Chapter Forty-One Blake
Chapter Forty-One
Blake
Creighton was gone when I woke up. Not that I was surprised.
I was wrung out, in the best way. There’d been talking, but honestly, not much of it.
His phone went off around five in the morning, and I barely stirred.
Since it was the weekend and since I hadn’t gotten to sleep till late, I decided to sleep in.
When I stirred, I grimaced at seeing the time. It was past ten in the morning. That wasn’t normal for me. But the house was quiet. Everyone else must’ve gotten back—I didn’t know. I never heard them come home. They must’ve passed out or were still sleeping?
Padding downstairs, I fought back a yawn and went to get some coffee.
There was no coffee in the pot.
Marshall always made the coffee. First thing in the morning, he dumped out the old and brewed a new pot. He was a coffee snob in that way. Huh. I made a pot and waited long enough to fill a cup before I went back upstairs.
I felt a bit silly, but a part of me didn’t want to shower. I needed to. I smelled like sex, only doing the minimal washing that was necessary after the last round. I smelled like Creighton. I liked smelling like Creighton.
I was loath to wash his scent off of me, but he’d left me a new sweatshirt, so after showering, I pulled on some leggings, a tank, and his newest sweatshirt. It smelled all of him.
I ran through what I needed to do today.
I had a paper due next week. There were a couple quizzes coming up.
I needed to figure out what I was going to do for money.
Time was even more precious with my added hours at the foster center, but I needed to get another job.
I had a nest egg that I could rely on. I’d been able to build that up slowly through high school, summers, and the rest of college, but the move to New York had depleted a lot of that nest egg.
It was only there because of Creighton’s help, to be honest. He always made sure I had what I needed for food, school supplies, and some extra spending money.
I tried refusing a couple times, but he’d show up, stock my room with whatever I needed anyways, and stalk out.
After I left Miss Marcie’s house, Creighton started to make sure the other foster homes were too scared of him to be anything other than polite to me.
There’d been a patch of time before he started doing that, though.
Eventually, the last of my foster homes allowed me to do what I wanted.
New York was the first time I let myself think I could maybe have something normal. I was to the point now where did I dare let myself believe I could have both? Creighton and friends?
I couldn’t change Creighton. I knew that. Would always know that. I needed to accept his limitations, too, but he said he would compromise. He said he would meet me halfway.
A flicker of hope was in my chest. A small one, but it was there.
Creighton wasn’t going anywhere. I wasn’t going anywhere. We could do this. And my friends weren’t . . . Actually, I went over to Palma’s room and tapped lightly on the door before opening it. She wasn’t there. That was weird. Had they come home before leaving for breakfast?
I went upstairs to check the boys’ room, and same thing. No one was there. The beds were a mess, so I couldn’t tell if they’d been slept in or not.
Going back to my room, I checked my phone for any text messages.
Palma: Heeyyyy!! Where are you??
Palma: Your foster brother is so hot. Can I just say he’s your brother? I know he’s not by blood, but does it matter?
Palma: Where’d you go?
Palma: Oh! Your brother said you went back with your man.
Palma: Marsh is coming. Is that okay? You took off so I’m assuming it’ll be fine.
Palma: Levi said it’s all cool.
Palma: Get some tonight! I know you probably are. Have fun. I might get some with your brother. Gawwwd, he’s so hot. Okay, okay. Ttyl xoxoxoxxoxoxox
Palma: I’m so drunk. Tonight is Fun
Heath: Heads up, Marsh is coming but your boy said you took off.
Marshall: I’m sorry for being a dickhead.
Can we talk later? I don’t like your man, but I’m getting that he and the boulder brother aren’t going anywhere.
I know I’ve been a dick lately. I don’t really know why, but I’m sorry.
Palma’s really into your boulder brother so if he’s just going to play with her, could you warn him off?
I don’t want her or you to get hurt. That’s all.
Heath: Do you know where Palma is?
Unknown: This is Spence. Can you call me when you see this?
Your friends were at my club last night and I just heard the lot of them were arrested.
One of the guys got into a fight with some other customers.
I don’t know why all of them were taken in, but I’m sure we can figure it out.
If we go down to the station together, as Octavia’s manager, I’ll see if the charges can be dropped.
I’m reluctant to ask, but could we leave Lane out of this?
His presence might tip the scale in a direction that might not be the best for your friends.
Holy shit.
Holy shit!
I had to reread his text because what the hell had happened last night?
There was no message from Levi, but there wouldn’t be.
He’d know I was with Creighton. Was this why Creighton got called away?
My old boss’s text was sent this morning at 7:23.
The last text before that was from Heath, just before two, when the bar would’ve closed.
All the other texts were around the same time, with Marshall and Heath’s a few minutes apart.
I called Spence.
He picked up almost immediately, sounding frazzled. “Hey. I was hoping to hear from you by now. I’m heading your way. Are you around? I want to head in and see if we can figure this out before the club opens today.”
“Uh. Yeah. I can be ready. I am ready, I mean. They were really arrested?”
“Yeah.” He still sounded distracted. There were other noises in the background.
Sounds from the street. “I made a call to a guy I know, and he said when they arrested the one guy, the others started protesting so much so they all were taken in. They were drunk. Shit happens. This happened in Octavia, so I’m sure I can get everything cleared away.
It’d help if you come with me since they’re your friends and you used to be an employee. ”
My head was swimming, and I needed to sit down. I gripped the phone tightly. “Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Anything. I just need to grab a few things.”
“Good. I’m just around the corner. Come out to the curb.”
“Okay. See you in a bit.” I hurried to grab my wallet, sliding it into my back pocket, and grabbed my coat and slipped on my shoes.
My heart was pounding when I stepped outside and sent Spence a text that I was outside.
I looked around for whoever Creighton had watching me today, but I couldn’t see anyone.
I’m sure he was there, and for once, I was appreciative for their discretion.
Spence asked to leave Creighton out of this, but no way would he be okay with me leaving without a tail. We just had a talk about compromise.
I didn’t have to wait long before a truck pulled over in front of me. Spence was driving, so I went around to get into the passenger side. “Hi.” My chest was tight.
He gave me a forced grin back, but got back into traffic before he could be harassed by other drivers.
“You know which station to go to?”
He nodded, checking his rearview mirror. His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. Really tightly.
He looked more stressed than he should’ve. It wasn’t like he’d been arrested.
I frowned. “Uh. Spence?”
“Yeah.” He threw me a fast look. “I just want to get there. Get this done with.”
Cool. Yeah. I got that.
I told myself to relax, except something was off. This didn’t feel right.
I tried to tell myself to relax.
I was certain this wasn’t the first time something like this happened at Octavia. And I was sure Spence was partially doing this so Creighton wouldn’t use this in any way against . . . Well, against someone. I wasn’t totally certain.
“Was there footage of the incident?” Was Levi taken in? “There would’ve been a really big guy with them. Did he get arrested too?”
“Uh. What?” He ran a hand through his hair, batting some loose ends away. He scowled. “Who are you talking about?”
“One of the guys with my friends. He—” Did I mention who Levi worked for? Would that help in this situation? I thought better of it. “Uh. Never mind. Do you know how many people were taken in? Was it all of them?”
He shook his head, still distracted. “I don’t know. They’re your friends. My night manager said they arrived with you.”
“Uh. Yeah.”
He nodded, more to himself. He kept nodding to himself. “Right. Right. We’ll get this figured out. Don’t worry. We’re almost there.”
I stared at him, and again told myself to chill. I wanted to know everything, but he was right. Just get to the station, and we’d go from there. More than likely there wasn’t anything I could do, except be there. It would be all Spence, and he was going in to help me out. Help my friends out.
That’s all I wanted.
Except as we kept driving, we began to head away from the main traffic roads.
My stomach began to shrivel up.
This wasn’t right.
He turned down a street that led to a bunch of warehouses, and lead lined my insides.
He parked outside of one of the buildings and turned the engine off.
Yeah. Crap. This was most definitely not a police station. Why hadn’t I acted on what my gut was saying?
I turned to him, ready to say something, anything for an excuse to get away from him, and that’s when I saw the gun.
He had it pointed at me, from the other side of him. He clipped out, “Give me your phone.”
Air punched out of me. “What?”
“Give me your fucking phone!” He pounded on the steering wheel with his free hand.
He was furious.