“Get on the ground!!!” Loud, authoritative voices called out while the stomping of feet surrounded me. Students were running towards the doors fleeing for what seemed like their lives. I had just pulled myself off of Simon when a body collided with my own.

“I said ON. THE. GROUND,” the officer bellowed in my ear.

“Please stop. It’s okay, he was just defending me.” Gia’s voice was frantic as she spoke to another officer who was swinging his flashlight around the room, counting heads with each swing.

“Ma’am, please take a step back. We’ll be with you in a second,” the officer stated as he looked around the room.

“I didn’t do anything,” I huffed out, the weight of the officer on my back making it hard to breathe.

“It didn’t look that way from the doorway,” he smarted off in my ear. It didn’t matter if I was doing the right thing or not. I might have been defending Gia, my house and the people in it, but once her parents and mine found out about what happened− shit was going to hit the fan.

“Sir, you’re currently under arrest. We’re going to be taking you down to the station to have a talk. Matthews, come read him his rights and I’ll take the guy who was also in the altercation’s statement here and the girl’s statement down at the station. Let’s go. Everyone else, get out before we call back up for you.” The cuffs tightened around my wrist and as they pulled me up off the ground, I caught a shit eating grin on Simon’s face. I almost lost it again, until I realized that shit-eating grin was missing a front tooth.

I paced the floor in front of the desk at the local police station. They had Chase detained in one of the interrogation rooms, and I wasn’t having any of it. He wasn’t going to go down for a crime that he didn’t commit. Even if it looked as bad as it did.

“You need to sit down. I’ve told you three times now that the officer will be with you shortly,” the burly policewoman yelled at me over the counter. I forced myself to a chair, willing my heart to stop racing out of my chest. Chase and I were supposed to be on a new path in our lives, preferably one that didn’t involve the police.

“Gianna King?” I raised my head in acknowledgment the moment my name was called.

“Yes, that’s me! Can I see him now, is everything okay?” I heaved the questions at him, my breath coming out in pants. The officer skimmed over the clipboard he had in his hands and my eyes wondered down to his badge. His name was Ryan. Maybe I could I play the ‘my dad is an FBI agent’ card if things didn’t go my way.

“If the ‘him’ you are referring to is Chase Winchester, I cannot give you any information.” His eyes were dull and uncaring, his voice not missing a beat as he spoke.

I narrowed my eyes in anger. When we arrived at the station, the police officer that arrested Chase had done exactly what he said he was going to do back at the house. He took my statement, and escorted me to the waiting area before disappearing. I hadn’t seen Chase since we arrived here over an hour ago, so to say I was losing my mind was an understatement. I wanted answers and I wanted them now. After all, he was only protecting me. I don’t know why they couldn’t see that.

“If you don’t tell me what’s going on with Chase Winchester right this second I will be calling someone down here that can have you removed from your job so fast your head will spin, you sorry excuse for a−”

“GIANNA KING!!!” The rumbly deep voice was one that I knew very well. One that when I had gotten in trouble many times, had struck fear in me straight to the core. I swirled around, unsure if he could really be standing there or not.

“Dad?” My words hung in the air, as an astonished look crossed my face. There he was standing in the flesh, dressed in black with his FBI badge proudly displayed around his neck.

“I’ll take it from here, Officer Ryan. Thank you.” His voice was calm, but his eyes promised death as he gestured for me to follow him. I had only ever seen that look once in my life and I was lucky to have lived through it. I firmly closed my mouth and bit my tongue. I had so many different things I wanted to say, so many things I wanted to explain to my dad, but I also had a ton of questions and knew that I would never disrespect his authority, especially in front of his peers. Instead, I followed him down one of the halls, my face cast at the ground. The only sound that could be heard was my shallow breathing and the beats of our feet across the tiled floor.

“You know better, Gianna,” he mumbled under his breath just as we came to a stop at one of the doors off to the right. His hand reached out for the doorknob, relief hitting me the moment my eyes landed on the person sitting in the room.

“Chase!!” I exclaimed as I all but ran into the room, though it was short lived because my dad interrupted our reunion before our bodies could even collide into one another’s.

“Take a seat, Gianna.” My dad’s tone was serious, one I did not want to go up against right now.

“You both have major explaining to do. Not only that but you, Chase, could be facing assault charges. Don’t even get me started on the disrespect I witnessed pouring out of your mouth, Gia to Officer Ryan. Maybe, I should let both of you spend a night in jail.” His eyes shot to Chase in a more than angry manner.

“Sir, I told you before, Gia had nothing to do with this.” I could hear the heartache in his voice as he tried to explain what was going on to my father, and if anyone knew or understood what that was like it was me.

“We didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, this whole situation is stupid. The cops got called for no reason. It was just a little scuffle.” My father cast a look my way that said shut up, causing a groan to escape my mouth as a reply.

“Oh stop it! Seriously, Dad? If anyone has explaining to do it’s you,” I spat at him. Chase looked at me cock-eyed and my father seemed to grow angrier.

“I have nothing to explain to you!” he replied as he slammed his fist against the table.

“Oh, yeah? Well, neither do I! I’m an adult, and I don’t see why you just happened to be here when all of this was going down,” I stated with a raised eyebrow. His demeanor shifted from FBI mode to dad mode in a blink of an eye as he sat there trying to come up with an excuse.

“I know that work didn’t bring you here because Mom would have called and told me.” Chase seemed lost, his facial features turning from a frown to a look of confusion quickly.

“Alright! I asked to be assigned here. Uncle Devon and I thought it was a good idea. First it was for Taylor, to make sure she adjusted easily and no one tried anything on her because she was a freshman. You don’t know how many cases of assault on females we hear about because some inexperienced college girl was date raped. And you know how Taylor is, she is so much like your Aunt Tegan. So trusting in nature. Since you happened to be here too, I was looking out for you as well. I knew when the call came in from your address this evening it was something bad. I was worried, and then when I arrived here and saw Chase, your boyfriend in here… you can imagine what I was thinking.” The hurt was evident in his eyes. I understood why he did what he did, but there was no need to be spying on us.

“It’s wrong, Dad. We don’t need a babysitter.”

“I can disagree with that given the situation that transpired tonight,” he shot right back at me, forcing me to roll my eyes.

“Sir, it’s really not what they are making it. Shit went down before this and I was simply sticking up for your daughter,” Chase confessed. My stomach twisted in knots thinking back to that day that Simon had hit me. It may have been an accident, but it still happened.

“What went down before this?” My father’s eyes darkened as they zeroed in on Chase’s.