Bash, Volume III (8 page)

Angelica

Once again, I came awake startled and afraid, but this time the noise wasn’t coming from me.

Bash jumped out of bed and into his jeans as he told me, “Raid siren — LEO, not Disciples. Get your clothes on and stay in here. If the cops come in, do as they say. There’s nothing illegal or incriminating in this room, so no worries if they have a warrant to search it, though I can’t imagine they do.” He touched my chin, held eye contact long enough he was sure I was awake enough to understand. “Stay in here unless the cops want you somewhere else. If they come in or knock on the door, do what they say, but be careful how you answer questions.”

He slid his feet into sneakers, grabbed a shirt, and walked out of the room, locking his door as he went.

A quick look at the clock told me it was three forty in the morning, and I got up and put clothes on, just in case.

Five minutes later I heard Brain in my head.

Angelica, I’ll be there in a minute. Get dressed, if you aren’t already. When you see me, hand me your phone and act like it’s mine. They have an arrest warrant for you, for the murder of the driver of the van. If they had any bodies it would be for all five men. They’re fishing. You’re fine.

Fuck, Brain.

It’ll be
fine
. Wait until I get there to get it out, but when I tell you what’s up, get your ID out of your purse, but don’t bring your purse. They have a right to go through anything you bring with you. I know there’s nothing incriminating in there, but it’s none of their business.

Do we know these cops?

No. Duke, Tiny, and Dozer are restraining Bash upstairs so he doesn’t get arrested, too. Duke already has a call in to the attorney, and he should beat you to the station.

Brain knocked on my door saying, “Angelica? Are you dressed? I need you to open the door please.”

I opened the door and handed my phone to him as I said, “We’re going to have to pay better attention — this is yours, don’t suppose you have mine?” Brain took it and slid it into his pocket, and I saw the officers look at each other as he said, “No, sorry, I thought I’d lost mine, and the GPS can’t pick it up down here.”

One of the officers stepped forward, told me I was being arrested on the charge of murder, named the guy who’d been driving the van, and read me my rights.

“You have to be kidding! They kidnapped
me
! I have no idea where they went!”

I’d put yoga pants and a t-shirt on, but the officers still frisked me, and their hands all over my body were just damned creepy.

I’d been advocating for us to try to keep from pissing Thomas off any worse, but after this, I’d be taking the gloves off.

“If you’ll point us to your purse, we’ll get it for you,” the officer said. “You’ll need your ID when we book you in.”

I looked at Brain. “Get my ID out of my purse, please?”

The officer watched Brain walk towards it and said, “Her not wanting to take it in gives us reasonable cause to search it.”

Stay calm
, came Brain’s voice in my head.

I shrugged, awkward as it was with my arms cuffed behind my back. “You want to know what brand of tampon I use, and my favorite petroleum-free all-natural lip balm, feel free. I’d just as soon not take it with me where I won’t have custody of it, though. There’s a knife in there, as well as my ID badge for work. I figured ya’ll wouldn’t want to have to do the paperwork involved in having custody of a Federal secret-clearance badge.”

“We’ll go through it in front of you, and then leave it here if we don’t find anything,” one of them said.

“Unfortunately, I’m afraid you’ve brought up an excellent point, and I’m going to have to insist on bringing my badge. With my hands behind my back, I can’t put it in the safe, and I can’t leave it at the RTMC clubhouse when I’m not here to have custody of it.”

They hadn’t brought up the point, of course, but now that they knew it was in there, I couldn’t risk them reporting to my superiors that I’d left it here, with felons upstairs and me in police custody.

The ride to the service center in the back of the car was humiliating, but I started wondering why they’d arrested me at the clubhouse, instead of getting me at work.

It made sense that doing it at the clubhouse allowed them to go inside, and shove it in the RTMC’s face that they couldn’t keep the cops out, when push came to shove… but could it be something else? Graham might have to be involved if they arrested me in a Federal Building. He’d been there for my questioning, but that didn’t mean he was in on
this
.

The booking process was beyond humiliating. I had to undress in front of two women, submit to a full cavity search, which involved them looking in my ears, running their hands through my hair, looking up my nose and inside my mouth. Then, I had to bend over and stay still while a smart-assed bitch fingered my sore cunt and ass. And she didn’t just finger me — she probed up deep inside me, pushing and feeling as far in as she could press.

They kept my clothes and gave me panties, a bra, pants, and a shirt. The bra was hideous, and I declined it.

With every humiliation I endured, I planned more of what I’d do to Thomas, as I was
sure
he was behind this. My imaginings placated my wolf a little, but she was beyond upset about the cuffs; the fingers in my mouth, ears, pussy, and ass; and the way everyone spoke to me as if I were less than human.

The women noted the marks on my ass, and the obvious belt marks on my breasts, and I told them I’d fallen over a rail and then busted my ass on the steps. They didn’t believe me, and I didn’t give a shit.

I was fingerprinted, someone took blood from me, I had to pee in a cup, and I had to stand and turn every direction for my mug shots. When I finally made it to one of those horrible little rooms with a table in the middle and a two way mirror, I laughed as I realized they’d put me in a chair that wobbled. My arms were handcuffed to the center of the table in front of me, but I bent my right arm enough to use it as a pillow for my head.

I’m sure they intended to leave me alone like this long enough to make me even more nervous, but I went through the meditations I’d learned as a child so I’d be able to control my wolf when she showed up, and I fell asleep.

I awoke startled when the door opened, but only thrashed my arms once before I brought my body under control. It wouldn’t do at
all
for me to bend or break their steel restraints.

I wasn’t sure I could break them, but I could likely do more damage than a human should be able to inflict. Especially a small human female.

I’d never seen the man who came in. He walked in as if he owned the place and I wasn’t even there, and he put a thick file folder on the table in front of me. I knew from my dad’s talks that this was all normal, and the folder likely didn’t have anything in it about me or the case.

“I can’t see that you’ve ever been arrested before, Miss Wright. Not many people fall sleep in an interrogation room when they’re up on murder charges, though. What’s going to show up in your drug test when it comes back, I wonder?”

I shook my head. “Maybe some wine from earlier tonight, but I think it’s out of my system by now. It’s what? Probably somewhere around five or six in the morning by now? Perfectly normal to want to sleep when jerked out of bed in the middle of the night, Detective — especially since I haven’t killed anyone so there should be no cause for worry. I saw my attorney when I first got here, but haven’t seen him since. Shouldn’t he be here while I’m questioned?”

“He isn’t your attorney, he’s Rolling Thunder’s attorney, and I needed to ask you in private if you feel comfortable having him represent you.”

Tricky. I needed to show autonomy from the RTMC for work purposes, and this guy obviously knew it. I considered my words carefully before saying, “He’s an attorney, and he knows more about whatever’s about to happen in here than I do. I can always tell him to get lost if I think he isn’t on my side. Bring him in, please.”

“You
really
don’t want to do that, Miss Wright.”

“Why not?”

“If it’s just you and me, I can make this go a little easier. Once we bring him in, the rules change.”

“How do they change, exactly?”

“There are deals I can offer you if he isn’t involved.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but that doesn’t make sense. I’m afraid I’m going to have to stop talking until you bring him in.”

He asked another dozen questions, and I merely looked at him, and he finally made a motion with his hands that I assumed was a signal to whoever was watching.

The detective stared at me while we waited, and I eventually put my head back on my arm.

It was a good five minutes before the attorney came in, and he was spitting mad. I could smell his rage, as well as the fact he was a leopard or panther.

I could also easily smell the lies the detective told, and I knew they didn’t have the bodies he told me they’d found.

They questioned me for hours, asking the same things over and over. When he gave up making me implicate myself, he started trying to get me to implicate various members of the MC, though I noted he only brought up the people I didn’t have an emotional connection with. My attorney spoke up for me a lot, and I breathed through my anger and stayed calm, no matter what the asshole threw at me. He’d leave the room every once in a while, and come back with a different line of questions.

I was close to losing my temper when the door flew open and Agent Graham walked in and told the Detective, “I’ve just taken the assistant DA into custody, and I’m considering taking you as well. The judge who signed her arrest warrant will officially be under federal investigation in a matter of hours, and I expect all charges against Ms. Wright to be dropped at that time. Are you going to fight me on taking her with me and returning her to Rolling Thunder’s compound?”

I sat still and kept my mouth closed while Agent Graham and the detective figured out who had the biggest penis. The attorney’s scent told me he was enjoying this, so I sat back and tried to enjoy it as well — without looking as if I was.

Within an hour, I was back in my own clothes and once again riding in the front seat of Agent Graham’s car.

I’d kept mostly quiet and only spoken when asked a direct question while still in the building, but now I asked, “You mind telling me what just happened?”

“We’re all at a dead end and frustrated, but that’s no excuse for their actions. Pickering has been pushing his Assistant DA to implicate you. A combination of the detectives getting frustrated and the acting DA offering to let them bring you in and fish? You got brought in. Brain called me, let me know, and it took me a few hours to work through my superiors and rush a few things through. I had most of the paperwork in place to put the Assistant DA under investigation, and once I got ahold of the paperwork he submitted to the judge, I realized I had enough to arrest him outright for falsifying documents. I can’t believe these guys are this ballsy when they
know
the Feds are watching. They truly do think they’re above the law and the rules don’t apply to them.”

“How bad is this going to screw me up at work?”

It was after ten, and I hadn’t been able to let my supervisor know I wasn’t coming in, or why.

“Call in, let them know you had some legal issues but you’ve been assured by me that the charges will be dropped. I’ll do what I can from my end.”

He pulled into an empty parking lot and put the car in park. “Need to ask you a personal question. The women who handled the cavity search said you looked like someone had taken a belt to you. They didn’t buy your story of falling on the steps.”

I looked forward, out of the window, and told him, “It’s like I’m being violated all over again. That cavity search was the most humiliating thing I’ve ever been through.
Ever
. Yeah, I’m into kinky stuff. No one should know about that but
me
, and now it’s a matter of fucking public record.”

“Here’s my problem. If it wasn’t consensual, no way would you rat on a patched member of Rolling Thunder. So either way, you’re going to tell me it was consensual.”

I looked at him. “Here’s a truth you can believe. If it wasn’t consensual, my dad would
destroy
anyone who dared lift a hand to me. In fact, he might do it even if he knew I wanted it, so I’m
really
hoping he doesn’t find out.”

He looked at me a few seconds and said, “Okay, then. A fall on the steps. Works for me.”

“Why are you helping me so much?”

He put the car back in gear and pulled out of the parking lot. “I’m supposed to be one of the good guys, and it pisses me off when the good guys are dirty. You’re afraid of the cops, afraid of your government, and that should
never
happen in the United States of America. You were abducted, and would’ve been raped and likely tortured had you not escaped, and while I’ll admit to investigating extra hard to make sure your story matches the evidence, so far it has, and it pisses me off they’re further victimizing you. If I find out you’ve lied then I’ll be the first to take you in and see justice served.” He shook his head. “I thought something didn’t feel right while you were giving me your statement, but so far your story’s checked out. Other than my spidey sense, I have no reason to believe you’re lying.”

“Your spidey sense?”

“Yep. Don’t knock it — it’s served me well and even saved my life a few times. It isn’t admissible in a court of law, though, and it’s been known to go wonky a time or two. I know you’re dating a pimp with a helluva temper, nicknamed because of his proclivity for bashing heads, so it’s possible I was biased.”

“You don’t paint me in the best light, and yet you came to my rescue.”

“You graduated in the top two percent of your class at MIT, and the folks at TVA are already glowing when they talk about your work. You built one car out of three junkers when you were fifteen, and you worked at a garage as a mechanic while you were attending MIT. It’s like you’ve taken the best of the biker culture to help form who you are. I didn’t understand your connection to your boyfriend, but I’ve read some files that tell me whatever happened the day your mom died was intense — one of those things that bonds people together for a lifetime.”