Page 117 of My Vows Are Sealed

“You don’t have to force me, officer. I’m not resisting,” I said calmly.

Everything in me was telling me to yell and scream and tell this asshat that he was a fucking moron if he couldn’t see that Darla’s father was the one who was hurting her, but I knew that wouldn’t get me anywhere. It would get even more charges added onto this bogus arrest. My best hope of helping her was getting someone in this police station to listen to me and call the officers who were still with Darla and Abraham at the hospital.

The officer shoved me through the door of the police station and then kept pushing me through the squad room toward what I was assuming to be the interview room. I tried to keep my head down and not to show how frustrated I was with this situation, because with the officer being this antagonistic, I didn’t want to make the situation any more volatile.

“Brendan?” I heard a familiar voice say.

I looked up and saw Alex’s father, Saul, walking toward me.

“Mr.—I-I mean, Sergeant Gleason,” I stammered.

I wasn’t sure why I was surprised to see him. I mean, hewasa sergeant here, after all. It was probably just the relief of seeing a friendly face in the middle of this godawful situation.

“What’s going on here, Harris?” Saul asked.

“Picked this punk up on a domestic disturbance call, and the father confirmed he’d assaulted the young woman,” the jackass officer grunted.

If there was a chance to speak up, this was it. Of all the people in this station, Saul Gleason was the most likely to believe me.

“Mr. Gleason, you know I’d die before I laid a finger on Darla,” I pleaded quietly.

His eyes widened in shock for a moment, then narrowed as he turned his attention to Officer Harris.

“I’ll join you in the interrogation,” he growled.

“I’ve got this, Sarge. Pretty black-and-white case, you ask me,” Officer Harris grumbled.

Black-and-white case? Was he fucking joking? I’d beenrestrainingthe monster from causing any more harm to Darla. Yeah, I’d thrown a few punches and gotten in a knee to his gonads, but if I was really the violent one in that situation, why wasn’t I wailing on him? I’d had him pinned beneath me, for God’s sake. I could have rearranged his entire face – hell, Ishouldhave done much worse than that after the hell he’d put my girl through for years – but I hadn’t. I’d just used enough force to stop him from killing his daughter.

“Harris, you can either join me or watch from outside, but Iwillbe going into that interrogation room,” Saul spat.

“Fine. You want this piece of scum that bad, you can have him,” Officer Harris bit out.

Saul turned to me. “Come on, son. Come with me.”

He led me into an interrogation room, then pulled a keyring out and unlocked my handcuffs. I sat down in the hard, steel chair and buried my head in my hands, unable to stop a few more tears from leaking out.

“I’m sorry, Brendan, but I’m going to need your personal effects,” he sighed, holding a manila envelope open in front of me. “Just until we get this straightened out.”

I dug my keys, wallet, and cell phone out of my pockets and dropped them in the envelope, and he folded it shut.

How was this protecting and serving? I was sitting here in a fucking police interrogation room for the crime of stopping my fiancée’s father from killing her, while they were probably taking him to the goddamn hospital with her and letting him run interference so she couldn’t get anyone alone to tell them the truth. That dickwad officer, Harris, just automatically assumed that Abraham was being honest, and I hadn’t heard his partner utter a single word the entire time. Then again, he looked like he was fresh out of the police academy, so he’d probably been in a little over his head.

“Did Officer Harris read you your rights, Brendan?” Saul asked.

I nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“So you know you’re entitled to have an attorney present while you’re being questioned?”

“I don’t need an attorney, because I didn’t do anything,” I choked out. “All I care about is helping Darla.”

Then a lightbulb turned on over my head. A way to get someone else to the hospital while I couldn’t be there. Someone to back up Darla’s story and maybe get the cops who were with them to separate them, at the very least.

“I’ll tell you everything, but can you please do something for me first?” I rasped, wiping my cheeks.

“Phone call?” he asked.

“No. Well, sort of. Could you call your son for me and ask him to meet Darla at the hospital?”

---