He put the mirror down and his hands over his head. He tried a smile, which, judging by the reaction of the two women, did not work. “You caught me at a bad time. I was just in here yelling at myself. It—helps to motivate me. I’m meeting a girl? And I got a little carried away.”
Wow, that’s bad. And there’s no way I am responsible for that, Sadie thought. She was careful not to make a sound since he only seemed to hear her when she actually spoke, but she had no idea how their connection worked, so she was relieved when he didn’t react.
The woman with the crew cut pulled a set of cuffs off her belt and said, “Please put your hands out.”
Ford kept his hands on his head. “Is that really necessary? I was arrested by Serenity Services a week ago, and they didn’t even cuff me.”
The argument that you don’t need cuffs because you were arrested without them a week ago is a winner, Sadie thought.
“We’re a bit more professional here than Serenity Services,” the brunette said, gesturing to his hands. “We take the safety of our guests very seriously.”
He held out his wrists. “You know, if you want I can save you all the trouble and just leave,” Ford offered as she snapped the cuffs on. “Obviously I’ll pay for the mirrors, but there’s no need for paperwork or anything.”
Could this really be the same person who guessed the poker hands of an entire table blindfolded? It seemed as if he had gone tone deaf.
The bald woman gave him a very pretty smile and said, “We appreciate your concern, but for your safety as well as the safety of our guests, we want to make sure you get looked at before you go. You may have lacerations or other underlying conditions that should be treated.”
Please do not tell them that you already have lacerations from getting beaten up last week, Sadie thought.
“Do you have identification, Mr.—”
At least be bright enough to use an—
“Winter,” he said.
—easy-to-remember name, Sadie finished the thought. I hope you were smarter when I fell in love with you. Otherwise I have no excuse.
The bald one radioed that in. “First name?”
“Mason.” Sadie wondered if that was wish fulfillment, denial, or some strange act of friendship.
“Come on.” The woman with the crew cut prodded him with her gun.
“Where am I going?”
“To our facility first,” the bald woman told him. “And then, I’d imagine, to jail.”
Sadie saw Ford looking at the exits, thinking of making a run for it, when a voice said, “Oh, my. It looks like someone has been a very naughty puppy.”
CHAPTER 27
Plum stepped past the officers and looked around the bathroom. She shook her head sadly and said to Ford, “Another one of your little fits, Benji?”
“He said his name was Mason,” the officer with the crew cut told her.
“That’s a new one. Usually uses deodorant names. Come on, dear.” Speaking loudly, as if to someone who was a bit slow, she presented Ford’s wrists to the bald officer, who reluctantly removed the cuffs.
Plum smiled. “He’s a cousin of mine. The more challenged side of the family.” She looked at the bathroom and said, “Get a cleaner in.”
“We should really make a report, ma’am.”
“Of course.” Plum nodded. “Silly of me. It’s only that it’s very embarrassing for the family. We try to keep it as quiet as possible. If you make a report, one of those gossip reporters will be on it instantly, and then Benji will never be able to get the help he needs.”
The woman with the crew cut wasn’t fooled, but she was a good employee. “Of course, ma’am.”
Plum kept her arm tightly through Ford’s as they walked. She glanced at him sideways and with an affectionate smile said, “So much work just to get my attention.”
“That’s not—” Ford tried to pull away.
Plum had dialed her phone as she spoke and now said, “Maribelle, it’s me. Could you have someone drop my jacket and those folders by my place? I had to leave abruptly, and I don’t want to go all the way back to the office.”
She hung up and smiled at him. “Well, you wanted me, now you got me.”
“I didn’t come here for you,” Ford growled.
“When a woman saves you from jail, doesn’t insist you replace her thirty-thousand-dollar Venetian mirror, and is going to make you dinner, you could try a little flattery.”
“I came here by accident.” The interior of his mind was bleak, a landscape twisted by anger then denuded by despair. He wanted to be somewhere, anywhere other than this conversation. Anywhere other than inside himself.
Sadie ached for the part she’d played in making him feel that way.
“You can’t seriously expect me to believe that you marched in here and destroyed my club for no reason.”
Ford’s eyes focused past her on the run-down building across the alley from the club where Linc had threatened him weeks earlier. There was a thick braid of cables running to it now, Sadie saw, but Ford didn’t seem to notice. “There’s a reason, just not one involving you,” he snapped.
Plum gave him a look that was part amusement, part warning. “If you prick her she will bleed.”
“Yeah, I’m the same way.” Ford’s mind flipped from Linc to the guy with the shiny black boots telling him to stay away from Plum. “Which reminds me, goodbye.”
Plum was truly shocked. “You can’t just leave, puppy.”
A grenade of anger flashed through Ford. He grabbed her and turned her toward him, his eyes blazing. “I’m not your puppy, and I can do whatever I damn well please.”
Plum’s eyes blazed too, but with a different catalyst. Her gaze caressed his lips, her palm moved down his chest. “I like this. You’re much more fun to fight with than James.”
Sadie felt his pulse quicken, his jaw tense so the words were bitten out. “I am so tired of being compared with my brother.”
Plum wasn’t put off. “Okay, no talking about brothers tonight, how does that sound?” Her gaze followed her palm across his chest. “No talking about anything.”
“That suits me, because I’m leaving.” Ford stepped away from her. “I don’t want another visit from your thugs.”
“What are you talking about?”
Ford shed enough self-absorption to notice she was genuinely confused. “The guys with the shiny boots? Who beat me up on the Fourth of July and told me to stay away from you? I’ve been unconscious for the last week.”
Plum’s expression assumed a new seriousness. “Tell me what they said, exactly.”
“‘Stay away from Plum. Don’t go near Plum.’ Along those lines. There were two of them.”
Plum’s eyes narrowed, and Sadie thought she was truly angry, although she suspected it wasn’t entirely on Ford’s behalf. “Excuse me,” she said, turning away and pulling out her phone. After a moment she started talking in clipped staccato tones, clearly leaving a message. “It’s me, and I’m furious with you. This isn’t high school, you can’t just beat people up to get them to stay away from me. If you have a problem with my behavior, take it up with me, don’t be a pussy and pick on my friends. And don’t bother coming by tomorrow. I won’t see you.”
She hung up and stared at her phone for the space of three of Ford’s heartbeats. “I’m sorry. That shouldn’t have happened,” she said, reaching for his arm again. “Let me make you dinner to apologize.” When he didn’t answer she said, “It won’t happen again, I promise.” There was a layer of steel beneath her words that gave Sadie goose bumps.