her heart pounding. When she looked behind her, she saw Emma staring at her, her blue eyes wide with confusion.
Clutching her bag, she said in a low voice, “I know Jaime is innocent. He is one of the best men I’ve ever met. He is good, and kind, and he’s my friend.” Her voice stuttered on friend, because he was so much more than that. “I’m not going to sit here and condemn him because none of you are capable of looking beyond the obvious.”
Carl stood up as well, pointing a finger at her. “If you go out that door to go to him, young lady, just know that we will not let you back into this house. That’s my final warning. I’ve had enough of this behavior.”
“Carl!” Julia exclaimed.
Grace laughed, but it was a sad, devastating laugh. She slung her bag over her shoulder. “Then I guess this is goodbye.” She looked at Emma and Gavin, the latter of whom was looking both shocked and bemused.
“Grace…” Gavin said.
She nodded at him and Emma and then, without looking at anyone else, she left. She drove her car to Jaime’s because she had to warn him. She knew he couldn’t go anywhere. She knew that if they were pressing charges, nothing she could say or do would help. But he deserved to know. The tears from before dried up, and she was only filled with desperation and a need to see him. This one last time.
But as she pulled up into his driveway, she saw that she was too late. Three cop cars were outside his house—which she had to admit was rather excessive. She ran to his front door and burst through the open door, only to see Jaime in his living room with four cops surrounding him.
“Jaime Martínez, you are under arrest,” Sheriff Jennings said as another cop cuffed him. “Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.”
One cop who Grace didn’t recognize raised his eyebrows at her presence. “Ma’am, you can’t be here.” He moved to escort her out.
But she didn’t move. Jaime wouldn’t look at her. She wanted to beg him to look at her, so she could tell him she was here to warn him even though it was too late. When the cop touched her arm, she pulled away.
“Ma’am, please. If you don’t cooperate, we’ll have to take you in, too.”
She trembled, saying nothing. But eventually she nodded. The officer took her outside, but when she asked to stay by her car, he seemed to take pity on her and let her stay.
She watched as the three other cops brought Jaime out of his house, his hands behind his back and his gaze on the ground. He still wouldn’t look at her. The tears that had disappeared returned, and she let them fall unimpeded. This wasn’t right. This couldn’t be happening, yet no matter how hard she’d tried, it had all been for nothing.
Sheriff Jennings placed Jaime in the back of a cop car, shutting the door. All but the officer who’d escorted Grace from the house went back inside. Sensing this was her only opportunity, she walked up to the officer; she read his nametag: HALDON.
Officer Haldon was fairly young, perhaps not much older than Grace, with surprisingly kind eyes and a look about him that seemed to hint he hadn’t been on the force for long. When he saw Grace approach him, though, he narrowed his eyes.
“Ma’am, please step away from the suspect.”
She stopped, but in a pleading voice, said, “May I just talk to him? Say goodbye? Please. I’ll leave and never bother you again.”
Officer Haldon considered. She knew he saw the tears on her face, and how desperate she sounded. She also knew that he’d probably assume that a young woman like her couldn’t be any real threat. He glanced back at the house, then back at her. “Three minutes,” he said. “You can sit on the passenger side. But if you do anything suspicious, you’ll be going to the same place as him.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
Officer Haldon opened the passenger front door, and then Grace slipped inside. The officer stood right next to the door with Grace in his line of vision and with the window cracked so he could hear their conversation. But she didn’t care. She turned and saw Jaime through the mesh that separated the front seat from the back.
Jaime stared at his feet. She could only see that his expression was