Page 31 of Hacker Betrayed

“Not how things work. If you turn around, Paxton Renolds, I’ll place the cuffs on your wrists.” The officer’s smirk made me want to hit him.

I side-stepped in front of the officer. “You’re arresting him even after I already proved the video was fake. The photo of the prints on the table doesn’t look right. Why are you two ignoring all the evidence?”

Detective Higgins shook his head. “This is coming from above my head.”

“Your chief?” Brock could square things away with him easily.

“No, the deputy chief. Seems the coroner might have more evidence against Paxton.”

“While our tech looks over the video, we will ask a few more questions. It’s time to go, Paxton. We won’t handcuff you if you come willingly.”

“This is bullshit. I will make it my mission to make sure you are both thrown off the force. Paxton didn’t do it. He was at—” A bony-ass elbow jabbed into my side.

“I don’t know where I was,” Paxton reiterated. “I’m not sure what Mia was thinking, but we don’t want to give the police false information. I’ll come willingly.”

Most of the evidence wouldn’t stand. The prints would be a harder case. “I’ll call your sister. Don’t say a word, not even to ask for a glass of water. Someone set you up, and I don’t trust either of these two. I’ll have Brock come down to the station as well.”

I didn’t like the fact Paxton would be out of my sight for even a minute.

Officer Fredricks was in his late thirties, and he looked a little too cocky. There was a seventy-five percent chance I could take them down. Then we could run. Only…an escape would make solving Tabitha’s murder ten times harder.

“Let’s get this over with,” Paxton sighed. “Can’t say riding in the back of a cop car was on my bucket list.”

“Let’s go!” The officer waved his hand toward the door.

I slipped my hand into Paxton’s pocket and quickly grabbed his phone, wallet, and keys when the police turned away. “Remember, don’t say a word and drink nothing. No matter who walks in the door. Yes, I even mean if the chief or Brock walks in, wait for your sister.”

Paxton was led out of the room. I stared down at his phone and inwardly cussed at myself because the device was locked with a six-digit code. I had to reach him before he left or he got in the car.

The second I stepped outside of his office Felicity cut me off. “What the hell!” I moved to the side, but she did the same blocking my exit.

“You’re going to pay! The plans we had for you were to happen later, but you sped up the timeline showing up here today. All you had to do was leave. No, instead you pushed your way back here and caused us more problems.”

My fingers clasped around Paxton’s phone as I narrowed my eyes. I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but I had a feeling in my gut I’d seen her before. She’d mentioned the club, so maybe that’s where it was from. “You have one second to move, or you will need to have your nose done again.”

The woman pulled a small pink gun out of her purse. “Move into his office, or I’ll put a bullet through your leg.”

I reached forward to disarm the bitch when metal jabbed into my back. “You heard my wife. Move.”

Not one nurse from earlier was in the halls. The music was off, and I couldn’t hear any chatter. “What is killing me going to do?”

Not once did it cross my mind Tabitha’s death was because of Paxton. After all, we’d only gone to the club once eight months ago when we took the original traffickers down. Paxton didn’t know about Tabitha or Lucas, but these two somehow figured it out.

They shoved me back toward Paxton’s desk. The cop opened the door for Paxton to get in the car. His head was turned to the side. Why the hell wasn’t he looking at the window?

“He can’t save you. Paxton had the windows covered in a high-end film. Nobody can see in. Patient privacy and all that. Now sit the fuck down.”

“Put your hands together,” Dr. Cliff ordered as his bitch wife pulled a long rope from her purse.

Seriously? Were they going to attempt to keep me in place with a nylon rope tied in the front? I placed my wrist together but kept them turned so they couldn’t see I left a gap. When I had the information I needed, I would make my move.

“We couldn’t quite figure out how they got all the info from the woman. But you had access to the club servers through the medical practice. You realize this will cause more of my teammates to investigate the club and this place. I figured out the video was a deepfake. Once my boss has his hands on the recording, he will find the identity of the person pretending to be Paxton. Everyone knows you shot the video with your own face. Which one of you is going to go down?”

Dr. Cliff paced to my right. “She said nobody would know. Fuck, if they figure out it’s me, I’m done for.”

Felicity marched over to me and slapped her hand across my face. Her ring hit the side of my mouth and drew blood. “All I need to know is where your son is. If you want Paxton out of jail and you want to live, you will tell me where your son is.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder, and I caught a glimpse of the birthmark along her hairline. The birthmark looked like a small unicorn. Then I realized. Felicity and my sister Ashlyn were friends in high school.

“You will have to kill me before I give you any information.”

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