The Alpha House

Chapter Twelve

I sat numbly in the uncomfortable wooden chair at the Alpharetta Police precinct for three hours before I was allowed to see Jamie. In that time, I had completely sobered up and had enough time to thoroughly dwell on how badly I had fucked up.

I'd practically forced Jamie into this situation, knowing he would respond badly to seeing me kiss another man. In my drunken haze, it had seemed like the perfect plan, but now Jamie was facing five years in prison for felony assault and Duke was so angry he couldn't even look at me.

"You're allowed to see him, but they will be watching every move and listening to every word you say. Don't do anything stupid, Miss Brooks. Stick to our plan," Alan, their lawyer, was saying to me as he escorted me back to the interrogation room where they'd been keeping Jamie.

There was no interrogation needed; everyone had plainly seen him shove Zach. But Duke had called up their fancy lawyer, and Alan had instantly got to work arguing that Zach didn't plainly identify himself as an officer and that the shove constituted a defense of Jamie's girlfriend, who he'd thought was being taken advantage of in her drunk state by an overzealous cop. Or at least, that's the story that Alan had instructed us all to stick to.

"Jamie, oh my god." I rushed into the room as soon as Alan opened the door and flung myself into Jamie's arms.

"I'll leave you two alone," Alan said, closing the door behind me with a meaningful look up at the surveillance camera in the corner.

Jamie cradled my head with his hand, his other arm wrapped securely around my waist.

"I'm just glad you're okay," he said quietly, and I pulled my head back to look up at him. He looked perfectly fine; his eyes were still dark, but no longer black, and the vein in his jaw was nowhere to be seen.

To my utter surprise, Jamie leaned down and pressed his lips softly against mine. I jumped, but he covered it up by sliding his free hand into my hair and pulling me closer.

Oh, right. The camera. We had to continue playing the loving boyfriend and girlfriend, only now it was Jamie's life and future at stake. It had to be convincing that he would come to my defense, so Alan had told us to do everything we could to seem like two young people madly in love.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered, and I meant it, but Jamie's eyes flashed and he shook his head softly, cutting me off.

"Shh, it's not your fault. He took advantage of you."

Alan had forced them to test my blood alcohol level when we'd arrived at the precinct, and it had been way over the legal limit. This was a huge win for us, because it definitely sold the idea that I was too drunk and Zach was taking advantage. It also helped that nobody had been around to hear me invite him to dance except for me and him, which wasn't exactly a credible defense for him. But I still felt icky about the whole thing, knowing that I was potentially ruining a man's reputation. God, I'm such a fucking piece of shit. Zach didn't deserve this. He thought I was being abused or trafficked and was just being a good cop.

On the other hand, he did dance with me, grope me, and kiss me, knowing that I had a boyfriend and that we had met under very professional circumstances, so he'd definitely crossed a line somewhere. But not the line that you're telling them he crossed.

I was so confused about the whole thing. I had been drunk, but I'd also been trying to trick Zach and manipulate Jamie. So really, I was the villain no matter how you looked at it.

"Did they hurt you?" I was still whispering, my face so close to Jamie's that I could see the little freckles that he tried to hide.

He stroked my hair, his arm around my waist like iron, and for the first time all night I no longer felt nauseous.