Dahlia's Kiss

He fell silent for a second. “I’m on my way to your office.”

My rage began to creep into my voice again. “Oh, no you are not! Stay away from here. I am working. I can’t begin to do my job with all of you randomly turning up to try to protect me from the boogie man.”

“This isn’t a social call, Dahlia.” His voice held a tone I hadn’t heard from him before. “Be outside. I don’t want your coworkers to see. It won’t be just me.”

I squeezed the phone tight against my ear. “Am I being arrested?”

“We’ve been instructed to bring you in for questioning. Someone called about the argument between you and CeeCee before she got killed. When they looked into you, they found footage of you leaving the Renaldo Hotel shortly before Isaac and David did when the notorious leaked video of them hooking up was taken. Then, they went back further, and wouldn’t you know they found you interacting with every single one of the victims. This doesn’t look good, Dahlia. At the very least, they are going to consider you a target. At the worse, they might think you did this.”

“I am a target!” I said a little too loudly. I looked around to make sure no one heard me, then adjusted myself to my surroundings. “It doesn’t prove anything that I interacted with them. That’s very circumstantial.”

“Yeah, but if they think they can pin everything on you and tell the public they can sleep easier because they brought a criminal to justice, they will.” Sterling sighed. “Our system is corrupt like that. They’ll take the easy way if it’s available to them.”

“What am I going to do?” I asked. My hands were shaking. My mascara was running even more, and it wasn’t from the rain. I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand.

“Just go outside and wait. Do everything we tell you to do, without arguing. They have to realize you couldn’t have done this. You don’t even own a gun.” He hesitated. One more thing Dahlia. We can’t let on as if we know each other intimately. They won’t let me be anywhere near you if they think we are fucking, and then I can’t try to turn their suspicions away from you.”

“That’s going to be really hard.”

“I know,” he said. “But it’s the best thing for us. The guys aren’t at your place, are they?”

“No. Why?” I asked.

“Just in case they decide to get a warrant to search your apartment. I don’t want them caught in the crosshairs either.” I heard the garbled sound of his radio coming from his car. “I’m about five minutes out.”

“That’s very valiant of you, considering you don’t like Cole or Damian.”

“I like them enough to try to keep them out of this.” Sterling sounded sincere.

“Okay, I’m headed to the door. I’ll wait inside until you pull in, so I don’t have to get any wetter than is necessary.” I left everything behind except my phone, not knowing if the cops would empty my pockets or not. I tucked my car keys into the top drawer of my desk and placed my purse on the floor, pushing my chair in behind it so it wouldn’t be seen. Then I made my way upfront. Sterling’s car entered the lot just as I reached the door, followed by a second vehicle. A total of four officers met me directly outside.

“Dahlia Brooks?” the first man asked.

“Yes?” I tried not to look at Sterling at all, heading his warning from before.

“Would you come with us, please? We have some questions we need you to answer.” The man didn’t remove the cuffs from his waist, and that relieved me.

“Am I under arrest?” I asked.

“Should you be?” he retorted.

I blushed and tried to look demure even though I was trembling on the inside. “I don’t believe so. I’ve never had four officers come to talk to me at once, though. What is this regarding?”

“We will answer all your questions at the station.” The officer doing all the talking took me by the elbow and led me to his car. He placed a hand on the top of my head as he helped me inside, ensuring I didn’t injure myself. I tried to get a glimpse of Sterling, but he was already in his own vehicle, the wiper blades beating frantically back and forth with the same speed as my heart.