“One hand stays in the air, grab your wallet nice and slow,” he ordered, watching me closely.

I followed his orders, slowly using both hands to give him the shit he needed. I didn’t want some rookie cop shooting me in the chest because his balls hadn’t dropped yet.

“Stay off your motorcycle, I’ll be right back,” he grumbled, taking my shit as he walked toward his car.

He took a long-ass time running my shit, and I seriously considered hopping on my bike and leaving his ass behind. If he hadn’t had my paperwork, I would have taken off.

“You have anything on your bike that I should know about?” he asked, as he reached where I was standing.

“Nope,” I told him with a smirk.

“I believe you might be under the influence. I’m going to need to search you and your bike.”

“What the fuck?” I sputtered, completely fucking confused.

“Hands on the hood of the car.”

“Fuck you.”

“Are you resisting, Mr. Hawthorne?” he asked menacingly, one eyebrow raised. The fucker was just dying to get me on something.

I leaned over the car, pissed as hell but still relatively unconcerned as he searched me. I didn’t carry a weapon when I was making the trip to Callie because I was on probation from shit that had happened years ago. I had a piece at her house that I carried when I was in town, but if I wasn’t on a run I didn’t bother to carry. It was more hassle than it was worth if I got pulled over.

“Keep your hands on the vehicle,” he ordered as he headed toward my bike. Fuck, the guy was taking forever and I was counting the minutes that I stood there, wondering how the hell I’d make up the time so I wasn’t late.

He was shining a light under my bike even though the sun was coming up, and huffed when he didn’t find anything. Then he searched through my bags, pulling out mostly boxers because I’d bought ugly-ass new ones to wear around Callie so she wasn’t so fucking worried about her bras.

He finished with the first saddle bag, finding nothing, but when he started pulling shit out of the second, he paused. He reached into the bottom of the bag and my stomach fucking dropped when he pulled out the package Slider had given me that morning. He glanced up at me, probably to make sure I hadn’t moved, and then used both hands to unseal the package and open it up.

“Jesus Fuckin’ Christ,” I murmured, dropping my head in defeat when I saw what he’d sent.

I didn’t watch the cop anymore; I just stared at the hood of his car as my heart raced. I was going to miss the goddamn appointment and who the fuck knew what else.

As the cop walked up behind me and pulled my hands behind my back, I knew before he started reading me my rights that I was going to jail.

Chapter 60

Callie

“Where is he?” I asked Gram as I paced the waiting room of my doctor’s office. The ultrasound technician was running half an hour late, so it was twenty minutes past my scheduled appointment time and Asa still hadn’t showed.

“Probably running late,” she answered calmly, flipping through a magazine. “You know he can’t call you when he’s on the road.”

“He would have stopped to call if he was going to be late,” I worried, chewing the inside of my cheek.

“Or he’s riding like hell to get here and won’t take the time to stop,” she told me firmly. “Now sit down and calm down.”

I dropped heavily into the seat next to her and watched my phone. There were no incoming or missed calls, and the longer I went with no word from Asa the more anxious I became.

“Calliope?” I turned my head when the nurse called me from the doorway to the exam rooms but couldn’t make myself stand.

“Well?” Gram asked impatiently. “Let’s go darlin’.”

I drug my feet as I made my way to the nurse, looking behind me a few times in hopes that Asa would be walking through the door.

“Can we wait a couple more minutes?” I asked her almost desperately as we met her in the doorway.

“Sorry, hun.” She looked at me sympathetically. “We’re already so far behind, you’d have to reschedule.”

I looked at Gram for validation, hoping she’d assure me that we should come back, but her lips were pressed into a flat line. My mind raced as I thought it over, but Gram’s hand on my back had me walking through the door and toward a room before I could come to a decision.

“No need to get undressed,” the nurse told me as she set my chart on the countertop. “Just pull your shirt up and your pants down a little. The tech will be in soon.”

She shut the door behind her as tears filled my eyes.

“Calliope Rose Butler, you look at me,” Gram snapped fiercely, pressing both hands against the sides of my head and pulling me close until we were almost nose to nose. “I know you’re disappointed, baby. I know you’re worried and anxious and God knows what else. But seeing your baby on that screen and hearing them tell you if you’re having a boy or a girl—that only happens once in a lifetime. Once, Callie. You’ll never get this moment back.”

I nodded and sniffed as she studied my face.

“You get up there and get ready to see that baby, and you leave everything else outside that door. It’s got no place in here with you and me.” She kissed me quickly and took a step backward, giving me a swat on the hip. “Crawl up there so you’re ready when the guy gets in here.”