Break, page 9
His voice gets louder when I don’t back down the way he was expecting. “I never should have married that cunt! This is fucking unbelievable! My God, you’re seriously standing here like you, fucking Officer Vincent Mercer, will actually arrest one of your best friends.”
Lowering my voice, I take a step forward so only he can hear me. “Don’t make this into a thing, man. Let’s just get this over with. If you fight me, it’s only going to hurt you in the long run.” I look back and forth between his eyes, begging him silently to not make me force the cuffs on his wrists. “You understand?”
He lets out a small scream through his clenched teeth in fury but nods his head once in compliance. “Let’s just fucking go. I don’t need to change.”
I bring my fist to cover my cough of embarrassment. “I, umm… I have to cuff you, Danny. We’ve got to do this right.”
The look of pure hatred directed at me contains so much malice that I know I’ve permanently lost a friend. As much as you could consider us friends after the distance between us since high school. “Sure,” he hisses out sarcastically.
Cupping his elbow, I lead him further onto the front porch. Danny rips his arm away from me as he turns, and I keep my face neutral so he doesn’t catch how much this is destroying me. After giving him instructions on how to place his hands behind his back, I make quick work of securing his wrists with the cuffs and then lead him over to Tony.
“When you get down there, processing will take your statement and answer any questions you have,” my partner informs him. I can’t tell what Tony makes of all this, but I appreciate he knows me well enough to know any teasing directed at me right now would be a bad idea.
“Whatever,” Danny answers. “Let’s just fucking go so I can let all you idiots know how much of a mistake you’re making.” Looking over his shoulder at me, he sneers. “I can’t wait until they make you apologize to me for this.”
I ignore him again and pull out my card to read him his rights. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?”
“Oh, I fucking understand perfectly.”
“With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?” I finish my card’s verbiage. Thank God we have this to read, because I truly think I would have stumbled over this part with the way my nerves are rattling through me.
“Nope,” he says it with finality, and I’m relieved that we’re done.
Twenty minutes later, I ask Tony to take Danny to booking and immediately reroute my destination for the interrogation rooms where I know they’ve got Mina Reed. I haven’t seen her since she was brought over from the hospital. They didn’t even tell me exactly what happened, just that we’ve got a domestic abuse case and I needed to go get the husband.
Passing Jenny, one of the admins, on my way, I ask, “Hey, Jenny? You know where Cooper is?”
Pointing in the direction I was heading, she informs me, “He’s back there with Knox and those guys from Barriers.”
“Thanks,” I say quickly, and pick up my speed.
There’s only one room with a closed door. I don’t want to piss Coop off for interrupting, so I move into the next room to observe. The first thing I hear is Mina crying out for them to stop placating her. What the hell is going on?
I watch as Max tries to calm her down, dropping ‘honey’ in there like that’s going to make it easier on her. This is a fucking shit show. It’s obvious almost immediately that they have no idea that this is Mina, the girl that we essentially grew up with. How do they not recognize her?
My body moves forward like it wants to intervene, and I forcibly stop myself and keep my feet planted in front of the window. What I can’t do is keep my eyes off her. She’s backed away from everyone in the room, huddled against the wall like she’s preparing herself to fend off an attack.
The condition she’s in is heartbreakingly shocking. Her hair is a complete mess, in a loose ponytail hanging lop-sided at the back of her head, strands falling all around her face and sticking out from the side. There’s a large purple bruise on the side of her face, wrapped around a swollen eye socket. It’s not swollen fully shut because I can practically feel the animosity toward my friends shooting from her. Her eyes are glassy like she’s holding back tears, but she’s fighting to hold them back.
Mina’s left arm is completely wrapped up in a sling from shoulder to wrist, pressed against her body for support. As she takes another step back from them, I see her wince. Most likely she’s sporting injuries under her clothes, but I can’t be sure because I haven’t seen the medical report from her emergency room visit yet.
Seeing her in this state is fucking with my entire being. Mina was always a quiet, shy girl, but she never had a mean or hurtful word to say to anyone. Was she annoying? Maybe. Sort of? But not really. She was more of an inconvenience to us when we were younger. Every now and then, she’d show up when we were in the middle of whatever the hell we always got up to.
Looking at her now sends a wave of injustice flowing through me. It’s not fair that this woman is standing there, scared, angry, and completely defeated because she what? Married Danny? I haven’t seen her since the wedding and this does not seem to be the same woman she was before. This woman is a shell, devoid of anything that makes her human except for the need to survive.
The moment Max tells her he has no idea who her husband is, it’s like a switch flips off every emotion she was emitting. She completely shuts down. Another wince crosses her face when her shoulders drop.
When she begs for them to stop playing games with her, there’s no stopping me any longer. I don’t register the quick steps I take to the door when my fist is pounding on their room. I don’t stop knocking until Cooper opens it, frustrated at the interruption.
I don’t let him get a word out before I’m ordering, “Pull them out. They need to come out of there now.” Typically, I’m the guy around here who’s full of easy smiles and jokes, but the seriousness on my face at this moment has Cooper cocking his head to the side in question.
“Why? It’s not really the time, Mercer.”
“I’m telling you, Cooper, they need to get out of there now.” I look over his shoulder and call for Max.
Max’s head turns toward the sound of my voice. His brows are pulled down tightly in both confusion and frustration. Without taking my eyes off him, I jerk my head to indicate he needs to come out here, then mouth ‘Ethan too’.
Sighing, he snaps for Ethan to follow him. I let out a slow breath when the two of them shoulder their way past Cooper and out into the hallway.
“What the hell is going on?” Max hisses with his arms crossed against his chest. He’s pissed I pulled him out, but I don’t care right now.
Cooper interjects. “I’d like to know the same thing. Do you all know that woman in there?”
Both Max and Ethan let him know they don’t know her, but I correct them, nodding my head quickly. “Yes, you fucking do.”
Max’s mouth drops open slightly before he snaps his jaw shut, teeth clicking together from the force. “What the hell are you talking about? I’ve never met that woman before in my life. Well, unless you count yesterday outside the station.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Do you know where I’ve been this morning?”
“Yeah, you went to pick up her piece of shit abusive husband.”
“That’s right. So, guess where I picked him up at?” I ask.
Ethan shakes his head slowly. “Don’t play fucking games. Just tell us who that is and what the fuck you know.”
I stand up straighter, letting them read how fucking serious I am right now. I’m not playing a goddamn game with them.
“I just fucking arrested Danny Reed. That woman in there?” I point to the door behind me. “That’s Mina Bardot, his fucking wife.”
“Mina Reed,” Cooper says slowly, correcting her last name while looking between the three of us. “You guys know the victim?”
Whipping my head to face down Cooper, I’m immediately irate when he labels her as a victim but bite my tongue because he’s not wrong. She is the fucking victim right now, but it makes me feel uneasy labeling her as such.
“Wait,” Max says, shaking his head in denial. “That’s not Mina Re-”
“Fuuuuck,” Ethan breathes out. “I knew she was familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on how I knew her.” He looks at the closed door we’re all standing next to, thinking intently about the situation we’ve found ourselves in. “We saw her yesterday, Max, and I thought she seemed familiar then. Christ, she’s changed a lot since their wedding.”
“I don’t understand,” Cooper says. “How do you three know her?”
Slipping my hands in my pockets, I feel embarrassed for some unknown reason. “Her husband, Danny Reed, the one you just had me bring in-”
“You arrested Danny?” Max bites out, and I curl my lip at him in warning.
“Yes, I fucking arrested Danny. He’s being processed now. Anyway,” I say sarcastically, then continue filling in my boss. “The three of us grew up with Danny, and Mina was his neighbor. We left after high school and came back to go to their wedding. That was the last time any of us really talked to Mina. We rarely see Danny because we all sort of just moved on with our lives. He was doing the married thing, Ethan was in the army, Max and I were at school.”
“Jesus. This is such a fucked-up situation,” Cooper complains, running a hand down his face, giving his short beard a tug. “We don’t have time to work through this new degree of crazy. Are you guys able to handle this, or should I call in someone else to work with her?”
He studies all of us, judging if we can be professional enough to get through working with a woman we’ve all known for decades.
Max is the first to pull himself out of the shock he received when I dropped the ‘Mina Bardot’ bomb and nods. “We’ve got this. Just give us a couple minutes to figure out a new way to approach her and we’ll come back in. That okay? Will you smooth things over with her before we speak with her again?”
“Yeah, just hurry. We have a small window to get her moved before he gets the chance to find out where she’s gone.”
I give Coop a weak smile. “We’ll figure this out. Let’s go to the other room,” I tell my friends.
Turning, I close my eyes briefly to the sound of shuffling footsteps behind me. The click of the door shutting breaks the silence once we’ve all entered the room.
“I’m going to fucking kill him,” Ethan hisses out, barely controlled violence lacing his voice.
“Danny is fucked,” I add, agreeing with the mood we’re all in.
Then we sit down and come up with a plan on a way to not only protect Mina, but destroy the piece of shit she married. Along with any chance this fucker has to abuse another woman again.
Chapter 13
Villains
Ethan
Jesus Christ, this feels like a joke.
“What do you know?” I ask Vincent after we each take a moment to understand the scenario we’re dealing with. I’m struggling. Knowing that Mina is in the next room after having been beaten by Danny is fucking with my head. Danny. The guy we’ve been friends with for most of our lives.
Vincent lets out a loud sound of frustration and leans back in his chair to stare at the ceiling. His knee is bouncing like he needs to expel energy and his hands are busy spinning a pen between his fingers. “Not a lot, man. He fucking did it though, that’s for sure. I don’t know how to wrap my head around that.”
“How do you know?” Max asks, and I shoot him a look of disgust.
“What do you mean ‘how does he know’? Did you not see her in there?” My question is answered with an eyeroll, pissing me off.
“I’m not saying I don’t believe her. I just want to know why Vincent said that. Calm down, solider.” I hold back a growl, knowing that we’re all on edge because of this shit.
“If you two will stop bickering like a married couple, I’ll tell you so we can get back in there,” Vincent says as he looks at the window and into the room next to us. I follow his eyes and see that Mina is sitting back at the table with Cooper and Trina on the other side, talking to her. Her back is rigid, but she’s not panicking anymore like she was when we were in there.
I look back at him and nod. With my permission, he continues. “Aside from the fact that he immediately knew why we were there to pick him up, which tells me he knows she was hurt, it was his hands that told me.”
“His hands?” Max asks with some hesitation. My anger with Max dwindles, remembering that he’s had far too much experience in these types of altercations and knows what bruised knuckles mean.
“Yeah,” Vincent answers him quietly. “They were bruised and swollen. He split open a couple of knuckles and they looked fresh. I haven’t seen the med report yet, but I’d put money on the fact that she’s got more injuries than we can see.”
“She does,” I say. They look to me for more of an explanation. Clearing my throat, I add, “She was limping in the room and the bruising goes past her clothing.”
None of us say anything again for another few minutes. Finally, Max clears his throat, drawing our attention.
“I know I don’t need to ask, but you both are on board with Breaking Barriers getting her out of there, correct?” He looks between both of us, looking for an argument. When he finds none from either of us, he continues. “I know this isn’t our fault, but I still feel like we fucked up here, guys. I want to bring her to the house and keep her there. When Danny gets out, because you know he will, I refuse to give him any chance of finding her again and finishing the job. I won’t have that on my conscience.”
Vincent’s brows raise in surprise. “You think she’s going to want to stay with you? We weren’t exactly friendly over the years.”
Shrugging off his concern, he says, “We weren’t, and we can unpack all that shit later.” He looks to me and I know he wants me to stay at the house too. “Staying with us will be best. Where better to hide than with the enemy?”
I contemplate that and find it difficult to disagree with him. Danny would never even consider we took her in. I just grunt that I’m on board because I don’t see a better option right now.
“Do you really think Danny is that dangerous to her? Logically thinking, we know this guy. Do you think he’s going to come after her once she leaves?” Vincent asks us and the answer ‘yes’ screams through my head immediately. I know I’ll have to analyze that at a later time, but it’s too much right now.
Max isn’t as sure as I am. “I don’t really know, but it’s better to err on the side of caution. This is our job, and I’m going to ensure that she’s safe until we know what we’re dealing with.”
“Alright then. Let’s go in there.” Vincent stands and heads for the door.
I feel it’s important to interject here. “Guys.” They turn to me, both clearly impatient to get back to Mina. “She’s scared of us. Keep that in mind. Right now, that woman views us as much an enemy as her husband because she’s only ever known us as Danny’s friends. We need to clarify that we’re on her side or we’re only going to make this worse.”
Max nods once and leads the way back into the room.
Mina’s eyes immediately dart to us. She flinches, and I hate myself for causing her fear. Cooper and Trina stand up to leave as we approach the table, letting her know softly that they’ll just be on the other side of the window.
“Wait, why are you leaving me in here with them?” she asks, panicked and eyes wide, silently pleading for them to stay.
Trina gives her a gentle smile. “We just don’t want you to feel overwhelmed by so many people in here.”
“Mercer’s not staying in here either,” Cooper adds. Vincent jerks his head up, ready to argue, but Cooper’s sharp look has him snapping his mouth shut without argument. He follows the other two officers out of the room, but before he leaves, he turns to face Danny’s wife.
“Mina,” Vincent says softly, “We’re want to help you. We’re not here to judge you or make things worse. When you’re ready, I’d like the opportunity to speak with you and let you know that I’m on your side.”
She looks at him warily. “You’re Danny’s friend.”
He frowns at her and chews on his cheek, debating how to respond. Cooper urges him to leave, then flashes Mina a quick, sympathetic smile. He leaves and closes the door behind him.
I look toward Max to check in and see him close his eyes in defeat. Denying our relationship with Danny at this moment will be seen as a lie, because we technically are friends with him. She doesn’t know any different, which means she’s going to find it difficult to trust us. I don’t envy Max as he debates how to handle how we’ll proceed.
The silence in the room is deafening and the longer it drags on, which really isn’t more than a minute or two, the more Mina shuts down. She’s not meeting our eyes as we both study her, me with curiosity and Max, like he’s trying to strategize in a war room. Instead, she’s focused on the paper in front of her, folding the page again and running her nail along the edge. I catch Max as he furrows his brows like he’s putting pieces of a puzzle together, but can’t see the entire picture quite yet.
When he clears his throat, Mina’s muscles tense, but other than that, she doesn’t react outside of that small flicker of awareness. “How are you doing right now, Mina? Anything we can get for you?”
I move back away from the table, hoping she’ll feel like we aren’t hovering. Her eyes flick to the side, eyeing my movement, but she says nothing. The paper folding continues without pause. The brief look I got off her face left me with no hint of what she’s thinking or feeling. She’s here, but she’s not really here.
