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"Nick," Jessica cried, starting to her feet. "Thank goodness you're here! You've got to tell them. This is all a mistake--"
The matron clamped a heavy hand on her slender shoulder and roughly pushed her back down. "It's okay, Marty," Nick said. "I'll take it from here." Jessica felt the matron's tight grip relax through the thin cotton of her black turtleneck.
"All right, Detective, but watch this one. She's been babbling all night. Don't turn your back on her. I think she might be a psycho."
Jessica glared at the beady-eyed matron indignantly. How dare she! If she'd been babbling, it was because the police officers had kept her up all night after the arrest--fingerprinting her, taking that horrible mug shot, and treating her like she was a piece of dirt. But before she could respond, Nick grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her up. "Let's go, Jessica," he said in a wooden voice. "Where, Nick?" Jessica cried. "Home?"
His bright, forest-green eyes looked at her with cold contempt. "Only a judge can let you go home now. I'm taking you to a holding cell where you'll wait until your bail hearing in the morning."
"But it is the morning," Jessica exclaimed, frantically searching the dreary grey walls for a clue to the time. She knew the police had kept her up all night. Her aquamarine eyes locked on the clock through the door of the interrogation room. "It's almost eight a.m.!"
"Tomorrow morning," Nick snapped back.Jessica's mouth dropped open.
"I can't spend another night here, Nick. You've got to help me. Can't you get me out of here?" She felt hot tears rushing to her eyes.
"Sorry, Jessica," Nick said, tersely. "Unlike you, I don't make deals with druggies."
Jessica gasped, staring at him in horror. "Nick, what are you saying? I never made any drug deal." She couldn't believe her ears. Nick was the guy she loved. The guy she wanted to grow old with. "Why don't you believe me, Nick?"
"Believing in you was the biggest mistake I ever made, Jessica," Nick sneered, shaking his head. "I went to make a drug buy last night. To bust the person who's been pushing poison at SVU. The last person I expected to find waiting to make the sale was the woman I thought I loved. But that's over now. You won't fool me again."
Jessica stumbled in a veil of tears as Nick led her though a maze of fluorescently lit hallways, and then down a dingy flight of stairs to the basement level of the police station. Her ears were ringing from his brutal words and her heart was frozen in shock. This couldn't be the guy she loved. In a minute he'd change back into the Nick she'd known yesterday. He'd take her in his strong arms and tell her all of this was a bad dream.
"Lottie," Nick called, banging on a thick glass door covered with wire mesh. "I"ve got a prisoner." The door buzzed open and Nick pushed her through. The woman named Lottie handed him a ring of keys. "Cell three is empty," she growled. Nick pulled her down the dark, musty hall toward the cell.
"Nick, please," Jessica wept, digging in the heels of her cowboy boots. "I'm scared."
"Keep it down," a harsh voice called from inside a darkened cell. "People are trying to sleep here." Nick tugged at her arm. "You asked for this, Jessica, when you broke the law." He slid the cell door open.
"But I didn't mean to," Jessica sobbed, clinging to Nick's leather coat. "Why won't you believe me, Nick? Look at me...please. Can't you see it in my eyes? I love you and I'm telling you the truth."
He glared at her. "All I know is you were caught red-handed with enough cocaine to destroy a lot of lives."
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