Page 92 of Surrender
He caught it instantly, slamming his file shut and scooping up his notes.
“You do not let her do anything that’s going to put her in his sights,” I ordered through clenched teeth. “I don’t care if that means I get locked up. You protect her, got it?”
Dane’s jaw flexed, but he nodded.
“I will.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
DARCY
The walls of the police station felt like they were closing in on me, getting tighter and smaller as I walked farther down the hallway behind the officer. The white walls were cold and sterile, with every ounce of warmth stripped from them.
I guess the last thing the cops wanted was for the criminals to feel warm and comforted after committing a crime.
The doors that lined the hall didn’t help with the aesthetic. They looked heavy, almost like cell doors, designed to keep people in.
I shuddered, clutching the thumb drive in my hand a little tighter, so scared to let it go that the plastic edges were now imprinted in my palm.
The footage on it was of me.
And Nate.
A raw and intimate moment between the two of us that should have always been ours, and only ours. And now it would be evidence. It was something I had to hand over to a bunch of strangers to analyze and examine.
But I would because it wasn’t about me being a little embarrassed.
This was about proving that Nate was innocent.
And hewasinnocent.
He didn’t kill Roxie.
Tears burned behind my eyes, but I blinked hard, swallowing them back.
I’d only met her last night, but there was a connection I felt with her that I wouldn’t forget. She had the kind of sharp wit and tenacity of a woman who’d been knocked down so many timesthat she just gave up giving a fuck what the world thought of her. She lived her life for her and for that dream of an English cottage in the countryside. A place she could finally relax and breathe. And honestly, there was no doubt in my mind she would have gotten it.
Roxie gave Nate hell, and he gave it right back, but beneath all that banter was a deep respect for each other. She was a part of his family, and you always fought the most with your siblings, but God help anyone else who tried to hurt them.
Now she was gone.
And Nate was in this building somewhere, probably blaming himself, questioning his role in it all. It made me want to burn the damn place down just to get to him. To remind him of the kind of man he was. The fighter. The protector. The one person people went to when they wanted to feel safe.
Losing Roxie didn’t change that.
Not for a second.
“Just in here, Miss Robbins,” the officer said, pushing one of the heavy doors open and stepping through, holding it open for me.
I paused outside, taking in a long, deep breath before I stepped inside.
Bishop and Hawk had both tried to convince me to let them deliver the security footage to the police station, but I just knew that Parker wasn’t going to be satisfied with that. I was Nate’s alibi, and there was no way he was letting Nate go without seeing me walk in there myself and be forced to face him.
I’m sure he thought the idea of it would torture me.
That it would twist me up with guilt.
It was here and in the courtroom where he felt the most powerful.
