Page 74 of One More Betrayal

He ignores her and snaps the metal cuffs on my wrists.

I guess that’s what happens when the bully you grew up with becomes a cop.

“You thought that was assaulting an officer?” I say through gritted teeth. “You’re wimpier than I gave you credit for.”

Wilson leans in, his stale breath hot on my ear. “You always were a stupid asshole, Troy.” He jerks up on the handcuffs.

The move is enough to cause me more pain, but not enough to be noticed by witnesses.

I don’t so much as flinch a muscle, not daring to give away he’s hurting me. Not wanting to give him the satisfaction.

26

Jessica

July, Present Day

Maple Ridge

* * *

A squad car pulls up, and a handcuffed Troy is escorted to it. The need to help him throbs in my veins, but I don’t know what to do. Chief Wilson isn’t going to release Troy just because I want him to.

My skin prickles, and I rub at my wrists. My arrest happened over five years ago, but the memory of my wrists being shackled is still fresh. The sun is warm, but it’s not warm enough to chase away the chill now plaguing my body.

I take a step toward Troy, but a hand grabs my arm from behind, stopping me. Kellan.

“Leave it, Jess,” he says, voice low. “You going over there will only make things worse.”

“But Chief Wilson’s hurting him. He’s going to reinjure the shoulder and—”

“There’s nothing you can do.”

Kellan’s right, but that doesn’t give the chief of police the right to hurt Troy. Like being married to Violet doesn’t give him the right to abuse her.

Yet he still does and gets away with it.

“Shit, what was he thinking?” Lucas’s voice is so low, I can’t tell if he’s asking his brothers or himself the question. “Wilson’s the last person you wanna try to push around. The man is a grade-A asshole.”

“You know him?” Do you know him well enough to give me suggestions on how to get his wife and child away from him?

Troy slides into the squad car. He doesn’t look in our direction.

A murmur of voices grows from the people who witnessed what went down. I catch a few of the words. Words that agree the chief of police is an asshole. Words that wonder what the hell possessed Troy to do that. Words that question the legitimacy of the assaulting-an-officer charge. Troy shouldn’t have pushed the man. But assault? Really?

“Yeah. I know him,” Lucas says. “We all went to school together. He was in Troy’s grade. He was a jerk even back then.”

“What’s going on?” a familiar male voice asks behind us.

We turn to find Noah and Avery walking toward us, holding hands. Noah’s checking over my shoulder, to where the squad car is parked.

We explain as best as we can what happened. None of us actually heard what was said between the two men.

Noah’s brow wrinkles into a frown. “Shoving a cop is unacceptable, but arresting Troy seems a little overboard.”

“C-can you talk Chief Wilson into dropping the charges?” I ask, vaguely aware I’m rubbing my wrists again. I drop my hands to my sides.

The squad car pulls away.

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