Read Online Following Fabian by Holley Trent - Free Book Online Page B

to go numb. They’d been shackled to their chairs for hours, and there’d already been lots of back and forth between Astrid and the sergeant at the desk. Fabian hadn’t caught all of it, but the best he could tell, the officers didn’t really have a compelling reason to book them, and now they were just holding them to amp up Astrid’s annoyance factor.
    “You worried about them running background checks on you?” he asked.
    “They can run me through every database they have access to, but they’re not going to find anything interesting. All they know about me is that I have a North Carolina driver’s license, that I’m permitted to carry firearms, that I work for an investigation firm—which I suspect isn’t ingratiating me with them in the slightest bit—and that my name’s still on the deed of a lodge I sold outright to my brother a year ago.”
    She scoffed.
    “Poor Eric. Honestly, you’re the one that’s really pissing them off. You have no ID and won’t even tell them your real last name.”
    “They don’t know that the name is phony.”
    “I’m pretty sure García is the Spanish equivalent of Smith as far as common names go. They have to suspect at least one of us is pulling their collective legs.”
    “Quiet over there,” the desk sergeant barked.
    “We’re talking in hushed tones as it is,” Astrid said. “But I’ll raise my voice to say this. When do I get to make my phone call? Either book us for something, preferably something legitimate, or let us go. As it is, you’re going to catch a heap of shit from my boss for impounding my rental car. You’re going to screw her corporate contract all to hell, and when she gets cranky, people move Heaven and Earth to get out of her way.”
    The sergeant slipped a sheath of papers beneath his industrial stapler and brought his fist down on the top. “I wish we could book you for delusions of grandeur.”
    Astrid opened her mouth again, but Fabian scooted the heavy chair over an inch and gave her fingers a strong squeeze, scraping the skin of his wrist in the handcuff bracelet in the process. “He’s trying to incite you,” he said.
    She looked at him, and her expression was pained. Poor thing. It was probably eating her up that she couldn’t freely speak her mind.
    “Can you communicate silently? Like you did this morning?” he asked her.
    She drew her lips back in a cringe. “I can, but it’s difficult to filter the thoughts when I’m agitated. I wouldn’t want to accidentally share things that should be kept personal.”
    “Can you try? I suspect the sergeant is having a great time trying to parse the one-sided conversation, or at least what he can hear of it.”
    She sighed, and ran her thumb over his. “Okay. Lalalalala.”
    He couldn’t help but to grin. “What is it you’re thinking that you don’t want me to hear?” He turned his face toward the desk, realizing how suspicious staring at Astrid without talking to her would look. Yes, she was a beautiful woman, but he didn’t want to give the fine officers any additional reasons to scrutinize his actions. They’d probably separate them, and he most certainly didn’t have a plan for that.
    “Truth?” she asked.
    “Yes, truth.”
    “I was just thinking that if I had let you get on the bus, we wouldn’t have this problem.”
    “Oh, well, that’s funny. I was thinking that it’s ironic that we were dragged in under suspicion of prostitution, because if we were actually back at the hotel having the sex I suggested, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
    She snorted. “We wouldn’t still be having sex.”
    He scoffed. “ Yes, we would be.”
    In his periphery, he could see her turning her face toward him. He would have paid handsomely to see her expression, but instead, he fixed his gaze on the big white clock over the sergeant’s desk. Nearly five. It’d been a long fucking day.
    She squeezed his hand. “Do me a favor and don’t tell Felipe about this. I