Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1) - Tina Wainscott Page 0,76
and thinking a fine piece of ass is going to save yours.”
“Don’t talk about a lady like that.”
Cassidy tapped his chin. “Gonna make me stop?”
“When are you going to stop being a dick? You’ve spent your whole life trying to prove yourself, but all you’ve ever confirmed is that you’re a dick. Now you think you’re even better, stronger, smarter because you wear a uniform. But you’re still that same pitiful skinny boy bullying everybody else to make himself feel bigger.”
His face turned scarlet. “Shut up.”
“Like insulting the woman you caused to be scarred. That was low and despicable, and if you ever say something like that to her when you’re not in your uniform I will break your nose.”
“Try it.”
Raleigh chuckled. “You’re tough now because your uniform protects you in here. Let’s discuss it on your free time and see how tough and bad you are.”
Cassidy moved his mouth as his pea brain tried to come up with a retort.
Raleigh continued before he could. “Just because you don’t have a record doesn’t mean your soul is clean. Your arrogance caused a major crash. Severely injured me and another woman. Destroyed our cars. Our lives. You might have gotten that struck from your record on account of you being six months from eighteen, but you don’t get it cleared from your conscience. That stays for life until you make it right.” Raleigh spotted one of the jail’s officers watching the scene a few feet away, but he didn’t give away the man’s presence. “Pointing out the scars on a woman you caused to be burned, well, that isn’t going in the right direction, now, is it?”
Cassidy’s face contorted with rage. “Why don’t you put your fist where your mouth is, you scumbag trailer trash—”
“Because the truth hurts a lot more than my fists would.” He patted Cassidy’s chest. “Doesn’t it?”
Shit, Cassidy was about to blow a gasket. His eyes bulged, fingers flexing. He lunged forward, fist driving toward Raleigh’s face. The moment before it would connect, Cassidy fell back. Helped, Raleigh saw, by the officer who’d jerked him backward.
“What in the hell are you doing?” he demanded of Cassidy, an inch from his face.
“The prisoner was harassing me. Threatening me.”
“I keep telling Sullivan that you’re going to cause us trouble someday with your jacked-up attitude.” He nodded his chin toward the surveillance camera mounted on the wall. “I think he feels sorry for you. But I will be showing him this little scene, and I will ask him to fire you. Because I will not have a lawsuit against my jail.” He gave Cassidy a shove out of the way and looked at Raleigh. “I’ll be happy to escort you to meet your attorney.”
“Thank you, sir.”
The man, who was older than Sullivan, didn’t cuff Raleigh, simply gesturing for him to precede him. Raleigh glimpsed the word “Captain” on his nametag. Cassidy’s face was even redder now, and he spun around and pounded on the orange bars, then pulled back with a hiss.
“You’re gonna fry, West,” he muttered between clenched teeth, rubbing his knuckles.
“And Grace Parnell didn’t lose that case,” Raleigh said as they walked away. “She got him to take a plea deal.”
The captain chuckled under his breath. “Instigator.”
“I know, but the guy’s a bonehead.”
“That he is.”
He led Raleigh from the jail into the main building and to a small room with a table and three chairs. Grace Parnell was typing on her cellphone when the door opened. She stuffed the phone into her jacket pocket and shook Raleigh’s hand. “I’d say good to see you, and you’d say the same, but that isn’t true in these circumstances. No need to bullshit each other, right?”
Yeah, she was going to be a good attorney. “Right.”
Her grip was firm and confident, something she’d no doubt had to perfect dealing with the good-ol’-boy mentality here in Chambliss. Her height—around five-ten—probably helped.
“Thanks for accepting my case.”
“You’ve taken good care of my Birdie. And, frankly, this stinks like a pile of dog shit.”
He smiled despite himself. “That it does,” he said, mirroring the captain’s sly agreement.
Grace looked demure, but she had the mouth of the girl who’d grown up in this smallish town. He wondered if she would bring up the time he and Pax ran into her at the Love Shack in Panama City Beach. They had seen a whole other side of her…or maybe it was an old side. Sitting on the bar shooting back tequila with some beefy guy, in tight black