Chapter Fifteen Thiago
Chapter Fifteen
Thiago
We were taken to the Carsville police station, where we were fingerprinted and thrown into a cell.
Danny was kept in isolation—I don’t know if it was because he was out of control or because they knew who his parents were and wanted to keep him protected.
Julian and I were placed in a three-man cell where some guy was already asleep on the grimy bench.
It was probably best that way—I might have killed Danny if he had been in there with us, and I let the cops know, even though, as they said, that could be used against me.
Julian barely spoke, which was fine by me.
I did apologize for his split lip, but that didn’t mean we were friends.
All I could think about was Danny Walker.
I prayed we’d get bailed out at the same time so I could finish what I’d started.
Maybe I’d get locked up again. Who cares.
If what Kam had told me was true, if he had made that video and uploaded it, he had to pay, and there was no way he could hide from me forever.
The dirtbag.
I didn’t regret what I’d done to him, and I doubted I’d regret anything in the future.
“Is it true about the video?” Julian asked.
Sitting on the floor and staring down, I said, “Yeah.”
I didn’t like Julian. I wasn’t sure why. Was I jealous because Kam seemed to like him so much? I don’t know, but I hated him for being so close to her.
“Is there any proof it was Danny, though?”
I looked up and at him. “Kamila said it was him. What more proof do you need?” For the first time in the hour since we’d been in that cell together, I truly paid attention to him.
Then something clicked in my head, and the image I had before me suddenly reminded me of something else, something similar.
Julian started going on about how he didn’t think Danny was capable of such a thing, even though he was an asshole, and how something was going on at school and it seemed like someone had it out for Kam and he was worried about her.
How he’d had an argument with her, and it had hurt his feelings and whatever.
He wouldn’t shut the fuck up, and I just kept staring at him because I was starting to realize something.
“You and I, we’ve seen each other before,” I said, standing up.
Julian trailed off. “What?”
“June thirteenth. Williamsburg. Brooklyn, New York. I beat a guy up, bad. My knuckles were bleeding like crazy. And you were in the cell with me. Just like right now.”
I watched Julian closely to see how he reacted.
“You’ve got the wrong guy,” he said, walking to the other side of the room. “I’ve never been locked up in my life.”
Bullshit.
I remembered it like a movie being projected inside my head.
I remembered his face, how relaxed he’d been.
I remember that because I’d envied him. I had been terrified.
I’d beaten a man, and they’d had to take him to the hospital.
I’d spoken to a public defender, he’d told me things weren’t looking good, I might get felony assault and do real time.
While I was nervous, frightened, cold—reliving the fight over and over in my head—there he was, completely at home. Like he knew he was going to be all right and he was just in there by mistake.
I remember how the cop had walked over and looked at him with disgust, with rage almost, and said, “You got out of it again this time, Jules. But someday, somebody will wipe that smile off your face, kid. I can only hope it’s me.”
Jules, as he was called then, smiled and stood, dusted off his clothes, and walked out, turning back briefly to wink at me.
I’d wanted to jump up and beat his ass, but I didn’t.
I couldn’t afford to make things worse for myself.
Coming back to reality, I stared at Julian.
No, this wasn’t the first time he’d been in jail. Or the second.
“Do I have the wrong guy, Jules?” I asked.
He turned around quickly. I’d caught the fucker. He’d reacted before he could stop himself. And as we stared at each other, I was absolutely certain that out of everyone locked in a cell that day, the only one who should definitely stay there was him.
“My name’s Julian,” he corrected me. But it was too late. I knew his secret. The only questions were why he had changed his name and what he had done to get locked up the last time.
“Yeah, right,” I said. “My mistake.” And I sat back down. No reason to show my hand too soon.
The satisfaction of remembering where I knew him from had almost made me forget how angry I was about Danny Walker, but soon the memory of what he’d done came back, and with it my rage. I needed to get my thoughts in order.
“Thiago Di Bianco,” a cop called out. “Someone’s paid your bail.” He took out a key and opened the cell.
“Who?” I asked as I stood.
“I don’t know. It’s a guy and a girl.”
“There’s no one for me?” Julian asked.
“No, now stand back as I open the cell.”
Julian caught my gaze before sitting back down.
“Hey, dude,” I told him, feigning an innocent expression. “Sorry for getting you wrapped up in this. You want me to call someone to…”
“My sister Kate’s on her way,” he said simply. I nodded and walked out.
The cop guided me down a long hallway into the waiting room.
Kam was the only person there. Her loose blond hair shining like always.
Her long legs clad in the same jeans she’d worn to the bonfire.
I’d been watching her in them from a distance, a drink in my hand, thinking how incredible she looked.
She had her sweater hanging over one arm—it was too hot in the police station to wear it.
Her white cotton shirt was snug, showing off her tiny breasts.
But none of that mattered, only her face.
Her precious face swollen from crying, and the worry in her eyes as she saw me.
She hurried over, hesitated for a moment, unsure whether to touch me. I decided for us both, grabbing her hand and pulling her close for a hug.
“Taylor’s…”
“I don’t care.” I cut her off, smelling her hair, her perfume.
My brother deserved better. Of course, he did.
I hadn’t lied when I said that, when I’d let her know what she was doing to him was wrong.
But my real motivation was to get her away from his arms, from his kisses.
I wanted her for myself. She and I, we deserved each other.
Right? I knew I’d hurt her when I told her I was testing her that time we’d hooked up, but of course, that wasn’t the whole story.
I knew she wanted me in a way she could never want my brother—some things are just obvious.
I was losing the ability to stay away from her, to pretend she didn’t matter to me, to deny the attraction I felt for her.
And it wasn’t just attraction. It was much, much more.
“I see you’re all right,” Taylor said, cutting short our embrace. I opened my eyes and found myself face-to-face with my brother’s tense, cold stare. The atmosphere was uncomfortable, and Kam didn’t know which one of us to look at.
“I talked to Perez,” he said, taking me by surprise.
Part of me had been ready for another possible confrontation, but this time with my own brother.
Perez was a hacker. He’d come in handy more than once.
What a coincidence it was for Taylor to mention his name, because I’d just been thinking about him on my way out of the cell.
Taylor continued: “I told Kami I asked him to look into what was going on with her Instagram. He said he’d try to have something for us in few days, but then when he got back to me, he made one thing clear: This isn’t just some regular guy doing this, it’s someone who understands firewalls and things like that.
Once he’s cracked one of your passwords, he’s in.
It’s not just someone fucking around. If he’s hacked Kami’s phone, he could have all kinds of other information about her.
For now, Perez hasn’t got much more for us. ”
“I already told you guys, it’s Danny. He’s the one behind this,” Kami said, hugging herself.
A cop came over and clapped my brother on the back with a smile. It took me a few seconds to recognize him.
“I heard you boys were back, but I sure as heck didn’t think I’d see you here,” he said.
Milo, his name tag read. It was the same cop who had driven us home when my sister Lucy died in the accident on the bridge eight years before.
Seeing him again made my heart ache. But he had been good to us, the father figure we needed when our parents went to the hospital with my sister, when they couldn’t be there for us because their grief was too great.
I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten his name, but I guess when you have a traumatic experience like that, you suppress the details because you don’t want to ever relive them again. Taylor must have felt the same as I did because he looked a little confused as well.
“How’s it going, Milo?” I asked, shaking his hand. Taylor followed suit.
“I hear y’all got in a fight?” he said, looking at me.
“Something like that.” I responded as Milo’s eyes glanced down at my bloody knuckles.
It looked worse than it was—I hadn’t had a chance to wash my hands, which were caked with dried blood, my shirt was torn, and there was dirt and blood on my pants and in my hair.
“I see.” He frowned.
“Sir, he was defending me,” Kami said.
“I know.” The cop looked at her. “I’m going to have a word with the sheriff, and we’re going to see if we can’t just pretend this never happened. No promises, though.”
I had to fill out some paperwork while Kam and my brother waited outside.
One look was enough to tell how tense they both were.
My brother looked like he wanted to smash something with his bare hands.
When I was done, I walked straight up to Kam.
Staring into her swollen eyes, I couldn’t forget for a second why we were there. “You should press charges,” I said.
“I don’t want to,” she answered. I could tell from her tone that my brother had already been trying to convince her of this.
“Why not?” I asked. “What he did is a crime. It’s sexual assault and an invasion of privacy. People can’t get away with that shit anymore. You need to file a report.” I tried to sound relaxed, hoping to be more persuasive that way.
“I just want to forget all this ever happened and go to bed.”
“Kam…”
“Kami…”
My brother and I had spoken her name at the same time.
“I appreciate everything you guys are doing, I really do,” she said, looking back and forth between us. “But there’s no way to prove it was Danny, and I don’t feel like starting a war and suffering more than I already have.”
“You’re wrong, though,” I said, taking a step toward her. I stopped myself from grabbing her hands since my brother was there. “If you don’t turn him in now, it may never stop.”
“I don’t want to get the courts involved, really.” She brushed her hair back from her face and sighed deeply. “Right now, I just need to get some rest. I don’t want to think about this shit anymore. Please.”
My brother started to say something, but just then the door opened, and we turned to see Kate. She was clearly nervous, but she forced a smile.
“I see you got out,” she told me.
“Yeah. Julian’s waiting for you.” I watched her closely.
She didn’t betray anything as she looked over at Kam. “Kami, I’m so sorry about what happened.” She seemed sincere. “I just want to tell you, I’ll never speak another word to Danny again, and neither will the rest of the girls. What he did is unforgivable.”
Kam blinked a few times, surprised, and nodded. “Thank you, Kate. Are you all right?” She had clearly noticed Kate’s sunken eyes. She didn’t look right, and she wasn’t even wearing makeup, which was strange for her since she always went around caked in the stuff.
“Yeah, of course,” she said, forcing a smile on us. Who was she trying to fool? “High school sure is getting crazy, right?”
“More like people from school,” Kam responded curtly.
Kate nodded and pointed at the counter. “I should go ahead and pay my brother’s bail.”
“How is he, speaking of?” Kam asked, looking at me.
“Good.” I answered coldly, unable to help it.
Kate looked at me with an odd expression, trying to figure out what was behind my tone. After all, Julian had been the one to pull me away from Danny.
“We’re going to go,” Taylor announced. “Do you guys need a ride or anything?”
“No,” Kate replied, “I drove here.”
I got behind the wheel, my brother sat next to me, and Kam got in the back.
I glanced at her in the rearview mirror.
No one said anything on the twenty-minute drive home.
When I parked and got out, I felt like a third wheel.
Taylor and Kam were looking at me strangely.
And all I could think about was how she should have been with me.
She should have been going up to my room so I could console her, take care of her, caress her until she fell asleep in my arms.
Kam was mine.
Not his.
“Good night,” I said, keeping my eyes on Kam another second.
Once I was in my room, the first thing I did was dial a number I knew by heart.
“Perez, what’s up, dude?” I said, peeking out the window. “I need you to find out whatever you can about Julian Murphy. If that doesn’t get you anywhere, try Jules. Jules Murphy. Please. It’s urgent.”
I told him I owed him one as I said goodbye and watched my brother and Kam enter the house. I heard their footsteps on the stairs, and the sound of the door across the hall being shut.
I was going crazy.
I couldn’t stand this much longer.