“Uh, hi. I’m Julia Banner. I’m here about the Dillon Jenkins arrest.”
“Of course, Miss Banner,” she said, “please take a seat. I’m Detective Taylor.”
“Thank you, Detective,” I said, sitting.
“We want to thank you for your confidence in this situation and everyone’s help. The information about Dillon Jenkins led us straight to a place on the east side of Lubbock. He was arrested with the possession of a stolen vehicle, and his premises, where he was illegally living under the false name of Evan Brown, had cases of cocaine stashed, presumably after crossing the Mexican border.”
I sighed. Of course he hadn’t just been harassing me. He’d been working, too. Setting up a run between the Mexican border and probably going all the way back to home.
“You don’t seem surprised,” she said.
“How can I be? He just got out of prison on good behavior. They couldn’t crack him for dealing drugs even though he’d been doing it since he was twelve.”
“I read your statement. You were very brave, coming forward,” she said, rifling through a stack of papers. “You have a long history with this man.”
“Yes. Where is he now?”
“Jail. And he’ll stay there. I can’t think of a judge alive who would let him out on bond. Maybe if it had just been the violation of probation charge, but with everything—”
“I…I don’t have to see him? To identify him?” I gasped out.
The detective looked at me, startled. “No, we found him in record time. We just wanted to speak with you and let you know the details since you were under a temporary order of protection.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s…that’s really good.”
Another knock came from the door, and a squat man stuck his head inside. My lawyer, I presumed.
“Detective, I see you’re speaking with my client.”
“Jake,” the woman said with a sigh. “And I thought you only worked for the Wrights.”
He shrugged. “Seems she’s a Wright.”
I frowned. No, I certainly was not.
“Come on, Julia. Let’s go somewhere else and talk.”
Jake hauled me out of the detective’s office and started speaking a million miles a minute. But my head was spinning with just one solid fact—Dillon was behind bars. And, if we played our cards right…he could be there for a very long time.
A sob caught in my throat. It was far from over, but he wasn’t on the loose anymore. He wasn’t going to find me and kill me. He wasn’t going to go after all the people I loved here. He might have ruined so many things, but he wasn’t going to take this new life from me.
I spent a few hours in a secluded office with Jake McCarty, going over everything that had happened. By the time I finished, I felt like I’d been wrung out.
“How much is this all going to cost?” I asked finally.
Jake grinned and put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “I’m on retainer for Jensen. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
But I did. I didn’t want to be indebted to the Wrights. I knew it was impossible to be rid of them, considering I worked for the company and each of my closest friends was dating a Wright brother. But it worried me that this was all related to Austin…that I never would have gotten this otherwise. And, if that was the case, then I’d rather just pay my own legal fees if need be.
At the same time, I was unbelievably grateful. I never would have known where to start finding someone. Certainly not someone like Jake McCarty.
“We have a long road ahead of us, Miss Banner. But I can assure you that I’ll do everything to see that Dillon Jenkins is behind bars for life. It would give me great pleasure to know that he could never harass you again.”
I gave him a little half-smile at the notion. To be rid of Dillon forever? It seemed impossible.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
I left the room and found that only Austin was still waiting for me. God, he really looked fucked up. His face was a wreck. It’d been cleaned up some, but, Christ, it couldn’t be safe for him to be driving, could it?
I wanted to be indifferent, like I’d told him I was, but I wasn’t indifferent to Austin. I was crazy about him and still brimming with anger. But the more I showed either of those emotions, the more he would think we could get back together. I wasn’t ready for that. I didn’t know if I’d ever be ready for that.
“Hey,” he said, rising to his feet.
“Hey.”
“Can I take you back to Landon and Heidi’s?”
I chewed on my lip and then nodded. I needed to get out of this police station. When we were back out in the hot, dusty Lubbock air, I finally felt like I could breathe again. It made no sense.