Worth the Fall (27 page)

“Tuesday?”

I took a deep sigh and turned back around to face Max striding across the room.

“Honey, you know Officer Max?” The larger girl with the neon fingernails looked me up and down like I’d just gained a bit of street cred.

“He tried to arrest me a few times last week.” What else was I going to say? It was oddly true.

“Tuesday, what the hell are you doing in there?” Max wrapped his hand around the bar just above mine and glared at the women who’d all pushed closer so they wouldn’t miss anything. “Ladies, I need a minute here.”

“Ohhh, you don’t have to tell me twice, Officer Hottie. I shoulda known you’d only be giving time to those lobby girls. Once you workin’ out under the streetlights…pfft. No worries.” They all followed Neon Nails lead and stepped back a whole foot.

Max kept glaring, but when he realized they weren’t going anywhere—because, really, where the heck were they going to go—he turned back to me. “What the hell are you doing in there?”

“Ms. Lane is being charged with solicitation.” The mean cop didn’t even look my way.
 

“Honey, you gave them your real name. Don’t you never give your real name. You picked a pretty little street name. Tuesday. I’m going to have to remember me that one.”
 

I laid my head against the bars and closed my eyes. I guess I had a street name. That was something.

“Tue—Kasey, look at me. What’s going on?”

There was no reason not to share. It wasn’t like he didn’t know I was in jail at this point.

“Jenna met this guy—”

“Jenna. Of course.”

“He saw her showing a friend the new site I built for her with all the branding stuff and he was really impressed. So, Jenna got his email address and we’d arranged to meet in the lounge at the Plaza between his meetings and a dinner thing he had with some out-of-town clients. Just go over the basics. Only this guy walked up to me and when I asked if he was there for me, he sat right down.”

“So, you asked him if his name was
John?”
At this point, Max’s eyes were doing that twinkle thing that happened right before his super-powered-dimple came out.

Did I?

“If you laugh at me, Max Darby, you’ll regret it. They have to let me out of here eventually.”

“Right. So this John guy sits down and you ask him if he wants to get a room?”

“Darby, I’m processing this one.”
John’s
partner had taken over as soon as I’d gotten out of the lobby. He’d been nowhere near as nice and he was just getting worse. “I think I can ask the questions here.”

Max just gave him a look and turned back to me. “So, then what happened?”

“Then he started asking for prices so I told him what I was charging for a total package and a la carte and I’d do whatever I could to please him.”

“Exactly how much did you convince him you were worth?”

I gave him a number and Max glanced over his shoulder, giving the other cop a look that clearly said,
Seriously?

“Hey. If I were for sale, I’m sure I’d be worth a lot. Maybe not like Beacon Hill Brownstone a lot, but at least a river view amount.”

Max snorted at that point and I considered reaching my hands through the bars and wrapping them around his tanned, corded neck.

“What happened when you explained?”

“They wouldn’t let me. I tried to show them my brochure, but every time I reached for my bag they just shouted,
keep your hands where I can see them.
And then they took my bag.”

Max turned toward the mean, pushy cop, and I swear I saw him roll his eyes.
 

“Did you look in her bag and verify that she wasn’t trying to sell you a website?”

“Did you make detective while I wasn’t looking?”

“Nope. But I did get this special Boy Scout badge for common sense. I heard they only handed out two that year.”

“Are you saying I made a bad arrest?” Now, the guy looked like he was going to go for Max’s throat for me.

“I’m saying you’re an idiot and if you don’t get her out of that cell right now—”

“Don’t make threats you’ll regret.”

“I won’t regret it. You didn’t let a confused, honest woman make an explanation. You probably walked her right into the charge without anything explicit.” Max leaned in, like he was going to go after the other guy. “I’m really hoping you taped this collar, because her lawyer is going to
love
that. And then you throw her in a holding cell as if she was a criminal.”

“I don’t have lawyer,” I whispered under their argument.
 

Max shot me a glare that was particularly hostile considering I’d become used to his typical scowls.

“She
is
a criminal.”
 

“Let. Her. Out.
Now
.”

“You walk around here like you’re the station’s gift to the world. I’m reporting you to Internal Affairs. You can’t walk in here and order me around. I think you’re confused about the pecking order
Officer
Max. If you think I’m going—”

“Get her out or I will be the first person they call to the stand when she sues the city and you personally for wrongful arrest and detainment.”

I reached through the bars and touched Max’s shoulder trying to get his attention. Trying to calm him down.

Officer Vernane spun toward me, spitting as he shouted. “Get your freaking hands in the cell before I add accosting an officer to the charges.”

I yanked my hand back through the bar, watching it shake in front of me. How had this gotten worse?

“Vernane. Darby. What is going on in my station?” An older man in a crumpled button down, the sleeves rolled to his elbows, stomped across the room, intent on the two men in front of me. “I have to hear you two are about to come to blows over a hooker while I’m meeting with the Mayor’s assistant?”

“I’m not a hooker.” No one looked my way.

“She’s not a hooker.” Max repeated.

“Darn it, sweetheart,” Neon Nails chimed in. "I thought we were finally classing up the joint. Maybe you want to start working with us. Show us how you wrap a man like that around your pinky.”

“Oooohhh, Sharlene. Look at her. You know what’s wrapping Officer Max.” The ladies laughed as Max turned bright red and I fought back more tears.

The boss guy looked toward us, then back at Max and the Detective.

“Vernane?”
 

“Markson picked her up in a lounge. She offered him services for money.”

I watched Max’s hands curl into tight fists at his sides, but he didn’t move a muscle beyond that.

“Is this true miss?” The man looked at me, his gaze running over my outfit and the way I’d managed to shove myself in that tight corner where no one could get to me.

“Kind of.”

“Kind of is not an answer I’d take on the stand.”

“I was offering to build him a website. That’s what my services are. I do corporate branding and just started running my own business. I was meeting with a man I’d only emailed with before.”

I’d hoped just saying it all out loud would magically open the cell. No such luck.

“Darby?”

“Kasey is a friend. She’s subletting my best friend’s apartment. She builds websites. She’s doing one for Jenna right now. Actually, it’s Jenna who hooked her up with this John guy.”

“Oh, Jenna.” The boss guy’s face softened into a smile. “How’s our girl? I loved that kitten thing she did to you a few weeks ago. Some of those little sayings the kids post are a riot.”

I watched Max struggle with not arguing.

“Um. Right.” Max pulled it together before he could get derailed by the Hashtag Situation. “So Jenna sent her to this meeting and there was some miscommunication.”

The boss guy looked at me, a little nicer now that pixie Jenna’s name was being thrown around. Seriously. My fairy godmother.
 

Except for the fact that I was here because of her in the first place.
 

“How do we get from building websites to sex upstairs?”

That was an excellent question.

Everyone turned and looked at me as if I was the one who had planned to have sex upstairs.

“I don’t know, sir. I was talking about website and branding packages and next thing I know the guy’s trying to give me cash. I told him not to give me the money before we made a deal, but he wouldn’t take it back. I told him he could give me a deposit, but was confused that he didn’t want an invoice. Then he was telling me to walk out nice and calm and not make a scene. He was very polite about it, but he wouldn’t let me show him my brochures.”

The girls behind me snickered.
 

“You didn’t take the money?” Max leaned forward, his gaze turning slowly as he pivoted toward Detective Vernane. “Is that right, jackass? She wouldn’t take the money?”

“She said she’d take it upstairs.”

“I did not!” I started to reach through the bars again to Max and stopped. “I said I’d take the money once we came to an agreement on our deal.”

“She didn’t deny the deal.” Detective Markson was on his feet now.

“She didn’t take the money. No money, no clear defined service, no action…
no arrest
. I’m sorry, I’m just a beat cop, but I vaguely remember in college that being called something like entrapment…or was it wrongful arrest? There’s just so many things going on here I’m confused about what the real issue is.”

Max was leaning against the bars now, doing that cocky pose he did that typically was aimed at me and ticked me off. I let my hand curl around the bar he leaned against, skimming across his lower back and taking comfort from the heat radiating off him. He shifted, pressing against it. I felt his confidence seep into me and set my trust in it. Max was many things. One of those was a man I was beginning to set my complete trust in.

Outside my cell, the three men faced off. Max looking cocky, Detective Vernane looking like he was going to punch Max, the boss looking as if he wanted fire both of them and quit.

And they were the ones in charge of my future. I’d somehow managed to hand my fate over to a man—well, three men—again.
 

TWENTY-NINE

I walked out of the station and down the front steps, trying to get my bearings on where I was and how I was supposed to get back to my new home. Beside me, Max stood, my tote over his shoulder, watching me.
 

I was pretty much done for the night—maybe the whole week. There was nothing more lowering than being arrested for something you didn’t do. Especially prostitution. Why couldn’t I have been arrested for corporate espionage or recklessly parachuting off a skyscraper or something cool?

 
“Okay. Well. Thanks. I really appreciate your help.” I reached for my bag, desperately needing to make a quick escape. More embarrassed than I’d been in my entire life. I had no idea how I was going to face him after this. I couldn’t even face him now. I could feel the heat climbing up my neck and hoped I didn’t look splotchy under the horrible 1940’s lights framing the station’s doors.

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

Max just looked at me as if he’d expected something else, or something more. But, I wasn’t sure what to say. I just knew I was completely freaked out and looking at him made me want to crawl into his arms and hide my face in his chest and hope he wouldn’t brush me off him like dryer lint.

And, it was too late. I knew it was too late. He’d told Jenna he had no interest in dating someone like me, someone who could end up in jail at any minute.

And now, I’d put him on the spot. Max would never have left me in there. Who knows what they’d do to him now. The kitten posters everywhere would look like nothing when they were done with him if this turned into an Officer Darby is Dating a Hooker thing. Especially since the captain guy made it clear he missed #OfficerMax and had pointedly asked when Jenna would be doing another one.

Max just looked at me, waiting for who knows what, before shaking his head and handing me my belongings.

“You know what, Kasey? You’re on your own.”

Um…okay? What?

I just looked at him trying to figure out what that meant.

“I don’t need this. I don’t need to be responsible for someone I’m not even responsible for. You aren’t my fiancée or girlfriend. You’re just this girl who can’t manage to stay out of trouble and the truth is, that’s your problem.”

I dropped my eyes shut trying to figure out what that even meant. I hadn’t asked him for anything. I never did. When I got tossed in the slammer—words I never thought I’d say—I
hadn’t
called Max. I hadn’t wanted to tick him off or make him think I was only calling because of what he could do for me.

Maybe I was naive, but I thought someone would listen to me. I thought at some point the officer would realize he’d made a horrible mistake.

Also, I thought telling people I was in jail would be embarrassing, so skipping that step would have been A+.

“You know what?” I grabbed my bag, yanking it down his arm and practically dislocating it. “I didn’t ask for your help. I’ve
never
asked for your help. I just want to do my own thing but Mr. I Know Best likes to jump in and
fix
things to exactly how they should be. You go do your own thing. Don’t worry about me. No one thinks I’m your responsibility but you.”