Officer Denver was the first to approach, holding out his hand. “May I?”
“Certainly.” I passed him my phone and he took it back to his colleagues.
Caleb gave me a smarmy little smile. “I see. You’re clearly concerned for her. When did you start suspecting her instability? Is she still hearing voices?”
I shook my head, seeing through his pathetic attempt at a trick question. “I’m concerned about you, Conner.”
A laugh erupted from his lungs. “You can call me Mr. Tyson, and why would you be concerned about me? I’m not the one with a history of severe mental illness, or living on the streets, or thievery, or prostituting myself for drugs.”
Because I’m going to rip your eyeballs from their sockets and shove them so far up your dickhole they’re going to call you Jimmy-Four-Balls when I’m finished, you sheisty motherfucker.
Quinn shifted restlessly at my side, so did Alex. I didn’t have to look at them to know they were having similar thoughts.
Making my tone carefully light, I returned Caleb’s grin. “You lied to the judge who signed the initial order, and you’ve been lying to the Chicago PD.”
His eye twitched. “I’ve done no such thing. Obviously you’re as paranoid as she is.”
“We’ve been married for over a month.” I tutted at him, shaking my finger like I thought his behavior shameful. “Obviously, your petition for guardianship is a reaction to our marriage. But lying to the police is a criminal offense, Carl.”
“I did no such thing—”
“While I don’t understand this troubling obsession with your own cousin, I do strongly encourage you to seek help from a licensed professional.”
Tiny Satan bit his bottom lip, his eyes big, a little wild, reminding me of a rat backed into a corner. “You refuse to admit she is sick and needs help? Then I’m not satisfied. I have a court order here which gives me emergency guardianship and you have, what? A document on your cell phone? How do we even know that’s real? No. No, no, no.” He turned to his security team, waving them forward. “Kathleen, for her own safety, will be coming with us. Let’s go.”
He darted to the side, as though to walk past me, motioning again with his hand for his guys to follow, so I side-stepped him, forcing him to back up or walk into me. Meanwhile, my guys took a step forward, preventing the black suits from making a move.
“Whoa. Okay, Cody. Settle down.” I held my hands up between us, like he was the crazy one, all the while I fought the urge to grab him around the throat and throw him across the courtyard. “I get it, I do. You have your hired guys here, and so you think you can do whatever you want. You think . . .” I leaned a little closer, dropping my voice to a whisper, “When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way. From your first cigarette, to your last dying day. Right? That’s your little fantasy?”
His face pinched, he reared back, eyes flashing. Who knew show tunes would piss him off so much? Or maybe it was the mocking way I’d said them.
Raising the volume of my voice, I continued, “But that’s not how this works, Carter. This might come as a shock to you, but the law supersedes your wet dreams.”
Before Caleb could respond, Officer Denver stepped forward. “We can’t get ahold of the captain, and so we’re going to have to make a judgment call here.” He handed me back my phone, his mouth set in a grim line as his attention moved over the guys flanking me. “We’re going to need time to figure out . . .” Officer Denver blinked. “Hey, wait a minute. Are you . . . ? You’re Nico Moretti!”
I followed his line of sight and found he was looking at Nico. For that matter, now everyone else was as well.
Nico huffed a practiced, self-deprecating laugh and held out his hand. “Yes. Do you watch the show?”
“Holy shit, I can’t believe it’s you.” Officer Denver, as well as his two colleagues, came forward to shake Nico’s hand.
But not only that, they started patting themselves down, presumably searching for paper and pen.
But not only that, Nico had moved on to Caleb’s team, now stepping closer as he introduced himself to each of them, one at a time among whispers of That’s Nico Moretti, and prompt requests for pictures and autographs.
But not only that, everyone seemed to have forgotten about Caleb.
“Hey! Wait a minute.” Caleb glanced around at his security detail as though mystified, and more than a little pissed, but no one was paying attention to Tiny Satan.
Nope.
“Thank you for all that you do, officer.” Nico had turned back to Officer Denver while he signed a receipt for one of Caleb’s crew. “My wife works in the ER near downtown. You boys in blue make all the difference.”