into a ball.
* * *
“I am not happy,”Chief Darlene Ford announced through the bars of the holding cell. She was wearing pink bunny fleece pajama pants and a Mackinac Police parka.
“Hi, Mom,” Remi and Kimber said innocently.
“Zip ties, Sergeant?” Darlene observed.
“I hit him with a snowball and tried to kick him in the balls,” Remi said cheerfully.
“I kicked him in the shin,” Kimber announced.
Darlene blinked, then sighed. “Let ’em out, Brick.”
“Only if you promise not to murder them,” he said. “I don’t want to deal with the paperwork.”
Remi watched her mom accept the keys from Brick. “You two are grounded.”
Kimber snorted. “I don’t think you can do that.”
“Yeah. We’re adults,” Remi agreed.
“Well, one of us is,” her sister said snidely.
“You wanna go again, Kimber?”
“That answers the zip-tie question,” their mother observed. “Cut ’em loose.”
Minutes later, they were bundled up and booted out onto the street to face the wrath of their bunny pajamaed mother.
“I’m not going to ask what this was about,” Darlene began. “Because frankly, I don’t give a shit. You’re both obviously going through something bad enough to get zip-tied and dragged downtown. By the way, Kimber, the kids are fine. Mrs. Croix let them have ice cream and watch an episode ofSchitt’s Creekbefore putting them back to bed.”
“Great. I’ll never hear the end of this,” Kimber muttered under her breath.
