valentine

The well dressed men kept smiling. He was tall and had auburn hair and warm brown eyes. He had broad shoulders and he his coat was covered in little specks of snow and some had melted into droplets of water. There were some on his eyelashes but he blinked them away.

“Hello, dearie,” one said to the officer. “You’ve at least got to read ‘er rights.” He said everything with a confidence that seemed to annoy the officer immensely.

“What rights?” The officer was visibly bothered by this suggestion. He rolled his eyes as the man moved to shake his free hand. The officer moved his hand out of the way.

The man couldn’t’ve had more than 25 years of life. His youthful face screamed jovial ignorance, but his eyes hid something…

“I am Mister Tide, attorney at law; how d’ya do?” He still had his hand out even though the officer had put Violetta in the paddy wagon, which was turned around to face the shop, away from the rest of the crowd.

Mister Tide’s companion had inched closer to Violetta.

“You see, my client is innocent ’til proven guilty. Who knows if she actually did…whatever she did.” Mister Tide smiled a million dollar smile.

“She’s been wanted for many crimes. Where were you then?”

Tide ignored him. “My brother, Mister Tide numero two, is prepared to help in any way possible.”

His brother pulled out a hairpin and started to picked the lock open while his brother kept stalling the entire crowd of police.

He was shorter than his brother, but not by much. He was, at most, 23. He had a much more youthful face and innocent than his counterpart. “Come on!” He grabbed Violetta’s hand as he finally freed her from the carriage. He pulled her towards the horse and buggy that was inconspicuously parked at the end of the street.

Mister Tide (the one who was speaking) saw his brother out of the corner of his eye and said, “Well, I’d like to stay and chat, but I’ve gotta get my client, or rather my fellow criminal to freedom.” He took off running, a crowd of the officers chasing him, and he hopped into the driver’s seat. He seized and they took off. When they had lost the police from behind them, he gave the reins to his brother and climbed into the buggy to talk to Violetta.

“I am Gideon Tide, and my brother’s name is Mason.” Gideon shook Violetta’s hand as Mason sped down the road, not stopping for pedestrians. Mason called back, “Where to now?”

Gideon replied, “You know.”

And with that, Mason made a sharp turn away from the main road.