He’d known she wouldn’t abandon him. Not his Graciela. No, she’d somehow sweet-talked one of the cops into letting her talk to him in the car. Her voice had soothed his agitation. While half of him wanted her gone, the other half had almost cried with relief that she was there.
Seeing her tears and hearing her promises had wrecked him—more than the cuffs biting into his wrists or the charges laid against him. He knew she’d fight for him until her dying breath. And because Grace was Grace, she’d told him she loved him again and he was fairly certain if her goal was to destroy him, she’d done it without laying a hand on him.
The hours petered on. The spider seemed to have taken a nap—if spiders even slept—and now the only movement in the room was Jaime’s fingers tapping against his knee. It was stupid, but the drumming reminded himself that he was still alive. He wasn’t really sure otherwise.
Although he wanted to get out of this place, he also knew that he had nowhere to go. He couldn’t return to Heron’s Landing; his job was as good as gone. He didn’t know if he could get another job as a chef. Who was he except a chef? He’d poured his life into becoming the best, and now it had all been swept away within a day. Within hours.
Jaime balled his fist against his leg. If before he had only felt despair, now he felt rage. He raged against Eric doing this to him, he raged against Adam for not believing in him, he raged against the police for using flimsy evidence to book him, and he even raged against Grace for believing that they could do something to prevent this from happening. He realized he was gasping for air, almost hyperventilating, but the swirl of anger didn’t dissipate. Instead, it felt like it grew into every crevice of his being until that was all he was. A being of unadulterated rage.
He didn’t know what time it was when he heard a lock clicking. The door swung open, and the young cop who’d let Grace talk to him stepped in; Office Haldon was his name. “You can have your one phone call now, Mr. Martínez. Do you know who that’ll be?”
Jaime stared at the man. Who could he call? His parents? The thought of their devastation on his behalf made him grimace. Grace couldn’t help him; neither could Adam. So he just shook his head.
Office Haldon gazed at him before sighing. “Well, let me know if you think of someone. You need anything? A bottle of water?”
Jaime shook his head, a meager movement. “I’m fine,” he said in a low voice.
“Okay, well, let me know.”
The officer locked him up again. Jaime waited. He didn’t know what he was waiting for. Was he going to sit in this cell for the rest of his life? He closed his eyes again. God, he was tired. So tired. Maybe if he just took a quick nap, he could figure out what the hell he wanted to do…
He must’ve fallen asleep, because the next thing Jaime knew Officer Haldon was shaking him awake. “Hey, someone’s here to bail you out.”
Jaime blinked. He stared at the officer’s face, noticed that he had a mole on his left eyebrow, and then the words finally registered. Someone, bail, you. “What?” Jaime croaked.
“You’ve been bailed out. Come on, you don’t want to stay here.” The officer shook him again, and Jaime stood up, his joints creaky from falling asleep on the bench. He looked up and saw that the spider had disappeared, which for some reason made him smile.
Office Haldon escorted him out of the cell area, and after going through the locked doors, Jaime stopped in his tracks when he saw who was waiting for him.
It was Adam.
“Jaime.” Adam came toward him and embraced him, slapping him on the back. “Jesus Christ, what a mess this is.”
Jaime didn’t hug him back. He didn’t know how to feel about any of this.
“We need to finish some paperwork,” Office Haldon said, “and then you can go. We’ll also mail you information regarding your court date.”
Jaime stepped away from Adam. Filling out so many pieces of paper that his vision blurred, he was shocked to see that it was early morning when he and Adam walked outside. The sky was streaked with orange and purple, and when they breathed, it hung in a cloud in front of them. An owl hooted from nearby.
“Let’s go get some coffee and talk. It’s fucking freezing.” Adam walked down the sidewalk, and Jaime followed him, mostly because he had no ride back home.
Back home. Was Heron’s Landing even his home anymore?
They walked the streets of downtown Columbia, which were deserted. The students at the nearby University of Missouri had all gone home for winter break, and as it was too early for anyone else to be around, it felt like a ghost town. Adam took Jaime to a coffee shop that had a grand total of one person inside, making drinks. Probably a college student who didn’t have the money to travel home, Jaime thought.
After getting two large mugs of black coffee and a few pastries, the two men sat at a table in the back. Jaime wrapped his hands around the mug, only just noticing how cold he was. Adam looked at him and then, without a word, went and got him a large glass of water, which he pushed toward him with another look.
Jaime gulped the water. It helped. Adam pushed a croissant toward him, which he ate with gusto. He realized he hadn’t eaten for almost twelve hours.
Now feeling slightly more human, Jaime sipped his coffee and stared at his friend and boss from across the table. The boss who had betrayed him, and the friend who had bailed him out. He couldn’t find any words to say, so he sipped his coffee and waited.
“How are you?” Adam asked, tearing a Danish into tiny pieces.
Jaime just drank his coffee. “I’m fucking exhausted,” he muttered.
“I’m sure.” Adam kept tearing at the Danish; he hadn’t touched his coffee. “Look, Jaime…”
Jaime put up a hand. “I’m too tired to hear your excuses.”
“I don’t have excuses, just explanations.” At Jaime’s look, Adam sighed. “I didn’t press charges. Sheriff Jennings did. I’ll admit I wasn’t sure what to think when it happened.”
“You thought I was guilty.”
When Adam didn’t say anything, Jaime had his answer. The coffee turned sour in his stomach. He’d thought as much, but there was nothing like having it confirmed.
“I’ll be honest: I thought you were guilty for about a day.” Adam clutched his mug of coffee, having given up on the Danish. “But then I thought about it, and I knew you couldn’t be. And then Grace basically ripped my head off and showed me all of the receipts and checks she’d found in my office…”
Jaime stilled. Grace had confronted her family—for him?
“What did Grace tell you?” Jaime stared at the inside of his mug.
“If you mean, did she tell us about what’s going on between you two? She said nothing. But she’s been looking for evidence to prove your innocence for weeks. She came to my place after you’d been arrested and gave me an earful. She said that if I didn’t bail you out she’d never speak to me again and probably poison my water supply.”
Jaime smiled a little. “She would, too.”
“But although the threat of poisoning was concerning, it wasn’t why I bailed you out.”
Looking up, Jaime saw his friend smiling sadly.