Arrested.

Jal was being arrested.

The words repeated in my head, but my brain refused to accept them.

This whole thing felt like a set-up for some awful reality TV show, and some hot celebrity was going to come rushing out from around the corner any moment to tell us that we’d just been punked.

But the officers were slowly and politely walking Jal toward the front door. Soon, they'd be outside, down the steps to the police car that was surely waiting.

I couldn't let that happen.

“Jal, what do you want me to do?” My voice sounded louder than I thought it should, but it had the desired effect of stopping everyone.

Jal jerked his chin toward the kitchen. “Get my phone. It’s on the counter. Call my lawyer, Adam Abbott. Tell him what happened.”

“Where…where will you be?”

I looked at the detective behind Jal. He scowled but answered, “The thirty-ninth.”

Then they were all gone, leaving me staring at the closed door.

Gone.

He was gone.

He’d been arrested.

Hell, it wasn’t like I’d never known anybody who’d been arrested. But Jal Lindstrom? He came from the kind of family who could pay to make arrest warrants go away. Not that I thought Jal would ever do that, but I was shocked this had gone through without him even getting a head's up. I'd spent enough time in the Hedges' house to know how things like this usually worked.

They didn't get arrested for things like this without a hell of a fight from some high-priced lawyer.

Lawyer. Right. Jal wanted me to call his lawyer.

I moved into the kitchen, my limbs feeling stiff and abnormal. Jal's phone was lying on the counter, and I picked it up, sliding my thumb across the screen until it came to life, and I was able to get into the contacts. Fortunately, he didn't use a passcode, or I would've been in trouble. It dimly occurred to me that I should tell him to add one since this wasn't exactly safe, but that was neither here nor there. I scrolled through the contacts twice before remembering that the man's name would be at the top.

I was in shock, I was sure, but a part of me thought it was more than that. Something just didn’t feel right inside me. All sorts of things felt wrong outside me too.

Two rings buzzed in my ear and then a man’s voice boomed out. “Jal, son…where you been, you lousy fuck?”

I blinked. “Ah. Um…”

“Oh…” There was a soft chuckle. “I’m sorry. I expected…well, Jal.”

“The lousy fuck.”

The man laughed again. He was loud, but something about him eased the knot in my chest.

“Yes. Exactly. How can I help you, and why are you calling from Jal’s phone?”

“Because he told me to. He’s been arrested.”

For a second, there was absolutely no response. Then, the man on the other end of the line said quietly, “Would you please repeat that?”

I did, then told him every single thing that happened from the moment the cops knocked on the door. I even told him why I hadn't been in the room when Jal had let them in. Adam Abbott seemed like the sort of man who wouldn’t get distracted by details but would rather know them so he wasn't caught off guard.

When I finished, he was quiet for a few seconds, then spoke, “Thank you, Miss…I don’t believe I caught your name.”

“Allie,” I said. “Allie Dodds.”

“Thank you, Miss Dodds. Will you be meeting me at the police station?”

I hadn’t thought of that. I hadn’t thought of anything beyond getting a hold of the lawyer. Now that I'd done that, I had to figure out what to do next.

Not that it was really even a difficult decision to make. “Yes. I’ll meet you there. I need to get a cab–”

“That won’t be necessary. In Jal's contact list, you'll find the name Eli. He's one of Jal's normal drivers, and he'll take care of you. I expect Jal will want to see you once I get him out of this mess.”

I would have argued.

But I wanted to see Jal too.

* * *

I’d never been in a police station, and it wasn't something I would look forward to repeating any time soon. The lights were too bright, the floor too white, the noises too harsh and voices too strident.

One girl came through the doors crying, begging the officer who was holding her by the arm to call her mother. In the next breath, she pled with him to please just let her go, she’d only had the one beer.

Of course, if she’d only had that one beer, she wouldn’t have been in this position to begin with. I could tell by the way she was half falling against him that she’d passed only one beer about ten beers ago.

One woman came in, demanding to know where her son was. She was dressed in clothes almost fine enough to rival Diamond’s. When she tried to slap an officer who told her she'd have to wait her turn, I watched as she was restrained.

“Miss Dodds?” The voice was familiar.

The man standing in front of me wasn’t, but I figured out who he was pretty quickly. He was older than I would have expected, black hair going silver at the temples, dark brown eyes, and dimples that had long since deepened to grooves bracketed his mouth as he smiled.

“Mr. Abbott,” I said, rising.

“Call me Adam, please.” He held out a hand.

I shook it, but my focus had already shifted back to Jal. “What’s going on? Have you seen him yet?”

“Currently, we're in the process of me being jerked around out here, and Jal being jerked around in there.” He flashed me a quick smile. “That’s very technical talk, by the way. Make sure you remember it.”

“In legalese, it translates to no, right?” Feeling a little drained and hollow, I fought the urge to drop back down on the bench and just cry. I did sit though. I felt like I'd been through an emotional wringer over the last couple weeks.

He sat with me. “It does indeed translate to no. You might be a natural at this legal talk thing.”

“What’s taking so long? They showed up almost two hours ago. I’ve been here almost an hour.” I didn't try to keep the frustration from my voice.

Adam patted me on the shoulder. “I know it feels like a long time to you, but it’s not. They won’t keep him waiting much longer, but they have to process him and go through all the procedures. You said this was about insider trading, but between you and me, that’s bullshit, because Jal is the most honest person I know. Plus, he’s too competitive to win anyway other than the right way. He wants to know that he can beat everybody just by being smarter and better.”

“He is arrogant,” I said with a soft smile.

“He is,” Adam agreed. “And with good reason.” He rubbed his hands up, then down his face before folding them in his lap. “But insider trading is a big deal. The police will be looking at this the way they look at any crime, crossing all i’s, dotting all t’s.”

“You got it wrong. You dot your i’s and cross your t’s.”

“Right…” The grin he gave me was crooked and warm. “Please excuse me. Part of me is still half asleep, Ms. Dodds.”

I wished I was still half asleep, Jal's lean body wrapped around me.

Looking away, I told myself not to think about it, not to wish or worry or wonder. I'd drive myself crazy that way.

“It will be okay,” Adam said. “I’m a good lawyer, and Jal’s an even better man.”

I nodded.

Then they called his name, and he gave me a quick pat on the shoulder before disappearing through a set of double doors, leaving me to wait. Alone.

But I wasn't going anywhere without Jal.

Not again.