Page 38 of Knuckles

“You sat back and allowed him to try and push me towards Masters, who is a creep,” I remind him.

He winces as he eyes the man on the other side of the room, talking to a fellow officer not from this precinct. If I’m honest, he looks a little wary of Masters, though I can’t blame him, because as I said, the man is a creep and if he stares at my breasts one more time today, I’m going to knock him out with the butt of my gun.

He makes me feel like a piece of meat.

“To be fair, I thought he had a thing for you until I caught him screwing Conners a few weeks ago,” he shudders, and my eyes widen.

He, I mean… Surely not?

“Conners, as in Conners who is married to a woman?” I gag.

Benny nods with a disgusted look, and I simply mutter, “Gross,” not knowing what else to say.

It’s not about his sexuality— his wife is sweet and supportive, holding off her career so he can advance in his, so the fact that he’s cheating to begin with…

I shake my head. If Conners thinks getting involved with the Masters will help him get the position he’s after, then he’s mistaken. He’s risked everything for nothing.

Dad was using Masters because he knew he could keep me in line through him, but Masters is naïve. He has nosway whatsoever despite what he believes, and if Dad thought Conners deserved a promotion, he would have given him one by now.

The man is a slacker, he’ll only take the easy jobs, and half the time he's late for his shifts, which I’m now seeing is because he’s busy with Masters hoping to cheat his way to the top.

Maybe if the man actually did his job, he’d get the promotion he desperately wanted.

Benny snorts at the scrunch of my nose, the image of Conners bent over for Masters suddenly engrained in my brain making me want to gag and he takes a seat on the edge of my desk.

“Can you not just, I don’t know, look around here for a different job if being a police officer isn’t what you want to do?” he tries, “I know Knuckles, sis, he won’t let you leave. He may be quiet at the moment, but it’s his way to straighten out his mind.”

Knuckles didn’t text to explain, he just ghosted me but I don’t say that—I won’t show my brother or my father, who’s already stepped forward, how much pain I’m in. Instead, I shake my head and admit, “It’s a done deal. I’ve given notice on my lease and found an apartment in Boston. I move in just under three weeks.”

“Fuck,” Benny mutters as Dad flinches and opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, Masters calls, “Marshalls, let's go, we’ve got a call on a domestic!”

Awesome…

Sighing, I shut down my computer then pick up the paperwork I’ve just filled out as I stand. “Duty calls,” I mutter, handing the paperwork to Dad who reluctantly takes it. I grab my phone, which feels like a heavy boulder, the urge to try and call Knuckles again pulls at me, but I resist. Instead, with my phone in hand, I walk away and even though my father and brother look like they want to protest, they don’t because they know they can’t.

The job has to come first, that is what Dad always ingrained in us.

I squeeze my phone, breathe deep, and pocket it. I promised only one call and one message to Knuckles a day, and I’ve kept to it and I even latch the motel door after eleven—never letting him think I’m waiting, though I am.

As much as I want to scream and shout for him to love me, I won’t, just like I won’t beg him to contact me. I have more pride and self-respect for that, and besides, Knuckles hasn’t had it easy, the scars are proof of that. He has to want to fight for me, and right now he doesn’t.

Shaking my head, I follow Masters out to our car, and I silently pray this will be quick because the less time I spend with this sleaze, the better.

***

“I didn’t do anything wrong!” Mr. Rounders shouts as I escort him out of his marital home with his hands cuffed behind his back, his head bleeding while his wife screams from the inside, holding up a baseball bat.

Masters is currently trying to calm her down while I bring this piece of shit to the van.

When we got here, she’d already wacked him three times with the bat after finding him on top of her thirteen-year-old daughter who is now sitting on the couch, crying her heart out while social services comfort her as her mom rightfully loses her shit.

Apparently, in her mind, she’s been having an affair with her stepdad, who took her virginity. He groomed her, and even though she knew how wrong it was, it wasn’t until her mom opened her bedroom door just as the sick man thrusted inside her to snap her out of the situation.

“Grooming, rape, sexual assault, and actual assault when confronted by the child’s mother,” I grunt as I shove the man into the police van.

“She wanted it, she’s always wanted it ever since I walked in on her naked in the shower five years ago, she was mine and I knew it, she knew it!” the pervert sneers as he tries to stop me from putting him into the van, and I grow cold at his words and the need to shoot him overrides my senses and I grip his arm tighter.

He’s just admitted to grooming her since she was eight.