𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝, 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐁𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐚𝐧

30. Marble Island

     The crushing in my chest felt like it would take my life. This was a mistake. Clearly. Prince wouldn't-would not just throw me to the wolves like some disobedient protégée. There had to be some type of explanation. These men needed to hear me out.

But there was no real time talk myself out of this. I had to force myself out of Prince's stolen property.

It was so hard to stand. Every part of me was shaking so bad you'd think it was dead of winter rather than a summer night in the Midwest.

"Yo! Don't fucking touch me!" They woke the beast.

"Vanessa, calm down!" Deondrea demanded from the back seat.

"What the fuck is this?!"

I couldn't clear the tears from my view. They were hard to reach with my hands locked behind my back.

Slapping the cold metal against my wrists, Brown spoke one word to me. "Relax." He said it soft and quick as if it were a sin. But whatever 'relax' was, it wasn't me.

Deondrea was so calm as she made her exit from the Jeep, quiet and cooperative. Nessie on the other hand was cuffed and hauled to the back of a car kicking and screaming. Analia and Ada was put in the back of a car as well. But it didn't move anywhere.

"He knew..." I struggled to get my words out over the ball of anxiety in my throat. "I'm on his insurance," I said as I was spun to face the man in blue. "I can show you my insurance card."

"Miss Valentine," he smiled, head shaking, "you're not under arrest, alright?" Both Deondrea and I were walked to wait against the highway guardrail, 10 feet left between us.

"If I'm not being arrested, why do you have me in handcuffs?"

"Because you're being detained right now." Making his way back to his patrol car, he told me not to move. Someone then told him, "Mr. Nelson is on his way." The words brought me no relief.

Static voices came through the talkies on the uniformed chests, constant chirps as the men went back and forth with the dispatcher, giving codes and locations.

Looking to my left, I tried to read Deondrea but there wasn't an ounce of emotion for me to analyze. I then started to worry about Ada, hoping the only reason she was in the back of a car instead of out here with us was because she still couldn't stand up straight.

"Officer Brown?" As he was walking by, I grabbed his attention. "Can you please take the cuffs off?" I whispered.

"So you could run off on me?" he teased with a smile.

"Of course not." Leaning in, "I'll still stand here with my hands like this so the others won't know."

"Oh, that's not even a concern of mine. These men report to me."

"But if I'm just in custody, these cuffs aren't necessary, right?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

"They're not. You can trust me."

Laughing, "Oh, I can, huh?"

"Yeah. And I don't even want them off really for me, it's because..." I started whispering again. "Prince. If he sees me in cuffs I'm scared he's gonna act out and say something stupid that'll get him his own pair."

"I'm sure he has enough sense to understand the situation at hand."

"Yeah, he has a lot of sense but absolutely no filter on that mouth of his." The man across from me still laughed. "I'm serious. And he's all I have. We can't both be arrested."