Spark in the Dark

Chapter 166

After taking her mugshot and fingerprints, the deputies put Shawn in a holding area to wait to be transferred to county. Shawn had been arrested before, but it had only ever been by Charming P.D. and Unser got her out fairly quickly. Even after punching Stahl, she hadn't been sent to county, she just stayed at the police station. This was all new territory for Shawn and, even though on the outside no one could probably tell, she was freaking out.

Shawn heard the key turn in the lock right before the door swung open and a deputy brought Tara into the room. She looked at Shawn in surprise while Shawn glared at her. Tara sat down next to her when the door was once again closed and locked.

"What are you doing here?"

"I robbed a bank, Tara," Shawn said sarcastically. "C'mon. What the hell do you think?"

Tara nodded. "Well, at least we're here together. It could be a lot worse if we had to do this alone."

"You are such a selfish bitch, you know that? I shouldn't even be here. This is all your damn fault."

"I know. I'm sorry. You have every right to be pissed at me and once we get through this, if you never speak to me again I'll understand, but for right now, we need to have each other's backs."

"Fine. Whatever."

The door opened again and they were both cuffed and taken to a patrol car that drove them to the county jail. There, they were told to undress and given orange jumpsuits as well as a pillow and blanket before being sent into a large barrack like cell with lots of bunk beds lined up. The other inmates sized them up as Shawn followed Tara to an empty bunk. She didn't return any of their looks. She just looked straight ahead and looked as bitchy as possible.

Tara stopped at a bunk and sat down on the bottom bunk. Shawn glared at her for a second.

"Seriously? You think my pregnant ass is climbing up to the top bunk?"

"Shit. Sorry," Tara mumbled and got off the bed and stood to set her things on top.

Shawn put her pillow and blanket down and leaned against them both so no one could steal them. Tara sat down next to her and looked around nervously.

"You need to stop looking so damn scared," Shawn said. "We got enough problems and having them give us a hard time isn't going to help."

"Your pregnancy probably isn't going to help with that," Tara pointed out.

"Neither is your long hair."

"How is my hair going to hurt us?"

"Not us. You. You look like pretty, pretty princess over here."

"What do you want me to do? Cut it all off?"

"Why not? That's how all the cholas are wearing it these days," Shawn said sarcastically. She looked around at some of the other girls. Most had gone back to what they were doing, but a few were still looking their way. "You might want to stick closer to your shit. Any one of these bitches would gladly take them from you."

"Lights out!" A guard called right before some of the lights turned off, making the room darker, but they could still see.

Tara stood from Shawn's bed and climbed onto her own. Shawn grabbed her blanket to cover herself and turned onto her side in a wasted effort to get comfortable. Between fighting the urge to cry and Tara's tossing and turning on the top bunk, it looked like it was going to be a long night.

* * *

The next morning, Shawn sat quietly, alone on her bed while Shawn talked to Lowen, the club's lawyer. She was mostly people watching, but was trying to not be obvious about it. The more invisible she made herself the better, she figured. Tara returned awhile later with a notebook and a pen. Shawn gave her a questioning look, but Tara ignored her and climbed back up to the top bunk.