Page 28 of Queen's Ransom

Brax’s bloodshot gaze shot to her, searing, before he cast it aside. He quickly turned and closed the door, and from behind, his suit coat looked a size too big, hanging loose off his shoulders. Celia didn’t think he’d bought it off the rack that way. He rotated back around and trudged to his desk. “You can’t all be here.”

“The person in custody concerns my family,” Chris said.

“Which concerns our family,” Hawes added.

“And I’m the family lawyer,” Helena concluded. “Victoria is here because Celia and I were shot at two days ago, as you know. You really want to go ten rounds on this, Brax?”

Brax sank into his chair, and before Helena could start the next round, Celia laid a hand over hers where it still rested on her knee, hoping Helena would read the back-off message for what it was. If Holt looked a wreck, Brax looked like a ten-car pileup in rush hour on the freeway.

“Thanks for accommodating us, Chief,” Celia said as calmly and as friendly as she could, aiming to de-escalate the rising tension in the room. “It’s been a rough few days, and I feel safer with everyone here. If it doesn’t work for you, though—”

He waved a dismissive hand. “It’s fine, Ms. Perri.”

“Celia, please, or Cee.” She smiled. “We’re family, yeah?”

He ran a shaking hand over his head and plastered on a tired smile. “Thanks for coming down.”

“You picked up Dex?”

“Got a call from Holt,” Brax said. “Dex was at the shop, trying to pick a lock to get in.”

“I changed the locks.”

“We changed them again yesterday,” Victoria said.

She’d have to see about getting those new keys. Tomorrow Celia’s problem. As for today… “Chris said there was a possession charge too?”

“Cocaine,” Brax replied. “Enough I can hold him. Longer if I can use this”—he jutted his chin at the evidence spread across his desk—“to make a trafficking charge stick.”

“You’ll get whatever evidence you need,” Hawes said, his voice full of that frosty chill Celia couldn’t put her finger on.

Brax glanced his direction, lips pressed together in a hard, thin line, before he shifted his focus back to Celia. “He said to call you for bail.”

She laughed, not the least bit amused.

But it did draw a small genuine smile out of Brax. “That’s what I thought.”

“Thank you for calling, though.”

“Arraignment?” Helena said from beside her.

The corners of his lips fell, and he plucked a gold-wrapped candy from the crystal bowl on the corner of his desk. “We’ll book him tomorrow, pending charges, and hold him until the arraignment on Wednesday, unless somebody else posts his bail.”

“Not likely,” Chris said.

“But if someone does,” Helena said, “give us a heads up.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“We need to talk to him.”

“Interrogation Room One, but that box is half the size of this one.” Brax lifted two fingers. “Two of you only.”

Helena shifted toward her. “Your call whether you want to go in there with me.”

Did she want to go into that room and tell her useless husband off? Tell him to leave her and their family out of whatever mess he’d gotten into? By all means. And for the first time in fifteen years, she believed she could walk into that room and do it. But did she think she’d be half as effective as Helena and Chris doing so? Not a chance. And this was too important to chance, too important to let her anger risk the safety of her loved ones. “You and Chris talk to him.” She stood, and the rest of the room rose with her. “I’m going to go ahead and get back to Mom and the kids.”

Helena followed her out from between the chairs. “Victoria will take you.”

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