Page 81 of The Belle and the Biker

I google the name of Astrid Menasco while Crash is talking. She's a typical socialite wild child who's been arrested for stalking—of three different guys. She's also been busted for shoplifting on three occasions, wrapping her car around a telephone pole, breaking into a romantic rival's house, and pooping on her bed.

Okay. So she's a lunatic. But that doesn't mean that there was nothing between them. All those times that Crash told me the phone calls had nothing to do with me, he lied to me. If he lied about that, what else isn't he telling me?

My heart doesn't feel like a bird frantic to escape anymore, and it's lying dead on the floor of its cage. I'm so white-hot with anger that I've tipped over into numbness.

Tawny is sitting across the room from us, talking to another police officer. She shoots Crash harsh looks like flung daggers, but Crash ignores it.

After Crash finishes talking and the officer leaves us to talk to his superior, I tell Crash in an icy monotone what I learned about Astrid. He grimaces and puts his hand on my knee, and I slide my chair away from him until his hand falls to his side.

"Sorry. We'll talk about this when we leave."

"You think?" I say tightly and swivel my chair, so my back is to him.

We sit in silence for a couple of minutes until the officer comes to tell us that multiple people testified that Astrid was the aggressor, so we are free to go. They'll be holding her because she has two current warrants out for her arrest for failure to appear.

As we walk out of the station, Crash's phone rings, and he grabs it from his pocket.

"Stay with Tawny," he growls at me.

"Are you mother-frikking kidding me?" I shout at him.

He tries to walk far enough away down the sidewalk that I can't hear the conversation. Tawny and I follow him, so he gives up and stops walking.

"Emerson. What the fuck?" he shouts into the phone. Wow. He calls his father Emerson. And I thought my relationship with my parents was terrible.

I stand close enough to hear what's being said on the other end of the line, which isn't hard because the man is yelling.

"I just got a call from a friend in South Carolina who saw you on the news, damn it! This is the last thing I need right now!"

"You sent that crazy bitch to stalk me?" Crash shouts. "Did you use my phone to track me here?"

There's a pause. "No, but she might have. All right, giving her your number was a mistake."

"Yeah, it was a mistake! So was trying to set me up with her! She's a fucking crazy bitch with a history of stalking!"

"All right already!" Crash's father yells. "Her family was eager to get her married off, and I wanted you to settle down. I didn't realize the full extent of her issues."

I suck in a breath. I realize my fists are clenched, and I uncurl my hands.

"Whatever your undercover assignment was, it's been blown," his father continues. "Astrid's well known, and this has made the mainstream media. You and two trashy-looking whores are in the videos too, and it's only a matter of time before you're all publicly identified. You need my help now."

"You try to call me again, and I will personally visit your house and take you apart piece by piece." Crash hangs up the phone. Then he turns to glare at me.

"You took your damn wig off. You've put yourself in danger, and we're going to have to relocate immediately."

He's angry at me. He's actually trying to make this my fault.

"How dare you?" I choke on the words. The numbness is thawing. I'm too hurt and angry to yell. Tears of rage well up in my eyes. My face is hot, and our lunch is roiling in my stomach.

Tawny stalks up to him. "May I?" she asks me.

"Please."

She swings and punches him in the stomach so hard he staggers back a step and groans. "Oof."

"Fuck. You," she snaps at him. "I am so sick of lying, cheating men!"

I sniffle hard. "What she said."

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