Guilty By Association

Chapter 2 - Mistaken Identity

Chapter 2 – Mistaken Identity

 

“What are you all doing?” The fourth man had managed to get Professor off of him and was now looking at his team with anger and disappointment. Kelsey could almost feel the fury radiating off of him from behind her, but didn’t dare turn around.

“I’m a professor.” Kelsey said, hoping to clear whatever misunderstanding there was. Then, these people would leave her house, peacefully and Kelsey would think about better living arrangements.

“You’re under arrest, Miss Winters.” The man behind her spoke up, grabbing both of her hands and fastening them into a pair of handcuffs.

“Arrest?” Kelsey echoed. Why was she being arrested? Wait, did that mean that these four scary-looking individuals were the cops? She decided to voice her concerns. “Are you guys the police?” She asked, not fighting the man.

“FBI.” The woman responded. They were FBI, Kelsey thought with alarm. Why was FBI in her house? Why were they arresting her?

“Did I do something wrong?” She asked, concerned. This was not good. She knew it was wrong to complain about her job, and wondered if this was karma biting back at her. Her job was a good job, even a great one. But…if she got arrested, she had no doubt that she would lose it. A criminal record didn’t work well for teachers.

“Don’t you already know the answer to that?” The man behind her spoke bitterly.

“Is this about that time I didn’t wait for sixteen second before making a right turn?” Kelsey’s mind flashed back to a certain incident that had remained on her mind for several days after occurring. “I’ll pay the fine, just please don’t arrest me.” Tears began to flow out of her eyes, the earlier fear and panic vanishing. “If I get arrested, I’ll lose my job.”

“You should have thought about that before getting involved with someone like Caleb Rocha.” The man said, grabbing her by the arm and roughly pushing her to the door.

“Caleb Rocha?” Kelsey had no idea what was going on. “I don’t know anyone named Caleb Rocha!” She tried to break out of the man’s hold but his grip was too tight on her. “Wait!” She screamed again. “You have to lock my door. Professor’s in there. He might escape!” The man didn’t budge. “Will you just hold on?” Kelsey asked, furiously. She kicked the man’s leg, causing him to release her. “You need to lock my door.” She said with passion and annoyance. “Do you just leave people’s doors open for people to break inside and take what they want. I want you to lock my door if you want me to quietly come with you.”

The man turned around, giving Kelsey an opportunity to get a good look at him for the first time, and to be honest, she was slightly taken aback. He wasn’t drop dead handsome, but there was something about his rough features that seemed to draw Kelsey in right away. He was ruggedly handsome, Kelsey decided. The way his grey eyes stood out under his dark hair and his firm jaw line made Kelsey want to touch it, just to see if it was as smooth as it looked, and then wanted to slap herself for thinking it, immediately after. He’s arresting you, Kelsey told herself.

“Lock the door, Shay.” He ordered, and the woman turned around and locked Kelsey’s door, handing the keys over to the man.

“Here you go, Boss.” She said.

The man nodded, focusing his attention to Kelsey. “You will come with me, quietly.” He said, bringing his face down right in front of Kelsey. His eyes bore into hers and she could smell something metallic coming off of him. Taken aback by his nearness, Kelsey nodded. Much to her relief, he backed off. Kelsey’s heart was thundering. She wondered when was the last time she’d been so close to a male, and then wanted to crawl into a cave in self-pity when she realized that the last man she’d been with had been Stephen Tanner, and that had been in her high school days.