Page 36 of Red Queen (Red Thorns Crew 3)

Her eyes grew stern. “You lose everything by not talking, and gain nothing but jail time if you don’t. That’s your decision.”

I shrugged. “Sounds like a shit one.”

“Well, we can’t all be privileged in life, Mr. Ryddle. So what’s it going to be? Are we going to have our meeting? Or are you going to dismiss me?”

12

Dani

“I want to see him. Now.”

The cop sighed. “I know you want to. But you can’t.”

I blinked. “And why not?”

“Because that’s protocol. No one can see an inmate.”

“He’s not an inmate because he’s innocent!”

“And that will be determined by a jury, if anything goes to court.”

“Has he had a phone call?”

The officer blinked. “Excuse me?”

“A phone call. I read up about things on my phone on the way here. He should’ve been granted a phone call. Has he been given one?”

He shrugged. “Not my area, so I don’t know.”

“Well, I know he hasn’t been granted one because he hasn’t called me. Now, you let me see him, or I’ll have you--”

He grinned. “Maybe he just didn’t want to call you. Ever think of that?”

This dumbass cop was giving me a hard time, and I wanted to throat punch him right in that massive Adam’s apple he had protruding from his neck. I didn’t want to be messed with any longer. Why did people think they could always fucking mess with me? I had to find a way to fix that. Later.

“I need to see Max,” I said.

The cop shook his head. “You won’t be seeing Mr. Ryddle for a while.”

“What about a trade, then?”

He chuckled. “This isn’t a negotiation. You can’t see--”

“I was a witness to what happened at the Ryddle estate last night.”

He blinked. “You were what?”

“You heard me. I was a witness. I saw everything. I want to make a statement, and I want to see Max.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You can make a statement. Actually, you have to. It’s your duty as a citizen to do that. But I still can’t guarantee anything.”

“You will let me see him or you get nothing!”

My voice cracked. I was borderline shrieking at this man. Hell, I half expected them to slap me in handcuffs and drag me off for getting so hysterical at the front desk officer. But I had to see him. This was completely unacceptable.

“Ma’am, why don’t you go take a dip and cool down, okay? Because if you’re going to give a statement, you’re going to need to be in the right frame of mind. Which is not right now.”

I glared at him. I wanted to smack him across his face, but something about his words felt off. Take a dip? Cool off? Why would he have made that statement to me? As I stood there, glaring at the grinning man, my gut began to tap at the inside of my ribs again. Tap tap. Tap tap.

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