“Keep your hands on the car and mind your business, son!” Reed barked.
“I’m sorry, it’s..”
“Shut your mouth, kid.” He stepped out of the Camaro, coming over to pat me down, plucking my wallet out and slapping it on the hood, his other hand running over the box in my front pocket.
“What’s this, son? Drugs?”
“A jewelry box, sir,” I answered, keeping my voice low. “We’re on our way to Briley Canyon, where I’m going to propose.”
He ripped the box from my pocket, opened it, and smirked at its contents. “You would give Ed Roberts’ daughter that?” he scoffed. “Oh, kid, come on.”
I swallowed my pride and nodded. It wasn’t the biggest stone, but it’s what I could afford. Someday I’d get her something stunning, something she deserved. But I knew Josie, and she’d love it.
“You need to come with me.”
“Where? For what?” I asked, keeping my hands planted on the hot metal.
I was getting sick of being talked down to, and they were wasting precious daylight. Walking to the special spot would take at least an hour.
He gripped my upper arm. “Come with me and don’t argue.”
“But I didn’t do anything! Tell me what I did!” I demanded. I wasn’t going anywhere until I knew what was going on. Everything about the situation was wrong.
The answer I received was a vicious shove to the shoulder that sent me flying forward, my face bouncing off the hot metal.
“Stop resisting!” he shouted, twisting my limp arms to slap cuffs on my wrist before I knew what was happening. Still reeling from the blow, he pulled me upright by my shirt’s collar, the fabric choking me as Josie’s cries echoed in the distance. He tightened his hold on my shirt, scruffing me like a dog as he hauled me towards his patrol car.
Hot liquid flooded my mouth, the metallic punch of blood rushing everywhere. An excruciating pain roared across my jaw all the while, a sharp sting standing out on my lip.
Josie was nowhere to be found as he shoved me forward, my feet not moving as I wanted, off-balance from the blow to the head.
When he ripped open the rear door of the cruiser, relief flooded through me as I found a cuffed Josie seated inside.
Rather than being happy to see me, she screamed, eyes wide in horror just as I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window. My lower lip was split clean to my chin, blood pouring to pool on my shirt.
Reed shoved me into the backseat, landing a violent blow on my shoulder with his baton on the way down. “Hands to yourself!” he warned, not that we could touch, both our hands shackled.
“We didn’t do anything!” Josie cried. “Please! I want to talk to my dad!”
Reed pointed the wooden wand at her, just inches from my face. “Hush yourself, or you’re next!”
“I want to speak to a lawyer!” I shouted, each word excruciating, my lip torn worse than I thought.
“You’ll speak when you’re allowed, Barrett!”
He said my name with such hatred I knew the day wouldn’t end well. I knew for certain we wouldn’t make it to Briley Canyon.
Our hell was only beginning.
He slammed the door, sealing us in, Josie all-out sobbing.
“Are you okay?” I asked, checking her over the best I could for where I sat, not wanting another baton to the body. “What did they do to you?”
Other than the tears, she seemed unharmed. “Me? What did they do to you?”
“I’m fine,” I lied. “What happened to you? Talk to me, Josie.”
“He cuffed me and put me in here. I didn’t get to ask questions.” Her shoulders shook with sobs. “What’d they do to you? You’re so bloody!”
I shook it off, trying to block out the pain, the taste of blood disgusting, each swallow worse than the last. “This doesn’t make sense.”
“Baby, I don’t know what to do!” she cried, trying to wipe her tears on her shoulder, the torrential stream showing no signs of slowing.
“We wait, Babe. It’s all we can do.”
I tried to soothe her as we awaited our fate, the two officers leaning against the patrol car. Their laughs roared the whole time, every round more infuriating than the last.
Minutes ticked by, the car growing hotter with each passing second, sweat dripping and stinging the gaping wound more. Josie whimpered, cries growing ragged, her beautiful golden waves a mix of tears and perspiration.
Her door popped open just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore, and she was pulled away by her arm, a burst of fresh forest air rushing in. She screamed as the officer hauled her to her feet, crying out he was hurting her as his fingers bit into her flesh.
I lurched forward, only to receive another blow as Reed flew in my door behind me, striking me again in the shoulder with his baton. He kept hitting until I was flat against the seat, my face pressed into the leather as pain radiated across my body.
My eyes turned skyward as the agony grew, Ed Roberts appearing outside the door where Josie stood.
Ed was furious, red in the face and shouting, though I couldn’t make out the words. Hopefully he was ripping the pair new assholes over our treatment.
But then he looked toward me with disgust, like I was nothing, the lowest of the low. Like I wasn’t someone who kept my mouth shut, falling right in line with the Roberts way.
But that wasn’t what got me.
It wasn’t what set me ablaze.
He unleashed a cruel slap, the back of his hand almost knocking Josie off her feet. The officers looked on without a care in the world, letting him grab her by the arms and shake her and scream in her face, brutalizing the woman I loved.
She was sobbing.
I was sobbing.
Regardless of the pain, I pulled myself upright, ramming against the door with everything I had, desperate to make it stop. But the metal held firm, a baton held in warning by Reed on the other side of
