Prohibited (Tulsa City Sinners #1)

33. Evie

Chapter thirty-three

Evie

“I think you should wait in the car,” Evie said, wishing she had some lipstick or something to put on. She hastily tried to make herself look as presentable as possible before they left the cabin, stockings and all, but she probably looked dreadful. Saoirse had given her a small touch of perfume, a pair of gloves, a hat, and a handbag that had belonged to her mother. Evie didn’t look the most fashionable, but at least she looked put together.

“I’ll come in,” Saoirse said in a voice that brooked no argument.

“I was thinking that if something– if something were to go wrong,” Evie said. “You could alert the others. And… there’s a lieutenant on the Force who is a friend of my father’s. He’s been after me for years and I’ve always turned him down.” She swallowed hard. “I thought that if I go in alone, I can do… whatever it takes to get them out.”

Saoirse took in a deep breath through her nose and let it out. They were parked a block away from the jail, sitting in the dark while they formulated their plan of action .

“I don’t like it,” Saoirse said, reluctantly. “But you do have a point.”

“Stay here,” Evie said. Her heart jumped in her chest when she put her hand on the door handle and opened it. It was a hot, sticky night that made her wish she wasn’t wearing anything.

“If you aren’t back in half an hour, I’m coming in,” Saoirse said. Evie couldn’t see her expression standing outside the car, but she could see how her hands tightened on the steering wheel of the car. “Good luck.”

“Thank you,” Evie said, wishing she didn’t need it. Roberts might not even be in tonight, but she would call him if she had to. She was going to pull every string she had to get them out.

Slowly, she shut the door of the car and walked down the road toward the police station with a backward glance at Saoirse. The sound of her heels clicking against the pavement rattled her nerves and turned her spine to jelly.

You’re not doing anything wrong, she reminded herself. You haven’t done anything wrong. There wasn’t anything illegal about what she was planning to do. She was just going to go in and explain that there had been some kind of mistake. So why did she feel like she was putting herself in the way of danger?

Perhaps because she was certain that Walter was behind this. She knew it. She had known it from the moment Ryan had told her so confidently that one of their people was setting them up with one of Walter’s guys. Isn’t that exactly what had happened with the situation with Tommy?

He was too blinded by his desire to strike at Walter Stanley.

And Walter’s connection with the police force went deeper than she had originally thought. It was true that Roberts had introduced her to Walter, but it didn’t occur to her that Walter might have had the influence to have them arrested on his say-so.

The distance between the car and the station that had felt so far when she’d started walking had suddenly vanished, and she was standing in front of the building. A couple of cops were standing out front, chatting with another officer who was sitting in his car. One of them nodded toward her and they all looked, chuckling while they eyed her greedily. Evie gave them a small smile and then hurried inside, not wanting an ounce of trouble.

Feeling small and stupid, she went to the secretary at the front desk. “Is Lieutenant Roberts in this evening?” she said, trying to look and sound far more relaxed than she felt.

The tired looking woman eyed her with some wariness and curiosity. “No, the Lieutenant isn’t in this evening,” she said. “I can take a message for him if you–”

A young officer walking by with his hat in his hand stepped forward. “Pardon me, ma’am, but he’s in. I saw him not too long ago.”

“Can you find him for me, then?” the secretary said, giving the young man a piercing look .

“Oh,” he said. Clearly, he hadn’t considered that he would be assigned this responsibility when volunteering information. “Well, yes–”

“Off you go, then,” said the woman. She looked back at Evie. “Who should we tell him has arrived to see him?”

“Mrs. Colter.” She hated how small her voice sounded. “Tell him Mrs. Colter is here to see him.”

The woman looked at her more closely and the young officer also looked fairly astonished. They exchanged a look that Evie pretended like she didn’t notice.

“Please take Mrs. Colter to Lieutenant Roberts’ office to wait,” said the secretary after a moment of silence. “And then please find Lieutenant Roberts and tell him she is here to see him.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said the young man. “Please follow me, Mrs. Colter.”