Happily Ever All-Star: A Secret Baby Romance - Sosie Frost Page 0,187

of the car. The minute I surrendered to the law instead of Leah passed. So did the second. The third.

I tore through the glove box and found the insurance and registration. My driver’s license bent in my hand. He still didn’t get out of the fucking car. I’d have handed him my entire checkbook and offered a bribe for every asshole in the precinct if it meant getting back on the road.

The instant the officer moved, I knew I was fucked.

I watched in the mirror as his thick boot struck against the ground. The cinders and road debris crumbled under his feet. He already knew who he caught. Pretty sure he ran my plates and got a hard-on just thinking of how he’d torture me tonight.

He was the same cop who broke up the bar fight. He came after me first and made sure I was cuffed even though I was the only one busted up. I had the blackened eye—apparently that also meant I got the elbow to the rib and treated like some punk-ass criminal.

Officer Burke hated that the charges were dropped. Now he’d get his revenge, except he wasn’t just screwing with me. Every second he toted his ego-driven, testosterone-fueled, authority complex over me was another second Leah waited for me at the hospital.

She’d never forgive me.

What was happening to her now?

Officer Burke leaned over the Porsche and grinned, his fingertips stroking a paint that was too rich for his salary. He’d have to pull over a lot of speeders to get that promotion. He nodded at me, his thick tongue rubbing over his teeth like he prepared to feast on a steak.

Another treat too rich for a man like him.

“Jack Carson.” He snorted. “Gonna have to ask you to get out of the car.”

“Look—”

“Now.”

“I’m on the way—”

“I don’t give a flying fuck where you’re going or why. You’re speeding on my roads, causing a public disturbance again. Get your ass out of the car.”

“I’m going to the hospital.”

“You’re going to jail if you don’t get out of the goddamned car!”

Son of a—

I kicked the door open. Officer Burke hauled me behind the car and kicked at my legs. My bad knee buckled, and it gave him just the advantage he needed to slam me on the truck and frisk me like I was a damned convict.

“I have to get to the hospital!” I spat the word, deliberating too long on a profanity and simply leaving it out. My words didn’t sound any less disrespectful. “My girlfriend is—”

“You think you can do whatever the fuck you want in this city, don’t you?”

I grunted and tried to push off the car. The metal baton in his hand extended. He whacked it against my back and used the steel to keep me pinned.

Not the night to do this to me.

I could have ripped his goddamned head off if I had wanted. I didn’t need my knee, not when I had the upper body strength to wrestle away from three linebackers and still pitch a football forty yards down field in a laser strike.

I didn’t fight him. I fought every instinct to battle for my pride.

I couldn’t let my rage win. If he had any reason to take me in, he’d do it. It’d keep me from Leah.

She and the baby needed me.

For now, I was absolutely helpless.

“Got news for you, Carson.” Officer Burke sneered. “I’m an Ashenville fan.”

“Explains a lot.”

“I should have kept your ass in jail after that bar fight. Disorderly conduct. Physically Assault. Something to teach you a goddamned lesson. You ain’t nothing special because you can toss a ball around. And you ain’t above the law.”

“I wasn’t a part of the fight,” I said. “And if you’d try to pin anything on me, I’ll have my lawyer humping that police station for every cent I can get.”

“You little—”

“I’m not above the law, but I can pay for a hell of a good defense. Write me the fucking ticket and let me go. I’m gotta get to the hospital!”

That just pissed him off. I figured it would. He kicked me to the pavement, and the broken curb scraped my palms as I fell. My blood pressure spiked.

Son of a bitch.

Rage blinded me, but I fought myself more than the goddamned police officer. I couldn’t make a scene. He wanted me to fight. He needed the excuse to take his aggression out on me and use me as a fucking scapegoat.

Like everyone else.

And maybe I deserved it once,