Good Girls Don't (Donovan Brothers Brewery 1)

“I don’t want to go down for that idiot,” she grumbled.

Luke nodded sympathetically. “It’s not like it’s the first time he’s gotten into trouble.”

“That little shit is going to—” At that moment, it all hit her. Luke saw the exact millisecond that her fear turned to calculation. Her face remained pale, but her slack jaw tightened. She closed her mouth and narrowed her eyes.

He dropped his voice to a near-whisper. “We could arrest you right now.” He angled his head toward the cruel and unyielding Simone. “We’ve got all the evidence we need to take you in.”

Her irises flickered, her gaze bouncing back and forth between Luke and Simone. “Or we could call the D.A., call your lawyer, and we could all have a friendly chat up in Boulder.”

“If you arrest me, what happens?”

“Oh, we’ll take you downtown and book you into jail. You’ll be photographed and fingerprinted and searched. Then you’ll be put into lockup.”

“Lockup.”

“Until your lawyer gets you out. It’d probably be no time at all, though. A day until your bail hearing. Two at the most.”

“And there’d be mug shots?” she breathed, seeming most horrified at that.

“Yes.”

She gingerly patted her hair and frowned at something beyond Luke’s shoulder. He turned to see a portrait of Roland Kendall on her wall.

“I’ll talk to the D.A., as long as you can guarantee I won’t be arrested.”

“You’ll need to discuss immunity with the D.A. and your attorney.”

She nodded, her gaze getting colder the longer she looked at her father’s portrait. “He deserves to be embarrassed,” she said, as if she were convincing herself. “He always treated Graham like the golden child. The son who loved football and baseball. The son who liked to fish and golf. But Graham was playing him like a damned violin. He always was. It’s time for dad to wake up.”

“Why don’t you call your attorney and gather your things? We’ll meet you at the police station in Boulder.”

Simone leaned close as they walked through the wide double doors of Monica Kendall’s huge office. “We’ll take her ‘downtown’?” she whispered, nudging Luke with her elbow.

“What? That’s some great imagery.”

“So do you think she’s as innocent as she claims?”

“Oh, not that innocent,” he said. “Are they ever?” Tessa immediately came to mind. Tessa against the wall. Tessa in the shower. He checked his phone to be sure she hadn’t called.

“Your girl was pretty pissed,” Simone said. He jumped like he’d just been caught looking at dirty pictures. “Huh?”

“Back at the brewery. Did you two make up?”

“No, we definitely did not.”

“Give her time. She’ll calm down. You two are cute together.”

Luke paused in the act of opening the car door and glared at Simone. “We’re cute together?”

“Well, she’s cute and you’re, you know…gaga.”

“I am not gaga,” he huffed in disgust as he got into the car and started the engine with a hard crank of the key. “Your condition is making you emotional.”

“Really? I thought your condition was making you emotional.”

“Ridiculous,” he muttered. But Simone’s look said she didn’t believe that any more than he did. He was worried. He’d never seen Tessa look so serious. It gave him a bad feeling. Maybe he’d underestimated her anger. In her mind, he’d damaged her family, and her brothers meant everything to her.

Christ, he wanted to go to her. His muscles ached with the need to take action. If he could only explain himself and apologize again, if he could only have some time with her. She’d understand. She’d have to.