Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
The next fifteen minutes of footage was my brother approaching then detaining Sage. He walked her out to his cruiser, and the arrest caught the attention of every single person she passed.
An officer getting arrested by another officer would do that.
“News has already hit on who we arrested,” Dad grumbled darkly. “The assistant chief is also sitting in on the interview. Want to watch?”
Dad had a new system where he could tune in to any of the interviews in the station.
At my nod, he pulled up the feed for the interrogation rooms where the questioning of Sage Solomon was already under way.
“This should be fun,” Mom came in with a bag of popcorn, and not my son. “I am so freakin’ glad I didn’t take the assistant chief position. Popcorn probably wouldn’t have been allowed.”
“Where’s Forest?” I asked, slightly alarmed.
I mean, logically I knew my mother wouldn’t give my kid up to someone who wasn’t trusted, but that didn’t make my heart hurt any less.
“Pepper has him.” She snorted. “I was left like a wet gym sock. She was called by Sage, who wanted Pepper to come bail her out.”
“Why’s she here then, since we all know that she’s not bailing out that little psycho?” Gable asked.
“I’m here because I was called to offer up my testimony on what I felt happened and why Sage did what she did,” a humor-filled voice called from behind us. “Hello, Carters.”
I looked behind me to see Forest in Pepper’s arms, his fingers curling around a stray lock of Pepper’s blonde hair.
“Hello, Good Solomon,” Gable drawled.
She rolled her eyes.
“There are a whole slew of good Solomons.” She sighed. “There’s only the one that sucks.”
“If you say so,” Gable teased.
She hefted Forest up on her hip again, but decided after she’d done that it’d be easier to put him down since he was somewhat contained in Dad’s office.
“What are we looking at?” Pepper asked, squinting at the screen.
I gestured her to come closer, and when she did, I patted my leg.
She hesitated, contemplating what she should do, but ultimately chose to take a seat on my thigh.
She perched on the front of my leg, nearest my knee, as if she was waiting to take off at any second.
I leaned forward, hooked her around the waist, and tugged her to sit completely in my lap.
She stiffened, and I leaned forward and said, “Relax. I want to see, too.”
That was a lie.
As long as she was in my lap, I couldn’t care less what I was seeing.
She relaxed, though, allowing her back to rest into my front.
“Turn it up, darling,” Mamasauce ordered. “It’s too loud in here with all of your sons’ loud breathing.”
“Mom!” Gable whined. “I breathe like a lady.”
“You also smell like a lady,” Mom turned to him. “Why is that?”
Gable ignored that question and turned to Forest. “Oh, hey, Forest. Come to your uncle.”
“That’s low, using the baby,” Pepper said under her breath.
Gable scratched his nose with his little finger as he picked Forest up to rest in his lap.
Forest immediately reached for the cup of pens on Dad’s desk, knocking them all to the ground.
“Oops!” he threw himself down, and only Gable’s grip on his hips kept him from face planting onto the floor.
Pepper gasped and lunged but leaned back into my chest again once Gable proved he had him.
My own heart had taken a leap as well.
“I got it, Forest,” Auden said as he reached for the pens.
He filled the cup up and handed it back to Forest, leaving the rest of us the time to look back at the screen.
“Turn it up,” my mother repeated her earlier words.
Dad fiddled with the screen, and soon we could hear everything that was being said in the interrogation room.
“...wasn’t mine,” Sage was saying.
Auden snorted.
My mom grumbled under her breath.
Pepper all out laughed.
“Then where did it come from, Ms. Solomon?” Assistant Chief Cruz asked carefully. “Because you were caught with this on your person. You had no stops that would’ve netted you that kind of bust. I’m not dumb, Ms. Solomon. You’re going to need to tell us the truth now.”
Sage started to cry, and a couple of weeks ago even, that would’ve affected me. Now? Well, now all it did was piss me off because I saw it for the manipulation it was.
“I confiscated it from a man selling them on the corner,” she continued to lie. I was going to arrest him, but he had a little boy with him named Forest.”
“That lying twat,” Pepper groused. “She’s only saying the first name that pops in her head.”
Disgust rolled through me.
“Then we’ll corroborate your story with the bodycam footage.” He leaned back in his chair.
“I didn’t have it on,” she lied.
“It’s always on,” he corrected. “For it not to be on would mean that you didn’t pick it up from the shift manager.”