Curvy Girls Can't Date Bad Boys - Kelsie Stelting Page 0,73

I knew how to do. I bent over the dock with a marker and begin writing in big letters while shouting, “DULCE PERICULUM! AUDENTES FORTUNA IUVAT!”

I prayed their phrase was right. That I might have some luck, because this was as bold as it got.

The police car door flung open, and a man in uniform ran toward me, shouting, “Stop right now, young lady!”

My hand moved furiously over the boardwalk. Keep writing, that was all I needed to do to distract them.

I heard other sirens blaring, other car doors opening, another man shouting at me to stop.

I just kept yelling, over and over again: Fortune favors the bold. Fortune favors the bold.

The full weight of a body crushed me to the ground, holding me against the rough planks and then snapping handcuffs around my wrists. As the two officers hauled me to my feet, the last thing I saw of the pier was the big black lettering saying AUDENTES FORTUNA IUVAT.

Forty-Four

The officers marched me to the police vehicle as they began reciting my Miranda Rights. “Anything you say or do you can be used against you in a court of law...”

“Good,” I said, strength I didn't know I possessed finding my voice. “It's been me all along. I am Dulce Periculum. Anyone else who has been affiliated with the group has done so because of my threats to them.”

The officer at my right gave me a narrow gaze before shoving me into the car. I sat in the back seat for the most uncomfortable ride of my life as he drove across town. My heart raced, and despite the pain of cold metal cutting into my wrists, I couldn’t help but smile. I’d drawn them away from Ronan. He and his friends were safe.

The officer parked behind the police station and walked me inside. I’d never been on this end of the law, on the end that was being forced and jostled and threatened as I faced the consequences of my actions. It made my heart race and my blood boil, and I’d never felt more alive.

Was this what DP was searching for? The adrenaline of life lived on the edge? How had I missed it all while living so comfortably I might not have lived at all?

The cop led me into a holding cell filled with other women of all shapes and sizes. He undid my handcuffs and shoved me in before clanking the gate shut. I stumbled and steadied myself before turning and watching him walk to the desk where another guy in uniform sat leisurely with his feet on the weathered wood.

He lifted his chin at me. “This is her? Doesn't look like she could jump in the air, much less do a flip.”

If I wasn’t behind bars, I would have thrown fists. Instead, I gave him the finger and a few choice words. America’s finest, making fat jokes about teenage girls? It didn’t get much lower than that.

The officer who’d brought me in chuckled, and the one at the desk one spat on the floor toward me.

I was disgusted.

“Don’t worry,” he snorted, “we’ll call your parents. It's probably past your bedtime.”

I thought I couldn't be angrier than I already was, but rage fired through my veins. Did they really talk to people like this?

I mean, I knew I was a criminal and all, but the fat jokes were a little much for an organization that literally had a reputation for liking donuts. The guy who brought me in walked out, clearly unfazed by the whole evening. I glared at his back, at the wreckage he wanted to cause a group of teenagers just living their lives.

Someone cackled behind me—an older lady with scraggly gray hair—and a sense of dread immediately went through me. I looked away, but that didn't stop her from laughing. In fact, she just laughed more.

“You got a lot of fight left in you,” she said in a smoker’s voice. “I like ones like that.”

The way she said it made my skin crawl. I stood as close to the bars as I could get, hoping they would get ahold of someone to come and get me soon. But then my heart sank. Who would get me? My father? They wouldn’t even know to call Jordan’s mom or someone who actually cared about me.

“Don’t I get a phone call?” I asked.

The officer just laughed.

I slumped against the bars, still not making eye contact with the crazy lady. At least I could hope my diversion