Chapter 41
Orion
I stare down at the feet shuffling about the wait area, while the chatting next to me continues.
The entire family is here: the Riveras, Torreses, Reeds, Carusos, Fletchers, Prestons, and Navarros, of course.
Even Melody and her dad are here. Everyone wants to show their support for Sunny …
or witness the onslaught that’s about to happen, because our families are being torn apart.
“How long is this going to take? Hmm?” Lana, Sunny’s mother, complains to one of the employees standing at the desk inside the police station. “We’ve been waiting for hours.”
“I can’t believe Sunny got arrested,” Max mutters in the chair next to me. “She was always so careful not to get caught.”
“I thought she was supposed to be the smart one,” Silas jests, but no one is laughing.
“Ma’am, please sit down,” the employee at the desk tells her mother, but she’s not listening.
“What are we going to do?” Levi asks, running his fingers through his hair. “None of this was supposed to happen.”
“Please don’t tell me this has something to do with the phone she borrowed from me,” Elliot mutters under his breath, and everyone looks at him like he just handed the cops a smoking gun. Elliot’s father, Milo, puts his finger against his lips and silences him.
How did it end up like this?
I thought she had herself covered.
And how did Atreus escape?
I turn my head and look in the other direction, toward the Caruso camp.
Aspen and Xavier are sitting next to each other, but neither of them has spoken a word since we came in.
Xavier’s been scratching his leg nonstop, and a part of me wants to grab it and make him pause, but he probably needs this to work through his emotions.
I’ve gone numb, and my brain feels so fuzzy. All I can think of is how lonely it must be for her, locked away in that cell, and how we’re going to solve this mess, if there is even anything to solve at this point.
We helped her build her traps. We’re just as much implicated in this as she is.
Are we next?
“There must be something that can be done to speed this up, right?” Nathan barks at the employee at the desk.
“I demand to speak with my daughter,” Lana says.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but she is an adult and does not require her parents for processing.”
Lana slams her hand on the desk, and the employee is taken aback, but Kai, one of her other lovers, grabs her hand and pulls it off the desk.
“Thank you for assisting us. Please let us know when we can visit Sunny,” he says, and he leads Lana away from the desk.
The woman nods and waltzes off into a room up ahead, leaving us all to ourselves, steaming to ourselves in the wait room.
“Bitch,” Lana mutters.
“There must be something we can do, right?” Cecilia asks.
“Like what? Break her out?” Heath snorts. “Good luck with that.”
Apollo smashes his fist into his own hand. “I’m willing to try.”
“No, absolutely not,” Ares, Apollo’s dad, interjects.
Apollo rolls his eyes. “Boring.”
“The police have already arrested her,” Caleb, Heath’s dad, says. “Which means they’ve got the evidence.”
“Bullshit,” Nathan barks. “What evidence?”
“They raided her room,” Aspen suddenly says, and everyone looks at her. “Some of my friends saw them go in there.”
“Shit,” Elliot mutters to himself. “It must be the phone, right? Oh God, I’m gonna get implicated.” He buries his face in his hands.
“It’s gonna be okay,” his dad says, rubbing his back.
“What is she being accused of again?” Melody asks.
“Murder,” Silas fills in before anyone else can. “Multiple. And people say it happened at school too.”
“Do you think she really did it?” my mom, Crystal, asks.
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Xavier’s mom, Penelope, replies. “She erased my men like they were just meat bags in her way last year.”
Lana shoots darts from her eyes. “If you hadn’t sent them, they wouldn’t have died.”
“Don’t start fighting again. Not now, please,” Alistair says, groaning out loud.
“He’s right. We have to keep our heads together,” Felix says, ruminating from a corner.
“Why didn’t you intervene?” Nathan barks at him. “You’re the fucking dean. You should’ve stopped her.”
“I tried,” Felix barks back. “You think she listens to me? Does anyone in this fucking room?!”
“Guys, guys, please. Let’s all chill and have a drink.” Aspen’s dad, Dylan, comes back with a tray filled with cups of coffee. “I have Mocha, Cappuccino, Espresso.”
Kai narrows his eyes at him. “Are you for real right now?”
“Drinks aren’t going to get my kid out of jail, Dylan,” Lana growls.
“No, but at least it keeps your head cool. Or maybe hot in this case. Since I ain’t serving iced coffees.” He makes a clicking sound with his teeth.
“You’re not as funny as you think you are, Caruso,” Kai deadpans.
The rest just stare at Dylan.
“Oh, come on,” he complains. “It’s gonna be a while, and if we have to wait for hours, might as well hydrate ourselves, don’t you think?”
Alistair raises his brows and gets up from his seat to go grab a cup. “Caffeine keeps the brain functioning.”
“So we’re just going to sit here and wait until the cops tell us about her charge and when her court date will be?” Atlas asks while Crystal goes around handing everyone a cup from Dylan’s tray, so at least everyone has a drink, and Dylan’s effort isn’t in vain.
Xavier suddenly gets up off his seat and growls. “No, I won’t accept it.”
“What, that she’s a serial killer?” Silas asks. “Because you know me, and me and her, we’re the same kind of animal.”
Xavier grinds his teeth, grabs his coat, and waltzes off.
“Where are you going?” Penelope asks.
“Out,” he replies.
I stare up at the door he just waltzed through to my right, while to my left my mother holds a cup of coffee in front of me.
“Here, drink something. It’ll take the edge off things.”
But that’s just it. I don’t want anything to take the edge off, because if I did, I’d be right back where I started, spiking my drinks, sipping hard liquor in broad daylight, just to get away from the truth.
Life made me want to die.
But she … she made me feel more alive than ever, and like this life that I had in front of me was worth living.
And I don’t want to give that up.
I refuse.
I get up and chase Xavier while the rest of the family waits for news.
I don’t know where he’s going, but anywhere is better than sitting around moping in this white room. He’s marching straight for the exit, and I catch him halfway there.
“What are you planning?”
“Nothing,” he says.
My lip tips up into a half smile. “I want in.”
His brows draw together. “How did you—”
I hold his arm. “I know you.”
He looks around to make sure no one’s listening. “He escaped while you were watching him.”
I rub my lips together. “Actually, I wasn’t.”
“What?!” Xavier roars.
I cover his mouth with my hand. “Not so loud.”
“You left him?” he hisses.
“What was I supposed to do? Just sit there all day and do nothing?”
“Yes!”
I shrug. “I had classes.”
“You knew he was going to arrest her if he got out.”
We’re whisper-yelling at each other. “You’re the one who ran off.”
“To help her.”
“So was I.”
“By leaving him?” he seethes.
A cop passes us, and we both go deathly quiet.
“I need to think,” Xavier growls, rubbing his hair. “Outside.”
He marches off again, so I follow in his footsteps. When we’re out and about, he walks to a little park down the road, and I chase him. He sits down on a bench, so I sit down right beside him.
“Can you fucking let me breathe?”
“No. I need to know what your plan is.”
He eyes me up and down. “You think I still trust you?”
I grimace. “I didn’t let him out.”
“Right …”
“I would never betray her.”
“Then who did?”
“You’re forgetting the possibility that maybe he freed himself,” I suggest.
He snorts. “Right. From those knots? I don’t think so.”
“There were multiple cops there during the search, according to Aspen’s friends. Maybe he got a hold of a cell phone somehow or a beeper.”
He looks away to mull things over. “Someone must’ve given it to him.”
“Wasn’t me. I swear,” I say, holding up my hands.
He narrows his eyes at me. “Fine. Say it wasn’t you. That means we’ve got another enemy.”
“Or maybe, he already had it with him when we tied him up.”
“Where?”
My shoulders slump. “His pants? I don’t know.”
He rolls his eyes. “You’re throwing things out there.”
“Because I don’t understand it either, but it doesn’t matter. She’s locked up now, and it’s up to us to be there for her, like we swore we would. I just don’t know how. I thought you would know…”
It’s quiet for some time as we both stare at the greenery around us.
“Are you with me?” he asks out of nowhere.
I nod. “Whatever you’re thinking, let’s do it. Can’t be worse than things already are.”
He nods and gets up. “Then let’s go pay someone a visit.”
“Who?”
His teeth grind together as we walk toward his car. “A deceitful pig.”
Xavier
The moment I spot that motherfucker’s face appearing around the corner, I signal Orion, and we jump out of the car and follow him around the corner toward an apartment building. I tracked him down thanks to Sunny’s notes. This must be where he lives.
Right before the front door of the building closes behind him, I put my foot between, and we slip through. He presses the elevator button, but a creak makes him glance over his shoulder.
His eyes widen.
Too late.
THWACK!
My fist makes contact with his cheek, and I pummel him into the elevator door.
“You motherfucker!” I growl, grasping him by the shirt. “You arrested her?”
Atreus attempts to throw a punch, but Orion jumps in to grab his arm and pins it to the elevator door. “Like hell you will.”
“Too late,” he retorts.
I punch him again for the sheer audacity.
“Why?” I grit, tightening my grip on his shirt.
“She needed to be stopped,” he replies.
“She was taking out the trash,” Orion says.
“That’s what the police are for,” Atreus says, glancing between the two of us.
“How the fuck did you even escape the basement?” I ask.
There’s an arrogant smirk on his face. “Beeper in my pocket. Now fucking unhand me before I bring you in too.”