TROUBLE (The Billionaire's Rules, Book 9) by Kelly Favor Page B

her mother said, and then
the line went dead.
    No ‘I love you,” nothing.
    Ivy stared at the dead phone in her
hands.   She felt a sick wave of fear
and dark despair threaten to overwhelm her completely.
    Had she been in the wrong?
    Saying those things to her poor mother,
who’d done nothing but care for and loved her and made Ivy the center of her
life for years and years…
    But
maybe that’s the problem ,
Ivy thought.   I didn’t want to be the center of Mom’s world forever and ever.   I didn’t ask to be so sheltered and ‘taken
care of’ that I could hardly see straight.
    Still…the conversation hadn’t gone the
way Ivy had wanted it to go.   She’d
deeply hurt her mother, and that didn’t sit right.
    In any case, Ivy knew there was nothing
to be done about it right now, and she had bigger fish to fry.
    Leaving the apartment, Ivy went out and
hailed a taxi and told them to take her to the precinct where one of the
officer’s had mentioned Cullen was going to be held.
    She didn’t know what she was going to do
when she arrived there.
    None of this was something she had
experience with at all.   Ivy had
never been arrested in her life, nor had she ever had reason to even step
inside a police station.
    This was a new and unfamiliar world.
    The taxi brought her to the police
station, and she walked towards the front entrance, trying not to be
intimidated when seeing all of the police cars parked in the lot.   Everything about the place screamed
authority, and power and as a whole it made you feel small and powerless.
    Somehow, just walking inside, Ivy felt
guilty, as if she’d committed a crime and was about to be discovered.
    I
haven’t done anything wrong.   I’m
not guilty of anything and neither is Cullen.
    Are
you absolutely sure of that?   How
well do you really know him?
    Her mind continued spouting arguments and
refutations as she continued into the precinct.   There were some chairs and benches, and
across the room, a window looking into a back office of some sort.
    The
police don’t just arrest people for no reason.
    Perhaps
you are under his spell, like your mother said.   Does a person know when they’re under a
spell?
    Ivy’s mouth felt dry, and her heart was
pounding an unsteady rhythm in her chest as she approached the window, behind
which a uniformed female officer sat talking on a landline.
    Ivy waited until the officer got off the
phone before approaching.   “Hi,” she
said, uncertainly.
    The officer was short and squat, with a
flat nose and dull brown eyes.   “How
can I assist you?”
    Ivy took a deep breath.   “My husband was arrested and brought to
this—“
    “Name,” the woman replied, moving to her
computer keyboard.
    “My name or—“
    “His,” she interrupted, chewing gum as
she typed.
    “Oh.   Cullen.   Cullen Sharpe.”   Ivy spelled his last name.
    There was a clacking of the keyboard as
the officer’s fingers rattled over the keys in rapid-fire fashion.   “He’s in Central Booking,” the woman
informed her.
    “I’m sorry, I don’t know what—“
    “Central Booking is where people go to
wait for arraignment.   Your
husband’s been arrested, and he’ll be arraigned.”   The woman moved away from the computer
and picked up a Styrofoam cup.   She
sipped at it and then started filling out some paperwork, seemingly done with
the conversation.
    “Ummm…excuse me, ma’am?” Ivy asked
softly.
    The officer didn’t turn her head, just
kept working.   Another person
stepped into line behind Ivy and the officer looked up and waved that person
forward.
    “How can I help you, Sir?” the woman
said.
    Ivy didn’t move from the window.   “Wait a second,” Ivy said.  
    “I answered your question,” the woman
behind the window said.   “Your
husband is awaiting his arraignment.   Sometime in the next twenty-four hours, he’ll have his time in front of
a judge. And if you’ll excuse me, I have other people to help.”
    “That