brig?” The officer who spoke sounded resigned to the fact. “I don’t support this decision, Cantor.”
“It’s already done,” he barked, then motioned to a soldier standing just on the inside of the door. As I turned around in my seat, I saw his knuckle wrapping out two quick knocks.
Instantly, the door swung open, and two huge guys I didn’t know came into the room. One of them held a pair of handcuffs while the other focused on me.
“Don’t make this any worse for yourself, Dobbs,” Charles warned. “Go with them peacefully, and we won’t have to add yet another incident to the investigation.”
Rage simmered in my chest. It was so potent I could taste the bitterness of it at the back of my tongue.
I glanced at the officers beside him and saw their looks of bewilderment and disagreement, and I tamped down the urge to fight. If I lashed out at these two, Charles would probably throw a psychiatric evaluation into the mix.
Concepts like anger issues and highly volatile would be bounced around, and I’d be fucked. My best bet of getting out of this and possibly clinging to my career by a thread was by cooperating.
It wasn’t like I’d be in the brig for months. The investigation had to have been well on its way, and it was only a matter of time before they came for my side of the story.
If I had any hope of getting back to Sofia and Eden, I had to play along. No matter how many creative ways I could come up with to end the fucking man watching on gleefully as I presented my wrists to the guards.
Chapter 32
Sofia
All around us, people laughed and drank. Haley and I sat at a table at our favorite beachside cafe with our feet in the sand and fruity cocktails in our hands.
Steam rose off the seafood platter between us, and the air was rich with the smell of garlic, spices, and fish being grilled on an open fire. The sun was high in the sky and humidity wrapped around me like a blanket.
It had all the makings of a good day, but my phone sat silent beside my plate. Just as silent as it had been for the better part of the week.
The only time there was any activity on it was when I got a message from Haley or an email alert from campus. My dad still wasn’t speaking to me, and apparently, neither was Lincoln.
I’d been trying to call him for days, but he hadn’t answered any of my calls. Even my messages remained unread. In fact, it was like he didn’t have his phone with him at all.
Worry licked at the edges of my mind, but I was probably just being paranoid. It was much more likely that he’d had some kind of showdown with my father and was now avoiding me while he cooled off.
“Have you talked to your dad about it?” Haley asked after swallowing a bite of her fried calamari. “Maybe he knows where Lincoln is or why he’s ghosting you.”
I shook my head, taking another sip of my cocktail. I knew from previous experience that the strawberry-flavored liquid was sweet and infused with the sharp bite of rum, but it was like my taste buds were broken.
“Dad won’t speak to me. He took off after our fight that day, was gone until after sunset, and has been out early every morning since. I’ve tried to ask him what’s going on at the base that requires him to be there all the damn time, but he just grunted and left.”
Her blonde brows pulled together. “It’s been days, though. You guys have never not spoken for that long.”
“I know.” I sighed, eyeing some or other puff on the platter. It looked good, but my stomach rebelled at the idea of eating it. “He’s really angry, and he’s shutting me out totally.”
Haley speared another bite of fish with her fork, then glanced at my plate. “Have you eaten at all? You’re looking thinner. I’m worried about you.”
“I’ve eaten. Just not much.” I tugged my lower lip between my teeth, closing my eyes when I felt tears stinging the backs of them. “I can’t seem to stomach the thought of eating a huge plate of food when neither of them are talking to me.”
“Lincoln has no reason to be upset with you, though,” she pointed out. “You were the one who faced the brunt of your father’s anger when he found out