The other officer circled the car, opening the passenger door and the glovebox under the guise of retrieving the lease paperwork, but his glance under the seat was unsubtle. Benito rolled his eyes again. “You can search the car if you want; I don’t care.”
“Is there a reason we should?”
Benito shrugged. “Can’t think of one.”
“Don’t try to be funny, mate,” the first officer said. “The more cooperative you are, the easier this is.”
This.As if Benito had any idea what the charade was supposed to achieve.
The second officer came back with the lease paperwork and Benito’s Uber ID. “You’re a taxi driver?”
“Sometimes.”
“When?”
“Evenings and weekends.”
“What do you do during the day?”
“Sleep. Make sure my sister’s okay.”
“Why don’t you pick her up from school?”
Rinse and repeat.Benito folded his arms, caging the impatience that bubbled in his chest. “Because she likes to take the bus with her friends. I wait here to make sure she gets inside safely.”
“For two hours?”
“I was early and had nowhere better to be.”
It was the truth. Benito had woken at lunchtime with a restless energy that pacing his flat couldn’t contain. He’d hit the gym and then run loops around Willen Lake, but his legs had given out long before the monster dancing in his soul ever would.
The questions kept coming. Benito answered them, keeping a sharp eye on the bus stop until the officer so interested in the contents of his car came back and blocked his view.
He emptied Benito’s pockets, finding only his phone, a lighter, and a parking pass for the gym, and with Benito’s car clean too, the bullshit well ran dry.
“We’re going to let you go this time,” the officer said. “But in future, if you’re genuinely waiting for your sister to come home from school, don’t park here until she’s due back. We’ve had complaints about dealers harassing residents coming in and out of the block.”
Mental fatigue caught up with Benito. His fierce grip on his patience slipped. A sneer escaped before he could catch it. “I’m not a dealer. I don’t have shit on me. And if you’ve been watching me for two hours, you know I haven’t got out of my car and fucking harassed anyone.”
“Watch your language,” the officer snapped. “We’ve asked you reasonable questions and you haven’t given us plausible answers.”
“I don’t need to give you plausible answers. It’s a public street with no parking restrictions. I could stay here all day.”
“What for?”
The officer stepped closer, looming into Benito’s personal space.
Benito squared up, muscles bunching, ready to fight despite every age-old instinct he possessed screaming at him to stand down. What did it matter anymore? He had no hustle to protect. He’d left it in flames at the side of the road and he had the scar to prove it. Now he was just a sad sack of anxious shit until he could raise the money to buy his freedom for good.
And wasn’tthatirony fucking beautiful?
Unbidden, Luis Pope flashed into Benito’s thoughts. A man Benito had held to ransom the same way some other bastard was holding him now. Benito hadn’t cared at the time. His icy heart had stopped beating, and he’d set Pope free in the end because it had suited him, not because he gave a shit that the dude had served his time and fallen in love and just wanted to be left alone.
Was this Benito’s punishment?
Karma?
Asa seemed to think so, but Asa was harder than Benito had ever been. Shame it had taken this for Benito to see it.