What He Protects (What He Wants, Book Six) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Hannah Ford Page B

imagined
Noah back in that cell, crowded in with all those crazy people.   I wondered what would happen if his
mouth got him into trouble.   Would
they come after him?   Did they have
weapons in there?   Was it like
prison where you could get in fights and the corrections officers might not do
anything about it?
    “Has he been arrested?” the officer asked
me.
    “Yes,” I said.  
    “What was the date?”
    “Um, today.   Just about an hour ago.”
    The officer sighed and shook his
head.   “An hour ago?   Honey, no one gets out of Central
Booking in an hour.   Your client is
going to have to be arraigned before he’s even ready for bail, and that’s going
to be – ”
    But before he could finish, Noah appeared
in front of us, looking no worse for the wear.   His coat was immaculate, his hair still perfectly styled,
his stride commanding and purposeful.
    When he saw me, his face darkened.   “Charlotte,” he demanded.   “What are you doing here?”
    “What am I doing here?” I asked.   “I came to find you!”   I looked behind him for and officer or
someone escorting him out, but there was no one.
    “You shouldn’t be here,” he said,
grabbing me by the arm and leading me out the door and down the stairs, through
the throng of people that were still congregating on the steps.  
    Once we were around the corner, he pulled
out his cell phone and put it to his ear.   “Jared,” he said.   “I’m
ready.”    He ended the call
and slid it back into his pocket.   “Charlotte, I told you to call Worthington, not to come down to Central
Booking.   Are you insane?”
    I looked at him, aghast.   “Am I insane?   No, Noah, I’m not insane.   I did call Professor Worthington, and he told me to meet him here.”
    “Colin told you to meet him at Central
Booking?”   His eyes flamed with
anger, and he pulled his phone back out.   “I’m going to have to have a talk with him.”
    I grabbed the phone out of his hand and
held it out of his reach.   “You’ll
do no such thing!” I said.   “He’s
my boss, and I’m on your case.   If
he tells me to meet him at Central Booking, I’ll meet him at Central Booking.”
      I thought Noah would be mad at me for defying him, thought I
might have to pay for it later, and the idea sent a warmth flowing through my
center.   I flashed back to what
he’d just done to me in the restaurant bathroom.
    Show
me your tits, Charlotte.
    But Noah actually didn’t seem to care
that I was contradicting him.   In
fact, he seemed almost bored, the way you’d be when a child was having a
tantrum and you were just waiting for them to burn themselves out so you could
put them down for a nap.
    “Please give me my phone back,
Charlotte.”
    “No,” I said, not because I thought he
was actually going to call Professor Worthington, but because I felt like being
difficult.   I was acting out
because I wanted Noah’s attention, or at least some acknowledgment of what was
going on.   He’d just been arrested
for murder.   He’d been handcuffed, thrown into the back of a police car, brought to
Central Booking like a common thug.   And now he was standing there lecturing me about how I shouldn’t have
come to such a dangerous place, like that was the most important thing
happening right now.   “Where is
Professor Worthington, anyway?” I asked.
    “He’s not coming.”
    “He’s not coming?”   I frowned.   “Why not?”
    “Because it pays to know people,” he said
cryptically, and held his hand out.   “Please return my phone to me now, Charlotte.”
    I handed the phone back grudgingly.   “What does that mean, it pays to know
people?”
    “It means that I know a lot of the right
people who are able to get things done.   And so I didn’t need Worthington.”
    My jaw dropped.   “You were able to get a judge to sign an order letting you
out on bail?”
    “Yes.”
    “By acting as your own lawyer.”
    “Yes.”   He glanced over