From Ashes of Scandal to His Embrace (Laurinda) novel Chapter 24

Laurinda set her chopsticks down and looked up at York, who was clearly on edge. She shot him a look, trying to tell him to relax.

“They came at me with weapons. They wanted me dead. So what if I fought back a little harder than usual?”

She tossed her phone onto the table. The lawyer beside her glanced at the photos of the weapons, then gave York a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“I’ll talk to those people outside. You go handle Laurinda’s paperwork. She’ll be out of here soon.”

The lawyer didn’t wait for a reply, just turned around and left. York stayed seated across from Laurinda, studying the pictures on her phone.

“So what are you planning to do next?”

“I’ll go through both the official channels and the not-so-official ones. If they’re not willing to give up Fabian, I’ll just have to teach them that Fabian can’t protect them forever.”

York caught the determination in Laurinda’s eyes and realized she wasn’t about to show any mercy. He set a shopping bag on the table.

“Are you heading back to school or home later? Let me handle the rest, okay? You shouldn’t get involved with those people anymore. The Gates family is nasty. If you keep dealing with them, they’ll just drag you into more trouble.”

Laurinda picked up the bag, peeked at the phone inside, then put it back down.

“No need. I can take care of this myself. If I don’t clean it up now, it’ll just keep coming back to haunt me. Trust me, I’ve got this.”

Right as she finished, the door to the interrogation room swung open. An older officer stepped in, looked Laurinda over, and gave her a thumbs-up.

“Pack up your things, you’re free to go. If we need to talk, we’ll contact you later. Next time, try to go a little easier. There’s a line between self-defense and going overboard.”

“I understand.”

Earlier that day, Adolphus had seen her talking to Irvin and managed to read Irvin’s lips. He already knew that someone was looking to give Laurinda trouble.

He figured he’d deal with it after finishing up at the CID, but now he’d run right into her before he even had the chance to ask.

Laurinda felt awkward with Adolphus holding her hand in front of everyone. She tried to pull away, but he didn’t budge.

With so many eyes on them, she finally gave in and muttered, “I’m fine. The other guys got it worse. It’s late, I need to get back to school.”

She tugged at her hand again, but Adolphus just tightened his grip, pulling her closer to his side.

“I’m taking you back. Come on.”

He didn’t give her a chance to argue, just led her out of the police station. Laurinda glanced at how determined he looked and decided not to fight it, quietly following along beside him.