Page 97 of Always Salty

“Hello?” the older man answered.

I frowned, then immediately got defensive. “Um, what’s going on? This is my husband’s phone.”

“Do you mean boyfriend?” He chuckled. “So it went like this…”

If you don’t tell your woman that she’s beautiful, a random artificial intelligence guy on social media will.

—Dima to Shasha

DIMA

“Sir,” I heard said carefully. “Semyonov’s wife is here, and she’s mad.”

My brows rose.

Wife.

I liked that word.

“I don’t really care,” Chester said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “And she’s not his wife. She’s his girlfriend.”

“Regardless of her name and title, she’s very mad. And the lawyer not being allowed in the room isn’t helping that,” the young FBI agent stated.

I was fairly sure that he was new, or he wouldn’t have questioned ‘Special Agent Chester Brown.’

The special agent narrowed his eyes and said, “Get out, Crew.”

Crew shook his head and said, “I’m not going down for this. You come out here and deal with this, or I’m going above your head.”

Wow, the balls on young Crew.

I liked him already.

Chester cursed and pushed away from the table.

We’d been sitting here for two hours now. He’d been asking questions, and I’d been declining to answer without my lawyer present.

It was a vicious cycle that was spiraling down into the toilet the longer that I sat there.

I knew that it was getting about the time that Keely was about to start worrying about me, and I didn’t like the idea of her worrying.

I liked even less that she was here and losing her shit when I couldn’t comfort her because I was being illegally detained.

Crew allowed Chester to pass, then he walked up to me and got rid of the cuffs that were locking me to the table.

I nodded at him in thanks and said, “I could really use a restroom.”

Crew jerked his head to follow him, and I did.

He allowed me to use the restroom, and politely waited outside for me to finish.

When I was done, I said, “Can I go now?”

Crew looked torn.

“I’m really not interested in getting in trouble for this fucking shit storm,” he replied. “Go find your lawyer and girlfriend. Or whatever she is. I’m calling my boss’s boss.”

Before I could move away from him, he pulled out his phone, dialed a number, then placed it to his ear.

---