“Officer McCain, would you please take this woman into custody?” he asked, drawing her attention to the fact that a second cruiser had pulled up behind Darrin’s while she’d been waiting for him to get to the point.

She turned her head as the first tendrils of apprehension crawled up her spine and she felt her jaw drop as a very stern, and very angry looking, female officer walked towards them. Swallowing nervously, she said, “Darrin?”

Chuckling softly, he moved closer until he was standing behind her. “Say the word, Marybeth, and I can make this all go away,” he whispered, his warm breath teased her nape as she stood there, licking her lips nervously as she watched the other woman draw closer, looking seriously pissed for a woman carrying a gun.

“Or you can just turn around, wrap your arms around me, stare adoringly into my eyes and profess your undying love for me,” he said, chuckling.

“Don’t do this,” she bit out as her hands clenched into fists as the very angry officer pulled her handcuffs out.

“Give me what I want and I won’t have to.”

“This better be a joke,” she bit out as the officer gestured for Darrin to step away.

“Last chance, sweetheart,” Darrin said softly and even though he wasn’t touching her, she would swear to her dying day that she felt the bastard smile.

“Don’t do this, Darrin,” she pleaded, shifting nervously as Officer McCain stepped beside her.

“You know what you have to do to make this all go away,” he said, stepping away and leaving her to the tender mercies of-

“Ow!” she gasped, more in shock than in actual pain, when Officer McCain grabbed her arm and pulled it back to snap the metal cuff around her wrist before doing the same with her other arm.

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say and do can-”

“This isn’t funny anymore,” Marybeth snapped, glaring over her shoulder at Darrin as Officer McCain read her her rights.

“Breaking the law never is,” Darrin murmured mockingly.

“You’ll regret this,” she promised him, still holding out hope that this was all a sick joke, but something about Office McCain told her that the woman didn’t have a sense of humor.

“Probably,” he murmured absently with a shrug as she was pulled back away from the truck.

“I’m not kidding, Darrin!”

Smiling that damn Bradford smile that she was really starting to hate, he walked over to her truck and stole her precious bakery bags while she stood there, helpless to stop him. “I never thought you were,” he drawled, making a show of inspecting her bags.

“Don’t even think about it,” she bit out, needing her sugary baked treats more than ever.

Shooting her a wink, the son of a bitch that she was going to kill, reached into her bag and pulled out one of the large glazed apple fritters that was rightfully hers and took a bite, all while keeping his eyes locked on her.

“Let’s go,” Officer McCain said, giving her arm a gentle tug that had her moving.

“This isn’t over!” she shouted as she was dragged over to the second police car. “I will get you for this, you bastard!” she promised him as Office McCain opened the car door and shoved her inside.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, baby,” he said, sighing happily as he strolled past her, taking a huge bite out of her apple coffee cake and bringing her rage to a whole new level.

Chapter 19
“You’ll have to come out of there at some point, you son of a bitch!” Marybeth shouted, emphasizing her words by pounding on his door.

“You do realize that she’s going to kill you, right?” Reese asked around a loud yawn as he absently scratched the back of his head while he scanned the pile of empty packages covering the coffee table.

“Probably,” he said, unconcerned as he leaned forward and searched through the empty packages and wrappers for something to eat, uncaring when they fell on the floor.

“I can’t believe you had her strip searched,” Jason said, shaking his head ruefully as he reached past him to pick up a package of Double Stuff Oreos only to drop it a few seconds later when he discovered that the package was empty.

“She could have put a stop to it anytime she wanted,” he reminded them as he glanced at his watch, wondering where Aidan was with their food.

“That probably didn’t help with your bullshit plan,” Trevor added, tossing an empty bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups aside and leaned back against the couch with a sigh, reminding Darrin of something that he’d been wondering about for the last two hours…

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“Zoe kicked us out,” Trevor explained with a shrug and a sigh as he gave up his search and sat back.

“That still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here,” he pointed out as he accepted a beer from his twin.

“Grandma is having a dinner party and she didn’t trust us to behave,” Jason said around a yawn as he finally gave up his search for food.

“Still doesn’t explain why you’re here,” he said around the same time Marybeth released a frustrated growl in the hallway a few seconds before they heard her door slam shut.

He couldn’t help but shake his head in disgust. Did she really think that he was going to fall for that? He popped the top off his beer and took a sip as he watched the game, waiting for the moment when the frustrating woman realized that he wasn’t falling for this lame trick. It didn’t take long before she released a groan of frustration and was back to banging on his door.