"Police?" I said the one word so laced with a lifetime and generations of fear. Remaining calm like her wasn't in me. I grab my tablet and race for Zoey's car down stairs. My movement didn't stop, and I was gunning it towards Noah's house.

"Yes, police, I let them through the gate." I slap my head so hard against the steering wheel at the stoplight. The sound made a pop sound. Of course she let the cops in. She trusts the police. Sara was on FaceTime and she looked undisturbed at all. Any for Noah gets a call to Zoey and myself. It was a habit that started around the time of the paparazzi showing up taking pictures outside the gate. There's a camera that tracks the visitors but no one really digs into it further than that. Noah isn't a prisoner in his own home. He sees people all the time that neither of us meet but it's good to keep a record of who comes and goes from that gate. Even if it's the make, model, and license plate. Some people can take pictures of his nonpublic current work and leak it before it's out. You never really know.

Maybe it was my expression that tipped her off to my fear about the whole thing. Perhaps it was the loud knock of my skull hitting the steering wheel at a stop but Sara was getting upset.

"Whatever you do, don't stop recording. In the kitchen by the door there's a tablet with cell service." I reminded her about it as her breathing got erratic and my worry fully clicked in for her. Book it towards the kitchen then open the door. The camera shook with her quick movements moving right past the tablet in the kitchen. She ran on the porch as the sound of crunching of rocks in the driveway got louder.

"Sara," I called into the phone without getting an answer back. "Call Shar, get the camera and make sure it's recorded." I send a quick text message to the lawyer at the next red light. Then I dial the lawyer and leave that camera message open on the tablet in the seat. I was barely following traffic laws but when I pulled into the drive to Noah's and Zoey's.

The video call to Sara was nothing but a shaky camera and crying. I had no idea what I was walking into. The crunch of my car tires on the gravel drive as I hit the gate key in my car had my stomach turning. I pop out of that car grabbing the tablet and the phone. With each big stride I get closer to the warehouse door and time slows down. The oh shit this is happening and my brain doing the work for me to tell fuck fuck fuck on repeat.

My heart is beating in the hollow shell of my body. It felt as if at any second my pounding heart would burst from my chest. I was out of breath but kept going.

Completely unhelpful, fuck fuck fucks.

The two plain-clothes detectives and two uniform police officers that were near him. Way to close. One with his hand reaching to the big man. The other uniform officer was standing just a little too near. He's never been good with people touching him. Four men who talk around Noah and not to him. No matter how fast I move, how hard I dug my feet into the road to pick up more speed. His hand was getting closer to him. The second uniform police officer backing up the first. Then Noah pulls away from the two police officers he dwarfs. The big man tall enough to be a football tight end for a sport he never wanted to play. His shoulder hunch in as the hand makes contact with him, his hair long swinging in front of his eyes.

Noah took a step back, jerking free from the hold. The other officer startled by the sudden movement wraps his arm around Noah. He kicks his foot into his knee. Noah grunted as the first uniform officer grabbed him, pulling him down to back up the first. Wild ocean eyes blocked but hair as his big muscles flexed with the two men on top of him. He was still pulling away from them. Stop pulling away. I wasn't fast enough, my heart was in my throat. Tears rolled down my dark cheeks, as my face heated. Out of breath for air and not one second faster. Don't move Noah.

Fuck fuck fuck.

They slammed his face into the gravel of the driveway. His slightly tan skin is red and pock marked with gravel. Each time they slam his head down the crunch of that gravel digging into the wound turns my stomach. I slid to a stop just short of the uniform officers as the suit and tie guys blocked the way to him from me.

"I tried to fix it but they said they had questions, and then everything got out of control." Sara was crying as if she betrayed everything and the world was ending. But I had nothing for her. Sara grew up in a world where she trusted the cops and them showing up outside Noah's wasn't a cause for concern. She could have never known it was going to turn out like this and no matter how she cried. How much she pleaded with them to slow down and explained things it wasn't going to change shit. Cops can be like that sometimes once they start going downhill they go all in. All gas, no breaks, and unfortunately my Neptune was at the bottom of the hill.

My wet tears were soundless. It's the kind that just falls like a waterfall because it is what it is. Pain comes, tears fall, and no one is coming. The woman's frantic expression told me she's gonna need a hug, but I had nothing for her. Carefully, I dance around the suited officers. Getting low to the ground where Noah was and collecting myself. I stayed on the ground with him. Even as the two suited officers closed in on me.

"Don't move away, please?" I begged him and I wasn't a begging woman. When my husband cheated on me, I didn't beg him to stay. Hell, I watch my father die slowly. Where the cancer eats the person alive, that kind of cancer that's slow that is indicative of America. A place where a free normal screening for cancer in another country is commonplace. But in America it's hundreds of dollars. Where they could have caught that cancer when it was the size of half a rice grain before it even got to spread in my dad. And when most kids would have begged their fathers to stay a little longer. Fight through it and give all the fantasy movie endings. I knew the truth. He wanted to go. From the depth of my soul bone deep truth that begging him would be the cruelest thing in the world. I kissed my father on the forehead and watched him go.

Never begged.

Not when my husband cheated.

Not when my father died.

Never once begged.

I begged for Noah and with every word I coached him through it and my voice cracked.

"Please... Please..."

"Love you, Noah... You have to stop."

Time moves slowly when someone rips out your soul. Every moment the world gets clear, and your mind remembers everything. As if forgetting the memory will never be an option. And your mind knows that this will be the stuff of nightmares until the day you die. The what ifs in the middle of the night. If only you were a little faster, if only you watched him work on your car.

If, if...

"Please, Noah," I say through hot wet burning tears. "Don't move." He wasn't fighting, he was moving away, but the cops didn't care. His wild ocean eyes finally see me and the tightness in my shoulders release. One muscle at a time in his body. Ever so slowly he relaxes in the uniform officers hold and his gaze never breaks from mine. "That's it, calm," I breathe through in and out slowly and he follows me as the sound of the hand cuffs clicking open.

"Stop resisting," uniform officer one yells into Noah's ear. He wasn't resisting he was moving away, fucking dumbass.

He has that reaction to almost anyone unless distracted. Noah flinches away but yelling to explain that would only make this problem worse. I keep breathing along with Noah as puffs of gravel and dirt lifted in the air.

The officer on top of him wrenches his wrist back into the cuffs. They click into place and he stays still, his eyes not leaving me. The suited officer catches up with me.

"Step away, Mrs." The suited man tells me.

When the officer reached out to make contact with me Noah roared. It was a sound so deep as if it was ripped from the bottom of his being. The man who never yells, bellowed his rage even as the suited detective took a step back from me. He lifted the two officers off his back as easily as paper. The two officers were thrown back then jumped on top of his back again. Hobbling his legs but he was still fighting.

"Whoa, Noah. I'm ok," sidestepping the detectives trying to get a hold on me a second time. "It's ok, I'm ok. Just breathe." His eyes were filled bloodshot with dirt and blood gunks. But I stayed with him. "I'm ok, see." He watched me and stopped fighting back. Slowly relaxing and calming down.

"Why are you arresting him?" I kept my voice calm, I wasn't going to let them set me off more. Which in turn might set Noah off even more. He proved that he could lift both of those dumbasses and I was afraid of what he'd do. The situation had spun out of control. Neither the two officers on the ground or the detectives answered me quickly. The two detectives glance at each other sharing looks back and forth that troubled the fuck out of me.

The guy on the ground with Noah said, "resisting arrest." The anger in me was climbing faster than I could stamp it down. I wipe my dirt stained tears with the back of my hand.

"You're arresting him for resisting arrest, what's the rest of the charge?" I asked the men. But they had nothing. "Ok, well why are you on the property?" The uniform officers rolled him over checking Noah for weapons.

"We had some questions about sexual assault of an employee. That suspected perp matches his description of the second employee involved. It's an ongoing case and can't be discussed openly." The suited man said, with some of his confidence back. It seems he was on sure-footing. But he didn't realize that Noah wasn't an employee, he owed it. He was completely self employed and I guess the lumberjack look must have confused them. Perhaps they were looking for another long-haired 6'5 monster of a man. Too well built for his own good.

Yeah, not a chance.

"Be careful, he's autistic and doesn't like to be touched. And prefers not to make contact with other people." I say to the officers on the ground with Noah. They made a face when I said it. Then they exchange looks between the two of them again. The more clueless they were acting the more suspicious I was getting. I didn't want to leave any of these men alone with Noah for a single second.

Things happened so quick, but I kept walking with them letting Noah see I was ok while he was in their hold. They drove the squad car onto the property so putting him in the back wasn't a huge problem. I had nothing left as I watched my heart go with him.

A/n: Yo, so, we about to get deeply honest right now. I need yall to stick with me. We got a few chapters left. If you haven't already Linktr.ee/mistressop

Follow me on everything there. I'm counting down to returning on my youtube channel for unholy book love. I got a new book trailer coming up. My facebook is on there if you aren't already my facebook friend. 

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Thank you, 

-OP