Chapter Thirty-One
Crawford County Jail
When the guard opened Nate’s cell, he didn’t know what to think. Far as he knew, he didn’t have a meeting with Cal today. Maybe Sam had finally gotten cleared to visit, and he was being taken to the civilian meeting room.
But he was brought out without anyone putting on handcuffs or anything else. And Cal stood there in the aisle between cells, instead of in one of the partitioned rooms.
“What’s going on?” Nate asked when no one spoke.
“You’re being released,” Cal said.
His tone was serious. His composure a kind of detached, lawyer thing Nate didn’t know how to read.
“Released?” The words quite honestly did not compute, especially in the serious way Cal delivered them. “Released how?”
“Released as in charges dropped. Let’s collect your personal belongings and get you out of here.”
Nate found himself more than a little speechless as he was led through the process of getting his things back, putting his own clothes back on. Returned to Cal, who led him toward the exit of the jail.
The exit. Released. Charges dropped. He was in his own clothes. And Cal hadn’t said more than a handful of meaningless words.
Nate hadn’t allowed himself to hope for this moment, to imagine it, so now that it was here, nothing seemed quite right. Maybe he was dreaming.
“Are you going to tell me what the hell happened? Because you don’t seem all that happy, and it’s starting to fuck with me, Cal.”
Cal sighed. “They found the real killer. Brian Mathews.”
“That prick?” Nate didn’t know what to think of that … at all. He’d had a few run-ins with Officer Mathews and had never once been impressed. But this still didn’t compute. “How the hell did he know Jules?”
“I’ll explain everything, but there’s something I have to tell you first.”
Which sounded dire. “You’re freaking me out.” Nate looked around the parking lot, expecting to see someone else. Particularly… “Where’s Sam?”
“We’re going to go see her right now. Just…” Cal trailed off and came to a stop.
Nate did too when he saw who was standing at Cal’s car.
Hayes.
For a moment, Nate felt a rage so blinding, he moved forward without even thinking it through or what he’d do once he reached Hayes, but Cal grabbed his arm before he got too far.
“Don’t,” Cal warned. “You just got out of jail.”
The fury in him wasn’t too worried about going back if he got to land a fist in Jake Hayes’s fucking face. If he was released, if someone else had done it—a cop no less—had Jake known all along? Nate wasn’t sure hatred was an adequate word for what was roiling through him.
It was only the fact he just wanted Sam that cut through the pounding need to land a blow.
He was still surprised she wasn’t here, but maybe Cal had told her not to be. Cal would take him home and then…
Home. God, he could cry, and that was pathetic. So he focused on anger and Jake fucking Hayes.
“What are you doing here, Jake?” Cal said, sounding so exhausted Nate was about to get even more worried.
Because he should be pissed, not weary.
“We don’t need this right now.”
But Jake didn’t look at Cal. He was looking at Nate. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, and while he looked pissed, he didn’t look … smug or antagonist.
“I owe you an apology.”
An apology. For falsely imprisoning him? For … all of this?
Nate snorted. “Go fuck yourself and your apology.”
Jake’s expression went hard. “The evidence pointed to you.”
“Fake evidence, apparently. Since I didn’t kill anyone. Did you help him plant the evidence, or are you just that shitty at your job?”
Jake didn’t respond to that right away. His jaw worked.
He looked a bit like he was swallowing something sour. “I made a mistake. I made a lot of mistakes. No, I didn’t help that prick, but I certainly made it easy on him. So, I’m sorry. Maybe an apology means nothing. That’s fair.”
“You’re damn right it’s fair.” Nate looked at Cal. “I don’t want to fucking do this.”
“But I’m apologizing either way,” Jake said before Cal could do anything about it. “I imagine someone will talk you into suing me or the department. That’s your right.”
“Thanks for the permission, asshole.”
“But regardless of what you decide to do, I wanted it to be clear. I apologize. I made a mistake, and I am sorry for it. I will always be sorry for it.”
Nate nearly hated him as much for this apology, that seemed genuine, as for everything else. Because an apology didn’t change jack shit, even if Nate understood that people fucked up and made mistakes.
And if Jake was telling the truth, he hadn’t meant to make the mistake.
It didn’t change the fact he’d hurt Sam in the process or fucked with Nate’s entire damn life.
So he didn’t offer Hayes any platitudes. He didn’t offer him anything. He moved around him and got in the passenger side of Cal’s car. He closed his eyes and tried to breathe through everything roiling around inside of him. Relief and fury and … too many other complicated things to name.
He could vaguely hear Cal talking to Jake outside.
“See? I can admit when I’m wrong,” Hayes said to Cal, presumably.
Cal snorted. “Yeah, way to go, champ. You want the name of my therapist too?”
“Maybe.”
None of that made any sense to Nate, and he didn’t want to make sense of it. He just wanted Sam.
A few moments later, he heard the driver’s side open. The sound of Cal getting in the car, starting the engine. The feel of the car moving under him.
Cal still said nothing, and Nate just … didn’t want him to anymore. He just wanted to be home. With Sam.
“Where is Sam?” he asked, sounding strangled even to his own ears. “Home?” he asked hopefully, still keeping his eyes closed.
“No, Sam’s not at home.”
“She’s at work?” Maybe she needed to distract herself until he was home. That was okay. He didn’t really want to go to Honor’s Edge right now, but—
“No, she’s not at Honor’s Edge.”
Which just left the ranch. Nate inwardly groaned. “I don’t know that I can deal with the ranch right now, Cal. Can’t she just—”
“Don’t flip out,” Cal interrupted.
Nate’s eyes opened and he looked at his brother. Still in that careful lawyer mode.
“Flip out about what?”
“We’re going to the hospital. She’s out of surgery. She’s recovering. She’s going to be just fine.”
“Surgery? Recovering?” Nate nearly leaped across the center console. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Cal’s gaze remained steady on the road as he drove.
“Part of discovering Brian Mathews was the killer was Brian Mathews kidnapping Olivia Underwood, tricking Sam into meeting them at the TikTok Motel, and then trying to kill them both. Luckily, Hayes had figured it out before … well, they’re both all right, but Sam had a …
minor gunshot wound in the process of being all right. ”
“Minor…” He couldn’t even say the words. He couldn’t absorb any of that. Didn’t want to. “Take me to the hospital.”
Cal nodded. “That’s where I’m headed.”