“How much have you had to drink this evening?”
Chelsea narrowed her eyes while she tried to put together her scrambled thought process. “I’m over twenty-one, so if I did have a couple of drinks, it wouldn’t have been wrong!”
The cop lowered his pad and looked at her sternly. “You’re going to have to watch your tone. I mean it.”
“I’m sorry, sir. It’s just that you and your friend aren’t listening to me. I’m getting the idea that I’m in trouble here and I don’t see how that’s possible.” A pencil was held up in front of her eyes.
“Follow my pencil with your eyes.” He moved the pencil left and right, up and down.
Chelsea squinted her eyes to see the moving pencil in the half-light. The partner had turned off her car, so the only lighting came from the squad car. She felt she’d done alright though.
“Now I want you to walk along like this, with one foot in front of the other.” He demonstrated by walking a quick line, putting one of his giant booted feet in front of the other. When he stopped, she assumed he wanted her to follow.
“I don’t think this is fair,” she said, not rudely, but it was the truth. How could her future be decided by how coordinated she was? “Gym was never my thing. Really, I’m not just saying that.”
“Walk the line!”
“Ok, no need to yell.” Chelsea took a deep breath and did her best to place her right foot directly in front of her left, but her feet were bare and she stepped on something squishy. “Oh, no!”
“What?”
“I stepped on something gross.”
“Seriously?”
“I wouldn’t joke about that. I need a wipe and to put on my shoes or something.”
The partner produced the shoes that she’d kicked off sometime when she’d started her foodless, solo picnic in the car and passed them to her.
“Thank you,” she said, not game to ask again for a wipe. She wiped her foot on the grass and tried not to heave. After getting her shoes on, she took another deep breath. “Ok, I’m ready to do this now.” She tried again, but this time she stumbled over her own feet and nearly landed on her butt. Luckily the partner caught her before she hit the ground.
“Could I try again? I just slipped, that’s all.”
He didn’t answer her, but instead pushed a square box thing with a tube attached toward her face. “I need you to breathe out slowly for a count of seven.”
“Is that a breathalyzer?” Chelsea started to cry, realizing finally that she was in some deep strife.
“Ma’am, you’re going to have to do as I ask.”
He seemed a little less mad, but he still held the device near her lips. “I’m sorry. I’m trying.” She wiped her face on her sleeve and took a couple of cleansing breaths before trying to breathe into the straw. Again the tears started to flow and she didn’t get more than a couple of seconds of breath into the tube.
“If you refuse to do this here, then you’ll have to have a blood test back at the station.”
“So if I can breathe in this thing here, then I won’t get arrested?” she asked, wide-eyed.
“That will depend on what the reading is.”
“But I wasn’t even driving.”
“The engine was on and there was evidence of alcohol consumption in the car.”
“Is that wrong? I wasn’t going to move the car, but I was cold. I just turned it on to get warm.” Again he pressed the breathalyzer toward her.
“Breathe slowly for seven seconds.”
Chelsea thought her heart was going to pound right out of her chest, but she managed to get through it this time. She wasn’t able to breathe in or out while she waited for the verdict. When it came, she couldn’t think of anything to say. She just stood there, her mind whirling while the partner clapped cold hard handcuffs on her wrists. The police officer in front of her was spouting off with what she assumed was her rights, but she only clearly heard, “You are under arrest.” What the hell was she supposed to do now? She wanted Josh.
* * *
Josh was out of ideas. They had been back to his house in Dallas and refueled and were looking over maps to decide where they’d been and where the best place would be to look next. His phone rang finally; he jumped. “Yes?” he said anxiously.
“Jo…sh,” Chelsea sobbed.
“Oh, thank God, are you ok?”
“No. I’m in trouble. I’m in jail.”
“What for?” Josh tried to stay calm. “Don’t answer that yet. Where are you? I’ll come and bring a lawyer. Don’t say anything.” He scribbled down the details. “I’ll be there soon, Chels. Keep your chin up, it’ll be ok.”
While the pilot took the chopper back to the usual place, Josh got on the phone to his lawyer to find out how he should handle the legal side of things. Unable to get there himself, the man who Josh trusted implicitly arranged for someone in the area to stand in for him. The guy would meet up with Chelsea at the station and he would catch up as soon as he could get there. Although Josh had things in hand, he still couldn’t relax. At that point he made up his mind, no excuses, Chelsea was coming to live with him. There was no way he could stand her living away from him for one more night. The first step was to get her out of jail and then to take her home.
Josh’s car was where he left it; he could drive the rest of the way. Chelsea hadn’t told him what she’d been charged with, but he had a pretty good idea; the slurred speech had been a dead giveaway. His stomach churned uncomfortably at the thought of what could have happened. He wasn’t happy that it was necessary to bail his girl out of jail, but things could have been so much worse. It was going to get worse for Chelsea when he got her home.
Chapter Eight
It had been a long night. Chelsea had sat cross-legged on the bottom bunk, her legs raised so the bare minimum of her was touching the bed. It looked clean, but God knows who’d been there before her.
The girl above her was snoring peacefully, obviously not fazed by this place. Mustn’t be her first visit, Chelsea surmised. Or her only visit. There was no way she was ever going to put herself in this position again.
Where was Josh? The morning came and so did breakfast. Cereal and milk. She stirred it around the bowl until her friend from above coughed and started talking finally.
“You gonna eat that?” she asked.
“No. I’m not hungry,” Chelsea said. It was a lie. What she would have given for a hot cup of coffee and a plate of Cook’s delicious pancakes. A knob of melting butter drowning slowly under a river of delicious maple syrup. She could almost smell the aroma of the fresh brew.
“Can I have it?” the girl asked.
“Sure.” She got up from the lower bunk and passed the bowl to her new roommate.
“Thanks. Wouldn’t kill them to add a little sugar.”
“No.”
“What’d you do?”
“Me?” Chelsea asked. “Nothing. This is a mistake.”
“That’s what they all say. My name is Trixie, by the way.”
“What did you do?” Chelsea asked. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but she found herself making conversation.
“Soliciting. Like you, it was a mistake.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I just leaned in the window to ask directions. The cop that was stinging me got it wrong.”
“You didn’t proposition him?”
“Of course I did! I was just playin’ with ya. Shouldn’t get arrested for what I do though, should I? I’m just providing a service like anyone else. Why shouldn’t I get paid?”
“How old are you?”
“Old enough,” Trixie said. “Don’t judge me. You don’t know me.”
Chelsea had a feeling the girl was young, but young or old she wasn’t happy with the question, so Chelsea left it. What led a girl into a life of selling herself? Things must have been hard for her at home. It humbled her some and made her feel ashamed of some of the choices she’d made. The only thing she’d really
had to run from was her own pride. The same pride that had stopped her from going with Josh when he left. “No, I don’t,” she said kindly.
Breakfast had been over a couple of hours and she still hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Josh. Maybe he’d given up because she was too much trouble. No, she’d heard him say he was coming, he’d be there. Maybe they weren’t letting him in. What if they didn’t let her see him at all? She could feel panic welling up in her throat.
“You ok?”
“Yeah, I’m just feeling a little sick.”
“You should eat something when they offer it. It’s not like you can just go to the fridge when you’re hungry.”
“Hmm. Do they let you have visitors here?”
“Um, no. A lawyer, maybe.”
The heavy door to the jail cell door swung open and a man Chelsea didn’t know walked toward her, followed by a corrections officer who was swinging a large bunch of keys.
“Somebody send me a fancy lawyer?” Trixie called out.
“Just hush, Trixie. The court-appointed guys don’t start this early,” the officer said.
“A girl can dream.”
Chelsea smiled at her nervously. This girl might be young, but she was an old soul. It was a shame that her dreams were so basic. The officer nodded to Trixie. “You can come with me,” he said. The young prostitute followed him out of the cell. “You have fifteen minutes,” he said to the guy in the suit.
“You’re here for me?” Chelsea asked, wide-eyed.
“I am.” The young man before her held out his hand to shake hers.
“I’m Chelsea.”
“I know who you are. I’m Jez.”
“Is Josh here?”
“He’s outside. He’s been here for a couple of hours, trying to convince anyone who would listen to him to let him see you. I have to be the next best thing for now.”
“Ok.” Chelsea did her best to hide her disappointment. The fact that Josh was outside helped.
“So, you better tell me what happened,” Jez said.
The lawyer said nothing, but jotted down a few notes as she spoke.
Chelsea did as he asked and told him the story, not leaving anything out. “See? It’s all a mistake! I wasn’t driving.”
“Not technically, but you did break the law.”
“I know that now. They kept telling me that like a hundred times, but I didn’t know it then. I thought as long as I wasn’t on the road, I could do what I liked in my car, that I paid for myself.” She could hear the tone in her voice, but she couldn’t help it. This was so unfair and now even her lawyer, for whom, she was sure, Josh was paying good money, was on the other side.
“You might want to can the attitude here, I’m trying to help.”
“Out of the goodness of your own heart, I’m sure.”
Jez stood quietly and packed his papers back into his leather briefcase.
The two clicks that sealed his bag and her fate rang loudly in Chelsea’s ears. “Where are you going?”
“I can’t help you if you don’t want help.”
“I do want help. Please, I don’t like it in here, I’m sorry if I was rude.”
“Are you willing to listen?”
“Yes.”
“Ok. That’s good because my suggestion to you is to plead guilty.”
“No!” Chelsea clapped a hand over her mouth as soon as the word escaped. “I’m listening, it just popped out.”
“No one ever wants to plead guilty, but you don’t have a case. I can plead you down to a misdemeanor C. You’ll have to pay a fine and because it’s your first offense that’ll be about it, unless he requires you to attend a class.”
“I won’t have to go to jail?”
“Not with a first offense, you should get off pretty easy.”
Chelsea nodded. Easy for him to say. He didn’t have to face a boyfriend who spanked.
“First things first. This is just a bail hearing. The judge will set a date for your actual court hearing.”
“Oh.” Chelsea was hoping to put this all behind her as soon as possible. “When you spoke to Josh, did he sound mad?”
“He sounded concerned.”
“He did?”
“Of course he did. Who wouldn’t get a shock when their girlfriend called them in the middle of the night after being arrested?”
“I know.”
* * *
Chelsea sat in the dock with the lawyer beside her. He was being nice enough, nicer than their first meeting, but he wasn’t Josh. He would have to arrive soon. Being saved by Josh, her knight in shining armor was all she’d longed for, but the closer it got, the more her knees knocked together. The conversation they’d had about punishment spankings filled her thoughts and she was sure there would be a real spanking in her near future.
A click of the door made Chelsea jump. She swung around, but it was just a woman, not Josh. She made herself focus on what was going on in front of her. People she would have once looked down on being spoken to sternly by the judge. What were their stories? Were they, like her, in trouble when they didn’t do anything wrong? Or did they actually break the law?
Josh slid onto the bench behind her so quietly that she felt his breath on the back of her neck before she heard him.
“Oh, baby, you don’t know how glad I am to see you,” he whispered.
She turned her head briefly and winced with embarrassment. “Thanks for coming,” she whispered back.
“Where else would I be?”
Tears threatened. “Don’t, you’re going to make me cry.”
The judge banged her gavel. “Am I interrupting?” she said, glaring in their direction.
Both Chelsea and Josh fell silent. All the eyes of the court were on them and Chelsea felt like she’d just been called out at the school assembly.
“You may proceed,” the judge said with one last glare at the gallery.
* * *
“I’ll pay you back the money, I promise.” They’d been driving for over half an hour and Josh had been completely silent.
“You know I don’t care about the money,” Josh said finally.
“It was so stupid though that you even had to pay that money at all. It was all a big misunderstanding.”
“The only misunderstanding is that you obviously don’t know the state driving laws.”
“That’s not fair, it’s a stupid law.”
“Nonetheless, when you drive a car you have to know the rules, all the rules, and you have to abide by them. You don’t get to pick.”
Chelsea wanted to continue arguing but the tingle in her bottom was urging her to quit while she was ahead. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to help. The dam had broken and Josh was now on a roll.
“To be honest, laws aside, that was a really silly thing to do. To sit in a car and drink by yourself in the middle of nowhere? Anything could have happened to you.”
“I locked the doors,” Chelsea said, her defiant chin jutting out to help her make her point that even to her sounded lame as soon as it left her mouth.
“So you’re telling me that if some big guy decided he wanted to get into that car, he wouldn’t have been able to force his way in?” He glanced at her briefly but incredulously.
She opened her mouth to defend herself, but he didn’t give her the chance, which was probably good because she had nothing that would add to her argument. Nothing that would win him over to her way of thinking at least.
“You know anyone could have gotten into that car if they wanted to. I can understand you leaving the diner like you did and I know I was in a meeting when you called, but why, when you went home to your folks, didn’t you go inside? I would have come for you as soon as I heard.”
“How did you know I went there?”
“Your mom saw you.”
“Great. So they know about this?”
“Yes, and that doesn’t answer my question, or all the questions I’m sure that your parents have.”
“I didn’t wa
nt to disappoint them again,” Chelsea said flatly.
“How would Tom being an ass disappoint them? Your dad has already been around to the diner and gotten your things and he’s had a stern word with the man himself.”
“He did? My dad stuck up for me?”
“Of course he did. He loves you. Tom’s just lucky that I was busy with more important things or I would have done more than just talk to him.”
“Like work?”
“Seriously? What will it take for me to make you understand how much you mean to me?” he said with increasing frustration. “Don’t bother answering that. I have the perfect way.”
* * *
Josh didn’t drive the car to meet the chopper. He’d decided back at the court that the drive back to Dallas would be calming. It wasn’t exactly working out that way. Waiting for two hours to see Chelsea had him on edge. He was anxious to see and hold her. Now that moment had passed and he had to deal with this whole mess. It was very confusing. A domestic discipline relationship was what he wanted and yet, he wasn’t looking forward to spanking Chelsea. He would though, because it was clear by her attitude that she didn’t get what had gone wrong here and even worse than that, she was still doubting his commitment to her.
In the heat of the moment he had decided to ask her again to move in; actually he’d decided to insist that she move in with him. Now he was even surer that it was both what he wanted and what Chelsea needed. He only hoped that it was what she wanted too, because it felt like they’d reached a crossroad.
He looked over at Chelsea to see why she was so quiet. She was sleeping peacefully.
* * *
“Where are we?” Chelsea asked.
“Home, in Dallas.”
She noticed he didn’t say his home, but he didn’t say our home either. Just home. “Am I staying here tonight?”
“Uh huh. We have some things to talk about.”
“You’re going to spank me, aren’t you?”
Josh raised his finger to his lips to hush her, but he leaned in. “Yes, I am,” he whispered.
The Billionaire and the Waitress Page 11
