Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (78 page)

“
Or what? You going to
throw me in prison again? I can save you the time and have that
done myself,” Emily yelled. “I’m not going to sit here and be
ganged up on.”

“
We’re not ganging up on
you,” Kyle said softly.

“
Bullshit! The three of you
have already made up your minds about my life, and I’m not going to
take it.”

Kyle started to get angry, “Sit…
down…”

“
No,” Emily turned and
glared at him.

“
Stop being obstinate and
sit down!” Kyle yelled.

“
Ok, now it’s your turn to
calm down,” Mark said to Kyle.

Emily pushed against Mark, “Let me
out. I’m going to bed.”

Mark glanced at Chevalier and moved
out of her way. She slammed open the door and ran up the
stairs.

“
Wow, she does have a way
of pushing buttons, doesn’t she?” Mark asked, surprised.

“
She’s going to turn
herself in,” Kyle said, and turned to Chevalier.

“
I know,” he
growled.

“
Why did I think she would
let us handle this?” Kyle asked, mainly himself.

“
I didn’t realize she was
going to turn this into another attempt to save the heku,”
Chevalier said, irritated.

“
Let’s stick with the plan
and see if we can get her back to Council City,” Mark said. “Once
there, maybe the lawyers can talk some sense into her.”

Chevalier agreed and dismissed Kyle
and Mark. They both bowed and left him alone in his office. The
argument brought the images of Keith and Emily back into his mind.
He was flooded with the memories of Keith’s final act, and it still
enraged him. With the emotions flooding from Emily, he was sure
that she was also remembering those last moments.

Just after dawn, Chevalier heard Emily
up and around in her room. He guessed that she and Alexis would be
having breakfast soon, and then he would talk to her about
returning to Council City for a few days.

Chevalier sighed and left his office.
He had his temper firmly under control and he suspected he would
need it there. He knocked softly on the door and entered when Emily
called to him. Alexis was at the table eating pancakes while Emily
sat with a cup of coffee. He hated when she got upset and didn’t
eat, but he knew it wasn’t a fight he wanted to get into
today.

“
Before you turn yourself
in, will you come to Council City and talk to the lawyers? Please?”
he asked, sitting down at the table beside Alexis.

“
Yeah, sure,” she said, and
took another sip of coffee. Her response surprised Chevalier. He
was sure there would be a fight over this.

“
I’m sorry about last
night. I honestly wasn’t trying to gang up on you,” Chevalier said.
“I just wanted them to try to help me convince you.”

Emily shrugged and sat the coffee cup
down, “I’ll be ready to go in an hour.”

Chevalier nodded and left the room.
She obviously wasn’t in the mood to talk, and he didn’t want to do
anything that might jeopardize her decision to come back to the
palace.

“
Shall we go talk to her?”
Kyle asked from the second-floor landing.

“
No, I already did. She’s
coming.”

“
That’s a good start,” Kyle
said, smiling.

Chevalier went back down to his office
to be alone while Emily got ready to go. He tried to decide how
best to keep her from turning herself over to the police, without
making her feel restrained or guarded in any way. He considered
moving her and some of his staff to his house in the mountains of
Colorado. That home was too far from a city where police might be
looking for her, and she wasn’t able to get out of the mansion
alone.

He left his office and headed up to
the roof when he heard the engines of the helicopter. Kyle, Mark,
and Emily were already waiting for him in the Blackhawk, and Alexis
was sitting on Mark’s lap, playing with the Equites symbol on his
cape.

“
I called the lawyers. They
will be waiting for us at their office when we get in,” Kyle told
him.

Chevalier nodded.

“
They want to meet with us
again first, before bringing Emily in.”

“
Why?” Emily asked, yelling
to be heard above the noise of the helicopter.

“
We’re still working out
alibis. You don’t need to be there for that,” Kyle
explained.

Emily sat back and watched the terrain
fly by. She knew in her heart that within 24 hours, she would be in
prison for killing her abusive ex-husband. She hoped the damage
done to his body could exclude her as a suspect. It took immense
strength to do that to him, strength she didn’t even remotely
possess.

Emily sighed as she again looked down
on Council City. No matter how hard she tried, she didn’t seem to
be able to fully leave. She jumped out of the helicopter when the
engines were cut and ignored the guards that gathered. Taking
Alexis, she went inside and headed down for the Durango.

“
Wait, Em,” Chevalier
called. “You can’t take the Durango, they’ll be watching for it.
Take the Humvee and I’ll drive the McLaren.”

Emily nodded, “Sure.”

“
Come in about an hour,
ok?” He kissed her forehead softly.

“
Sure,” she said again, and
turned around, deciding to head out to the stables. She saw the
McLaren pull out of the garage as she watched the colt playing in
the corral.

Kyle and Chevalier talked about their
options on the way to the lawyers in the city. A mile outside of
the lawyer’s office, Chevalier saw four patrol cars surround him
and turn on their lights.

“
What’s this?” Kyle asked,
worried.

“
I don’t know, guess we’ll
find out.”

Chevalier rolled his window down,
“Yes?”

“
Step out of the car,” the
officer said, and then looked over at Kyle. “You, too.”

Both of the heku got out of the car
and were immediately pushed against the side of it. They allowed it
to happen so as not to draw unneeded attention.

“
What’s the problem?”
Chevalier asked as Kyle was handcuffed.

“
You have the right to
remain silent,” the Officer told Kyle. “Anything you say can and
will be used against you in a court of law…”

Kyle smiled slightly at
Chevalier.

“
Well, do you?” the officer
asked when he finished.

“
Oh, yes I do,” Kyle said,
amused.

“
Keep him until we get the
girl,” the lead officer said

Chevalier frowned, “What
girl?”

“
We know she’s here. We got
a good tip that Emily Russo was flown in today and will be driving
past here in a black Humvee within the hour.” He
grinned.

Chevalier glanced at Kyle, and he
shrugged. He watched as Kyle was put into the back of a patrol car
and whisked away to the city.

Chevalier growled when he heard over
the police radio that Emily was in custody and was en route to the
police station.

“
Ok, you can go,” the
officer said to him with a grin, and headed for the patrol car.
Chevalier glared at him, fighting the desire to rip his head from
his body and stop that smirk.

Chevalier got back into his car and
sped toward the lawyer’s office.

***

Emily looked around the small room.
She was sitting at a table with her hands cuffed behind her. There
were two other chairs in the room and mirrors lining the walls. She
looked at the door when two detectives entered.

“
Good afternoon, Ms.
Russo,” one of them said, and sat down.

Emily nodded at him.

“
I’m Detective Kirk, and
this is Detective Billings.” He sat down in the seat beside
her.

“
We’d like to ask you a few
questions, and have a warrant that gives us approval to do
so.”

“
You don’t need a warrant
to get information from me,” Emily said softly.

“
Good.” Detective Kirk
smiled, “Is there anything we can get you?”

“
No, thank you.”

“
Let’s start then. How long
did you live at the ranch in Cascade, Montana?”

“
I was there from birth. I
sold the ranch about 10 years ago.”

“
Why did you sell
it?”

“
My Dad died, and when
Keith left, I couldn’t take care of it by myself, even with Kyle
and Sam helping,” Emily said.

“
Who is Sam?”

“
He was the ranch’s
overseer.”

“
Do you know where he is
now?” the detective asked.

“
No, I don’t.”

“
Ok, when’s the last time
you saw Keith?”

“
Just before I left for
Colorado, a few days after my dad died.”

“
I’m going to come right
out and ask this. I hate to bring up any unnecessary feelings, but
we need to know… your hospital records show quite the injury list,
and more than one doctor suggested domestic assault. Was Keith
abusive?” Detective Billings asked.

Emily’s body tensed. It wasn’t
something she liked to admit to, let alone talk about to
strangers.

The Detective picked up the change in
her posture and smiled softly, “We already know. We just need you
to confirm it. It could really help your case.”

Emily nodded slightly.

“
How did you break your
hand?”

“
I fell off of a
horse.”

“
That seems to be a common
excuse for you,” Detective Billings said.

“
I break horses. It can get
dangerous,” Emily explained.

“
And the bruise on your
side?”

“
Horse,” Emily said
again.

“
Ok, that’s all we needed
with that. We have the medical records for the rest.”

Detective Kirk opened a notebook, “You
said you had been in Colorado, who were you there with?”

“
Chevalier,” Emily told
them.

“
What’s his last
name?”

Emily grinned slightly, “I don’t
know.”

“
What were you doing for
two months while the entire state of Montana looked for
you?”

“
It was… personal,” Emily
said.

“
Was Kyle with
you?”

“
No, I hadn’t met Kyle yet.
He was hired to help with the ranch while I was gone.”

“
Who hired him?”

“
Sam, I guess, I wasn’t
there… could have been Keith.”

Detective Kirk took a moment to write,
“Ok then. When you got back to Montana, did you see
Keith?”

“
No, he was already
gone.”

“
And Kyle was
there?”

“
Yes”

“
Then what did you
do?”

“
I talked to Sam, and we
decided to sell the ranch. So I left with Chevalier while Kyle and
Sam stayed to handle the arrangements.”

“
So your relationship with
Chevalier was romantic?”

Emily frowned at the personal
question, “Not at that time, that was later.”

“
Did you kill your husband
before you ran off with Chevalier?” Detective Kirk decided to ask
outright.

Emily shook her head, “No.”

“
Do you know who
did?”

“
No, I thought he ran off
with his girlfriend,” Emily said.

“
Girlfriend?”

Emily nodded, “Yes, he was sleeping
with my father’s nurse.”

“
You were ok with that?”
Detective Kirk asked.

Emily sighed, “Things were different
back then. I was afraid of Keith.”

“
Do you know anyone who
would have liked to cause harm to Keith?”

Emily suddenly had a thought, “When…
when we would fight, I would go to Sam for help. He was my father’s
friend, and when my Dad had his stroke, Sam took care of me. He
didn’t like Keith, and threatened to hurt him
sometimes.”

“
But you’ve not seen Sam
lately?”

“
No”

“
Can you explain then, if
you haven’t seen Keith in 10 years, how he was arrested for
domestic violence a few years ago, and then checked you into a
hospital two years ago?” the Detective asked.

They all looked over at the door when
someone walked in. A tall, elderly man entered. He wore an
expensive suit and had a briefcase. He sat down beside
Emily.

“
I’m Ms. Russo’s counsel,
and I’m putting a stop to this questioning until I’ve had a chance
to read what was said up until now,” he said.

“
Sure, Kent,” Detective
Kirk said.

“
We’re going to hold her
though. We have enough probable cause for that,” Detective Billings
told him.

Kent nodded, “Fine but let’s get bail
set. She has a small child that still depends on her.”