Page 179 of Enigma: The Complete Collection
“Rewind it back to the middle section. I want to see the faces of the men who threw Isabelle to the ground.” The adrenaline pumping in my veins makes my voice deeper than usual.
When Hunter freezes the footage on the frame I’m requesting, I lock their faces into my memory bank. They’ll pay for their error in a way they’ll never see coming, and I don’t just mean their ability to breathe.
“Run their faces through the police database facial recognition software. Get me every detail you can on them. Addresses, contact details, even what color the thread in their suits were when they attended prom. I want it all.”
Nodding, Hunter highlights the faces of the two officers before dragging them into the police database he’s illegally hacked into. While it searches for the men responsible for my newly blackened blood, I work on another neurosis that’s bugging me.
“How did Brandon arrive at my office only twenty minutes after Isabelle was arrested?” I prop my ass on the edge of my desk before folding my arms in front of my chest. “They would’ve retained him for assault.” My gaze shifts to Hunter, who is eyeing me curiously. “He assaulted four officers but was free only twenty minutes later. What the fuck am I missing?”
“Hold on.” Hunter digs a second laptop out of his bag. Once the screen is fired up, his finger taps on the keys at the speed of lightning. “The officers withdrew their charges within minutes of Brandon being carted off to the police station.”
A chill slides through me. Brandon has the appearance of a humble boy scout, but his eyes are hazed with secrets. There’s more to him than anyone has perceived, especially Isabelle.
My deliberations stop when a cell phone rings. It isn’t my standard cell phone, which is on my desk. It’s coming from the breast pocket of my suit jacket, slung over the coat rack in the corner of my office. By the time I retrieve it, the caller has been sent to my voicemail. The screen displays it’s an unknown number, but it has a local area code.
With curiosity heating my blood, I press the number for my voicemail before squashing my phone to my ear. When coins drop at the commencement of the message, I quickly perceive the call was made via a payphone.
Trains are running in the background, but they’re barely heard over the gruff, accentuated voice shrilling down the line. “You do not need to worry about the police officers who assaulted Isabelle. I’ve handled the situation. Consider it a gift between family members.”
CHAPTER8
ISABELLE
While Regan takes a call, I drink in the small conference room I’m seated in. The walls are bland, and the furniture is dated, but my heart still skipped a beat when I walked into the room. I’d sit in the back of a garbage truck if it guaranteed I wouldn’t be chained to other female prisoners while being hauled to jail to await trial. With it being December, my hearing won’t likely be scheduled until after the new year. Even though my Uncle Tobias andDedushkaweren’t the get-down-on-the-ground-and-play-with-Barbie-dolls type of men, Christmas was a celebrated tradition in our household.
No matter what case he was working on, Uncle Tobias always returned home no later than the twenty-third of December. We spent Christmas Eve morning searching for the perfect tree to decorate the same afternoon. Our meals were generally at the local diner or ordered from a catering company, but occasionally our neighbors, Mary and Kenneth, invited us to join them when their sons didn’t return home to celebrate with them.
The judge took pity on me when I explained the brutality I endured when arrested, but I would have utilized any tactic to ensure I didn’t spend my first Christmas with Isaac in a four by four cell. I already missed our first Thanksgiving, so I wasn’t willing to give up another special occasion. Even with a murder conviction hovering over my head, I want our first Christmas to be special. I want to add him to my family traditions before creating our own. It’s early in our relationship, but there’s no doubt Isaac is my soul mate, and it’s time for the world to know that.
Regan stores her cell phone in the briefcase at her side before joining me back at the chipped wooden table. “Hugo is here to pay your bail.” Because her smile is riddled with hesitation, it doesn’t have the same heaven’s-gates-being-opened appeal it usually has. “But before I can let you go, I need to be brutally honest with you.”
“Okay. Good.” The more brutal, the better. Only dodgy people skirt around the truth.
From the professional mask slipped over her face, I never anticipated for her to say this, “I know the type of man Isaac is… he’s addictive, but unless you follow my instructions, your case will be impossible for me to win, so with that in mind, I need you to stay away from Isaac until the trial is over.”
My mouth dries from the massive gulp I just took. That’s like asking someone to go scuba diving at eight hundred feet and not take an oxygen tank. I can’t breathe without Isaac in my life, so how am I supposed to stay away from him for weeks, if not months?
“I’m not requesting for this to happen, Isabelle. If you want to avoid jail, you need to do exactly as I say.” A chair being dragged across tiles breaks the silence teeming between us when she adjusts her position to face me head-on. “Do you want to go to jail?”
“No, but staying away from Isaac is a cruel and twisted imprisonment all on its own.” Not only will my heart be pained, but my body will be punished as well.
“I understand that, but you need to think with your head instead of your heart for just a minute.” Her remorseful green eyes stare into mine. “Step back and evaluate this as if you’re looking in on this trial from the outside. By removing your feelings, you’ll assess the situation to the fullest.”
I hate what she’s saying, but I also understand it. My personal feelings have factored into every decision I’ve made the past two months—that’s why I made so many fatal mistakes. By stepping back and assessing the evidence as I’ve been taught to do, I’ll remain one step ahead of the people attempting to take me down.
After a few minutes of silent deliberations, the cloud that’s been clogging my head the past two weeks floats away. “My relationship with Isaac will fatten up the DA’s case?”
Regan nods. “Yes, but without a relationship, there’s no motive.”
“Then reasonable doubt will come into play.”
She smiles her heaven’s-gates-being-opened smile before nodding. “Exactly,” She places her hand over my fist, which has settled on the jeans I was arrested in. “I explained the same thing to Isaac this morning. He didn’t take the news well, so I need you to convince him this is best for all involved.”
Air whizzes out of my nostrils. In general, Isaac detests being told what to do, so I can imagine what his reaction was when Regan said he had to stay away from me. I doubt anything I could say will help the situation, but I do agree with Regan. By us being a couple, I had a motive to kill Megan. If I want to stay out of jail, I have to stay away from Isaac.
“I’ll talk to him?” I don’t know why my confirmation sounds like a question. Probably because I’m skeptical Isaac will go along with our plan just as much as I know it will kill me staying away from him.
“Anything will help.” Regan huffs. “Now, we just need to work out where to bunk you until the trial. You can’t live in your apartment as Isaac owns the building. You can’t live with Isaac. Duh.” She ticks off the no-go zones on her fingers. “You can’t stay with Harlow as she’s dating Isaac’s best friend and business associate, Cormack, so that only leaves…”
