Chapter 32
Hailey
“Everyone out!” an officer of the Las Vegas Metro Police Department barks at us the moment the door of the cabin slides open.
The High Roller is temporarily halted. Strangers stuck in their cabins overhead stare down at us all, kept entertained by the drama unfolding below as we all step out onto the platform.
We are glowered at by attendants of the attraction, a couple security guards, and four police officers who are not impressed.
I’m shaking like a leaf as I line up on the platform next to Theo, innocently holding my hands up in front of me.
“It’s okay,” he whispers, but I’m not sure it will be.
“Who was involved?” an older officer with a mustache asks, and the security guards scan the nine of us lined up like criminals on the platform before them, before pointing out the guilty.
“Definitely the two shedding blood,” one says, gesturing to Liam and Connor.
“All of the men, I’m sure,” the other says, and John and Jameson exchange indignant glances with one another at being lumped in with the others.
Addy steps forward out of the line. “Officer, please. We’re all friends. We can sort this out between ourselves. There’s no need for—”
“We have zero tolerance for violence here on the strip,” Mustache interrupts.
He brandishes a pair of handcuffs from his duty belt and makes brief eye contact with each of the guys.
“You six are being detained for now until we get a good look at the security footage. Don’t worry. No one is under arrest.”
I gasp as he reaches out for Theo first, pulling his arms behind his back and sliding the metallic cuffs around his wrists.
I liked it better when the handcuffs Theo wore were pink and fluffy and attached to me—not these.
I press a hand over my mouth in disbelief, my damp eyes full of sympathy. This is a nightmare.
“Hails, it’s okay,” Theo repeats a second time. He looks pale, almost numb.
Mustache and one of the other officers work their way down the platform until all of the men are handcuffed, patted down, and IDed, while another heads off with the security guards to review the video footage from the cabin. A fourth takes a statement from Trina.
I want to cry again, but I will myself to keep it together.
We are dealing with the freaking cops right now, and I can’t just burst into tears because I’m scared.
I wanted this weekend to be so incredibly amazing for Adelaide—I wanted her to have memories to cherish forever, to return home to Boca Raton with her heart full, more excited than ever for the countdown to her big day, but instead .
. . Instead, I have discovered I’m an awful, awful best friend.
Because I knew something wasn’t quite right in her relationship with Liam, and yet I never questioned it. Never asked. Never helped her.
I glance down the platform at Connor, staring stoically straight ahead, lips in a bold line. If he hadn’t said anything today, would Addy have ever told any of us? Was she seriously going to go ahead and marry Liam six weeks from now? This was the life she was planning to endure?
What if it still is? What if this revelation changes nothing?
I bite the inside of my cheek, hard, as more tears push at the corners of my eyes. I reach over for Addy’s hand and take it tightly in my own, and she looks at me with lines of mascara down her cheeks, bloodshot eyes, and creases of worry in her forehead.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper, and she aggressively shakes her head at me.
“No. I’m the one who’s sorry,” she croaks, “for lying to everyone.”
The officer reviewing the cameras with the security guards returns to the platform, a notepad in his hand.
“All right,” he says, quickly skimming over his notes.
“You”—he points to Jameson—“you”—John—“and you, Sergeant”—Connor—“are free to go.” He moves between the three of them, releasing the cuffs from their wrists as they collectively sigh with relief.
Mustache then says, “The rest of you are getting booked for battery,” and that’s Theo, Liam and Tyler. He pivots toward Evie, beckoning her to come closer with the curl of his index finger. “And you, Miss Sinclair, are joining them.”
“Me?” Evie gasps.
“For assault,” Mustache clarifies. He takes a large step toward her and grapples with her wrists as she defiantly tries to pull away in disbelief. Eventually, the cuffs click shut, and she gapes at me, at Addy, at Jameson, at anyone who can help her.
“Just stay calm,” Addy says, but her voice is frantic and far from calm herself.
Jameson cups Evie’s face in his hands, forcing her to look him in the eye as he talks some reassurance into her. “Follow instructions and don’t do anything stupid. Be compliant and polite. We’ll get you out of there, okay? You’ll be fine, Evie, I promise.”
“I don’t want to go to jail!” she wails, throwing her head forward into Jameson’s chest. He strokes her hair soothingly and exchanges a look with Addy, who hangs her head in her hands helplessly.
An officer tugs on Theo’s arm, guiding him off the loading platform.
There are patrol cars parked down on the street below.
Another officer pulls Evie away from Jameson.
Tyler has a face like thunder as he’s escorted away, and Liam .
. . Liam does not say a single word this entire time.
He doesn’t look at any of us, and he certainly does not look at Addy.
The guilt drips from his face, because this is all his fault and he knows it.
Theo is going to jail now because of him!
Evie, too, and Tyler, who was only trying to stop the damn fight.
“Theo,” I call out, and he glances back at me over his shoulder. “We’ll bail you out.”
“You guys better,” Theo says, then manages a smirk.
“I’m too hot to spend the night in jail, Hails.
” Because even when he is being arrested, Theo can’t refrain from being his usual cocky self.
Despite the weight of the situation, I manage to roll my eyes at him, feeling the tightness in my chest ease slightly.
“Where are you taking them?” Addy calls out to the officers.
“Clark County Detention Center,” one answers, and then they continue on down a set of steps to the ground, taking half our group with them.
“Just to be clear,” the High Roller attendant says, hands on his hips, “you’re all banned from LINQ property. So leave. Right now.”
We don’t wait around a moment longer to discover what will happen if we don’t comply with that order.
We are in enough trouble as things are, so we stride back along the LINQ Promenade with adrenaline pumping through all of our systems. We don’t stop walking until we reach the sidewalk of Las Vegas Boulevard—safely back on public property.
“What the fuck do we do now?” John asks, rubbing his temples as the five of us form a small circle to solve the massive problem we have on our hands.
Around us, everyone else is still happy in their Vegas bubbles, while ours has burst. “Do we call the jail? Do we need to call a bondsman? Depending on how much their bail is, maybe I can afford to get Tyler out of there . . .”
“It’ll be hours before the jail tells us anything,” Jameson says, remaining cool-headed.
“We just have to keep calling every hour until they’ve decided their bail amounts.
When they do, I’ll bail Evelyn out.” He casts Addy a look, seeking her approval.
“If that’s okay, with you, of course. I don’t want to overstep, but I’d like to help her if I can. ”
Addy nods, a fatigued sigh escaping her, and says, “I’ll pay Theo and Liam’s bail.”
“I think you should leave Liam in there,” Connor says. The swelling has set in to his mouth now, his lower lip inflated and cut open. “Let him spend a night in the cells and see the judge in the morning. It’s the least he deserves.”
“Yeah, Adelaide. Fuck him,” John says with an encouraging nod.
Addy ignores John, instead stepping through the circle we have formed and standing directly in front of Connor instead. “You,” she says. “You didn’t fight back. You just let Liam hit you.”
Connor tilts his head to one side, studying Addy carefully, and I can’t get a read on her right now, either. “As much as I would have loved to hit him back, Addy, it would not have been worth the call of shame to my First Sergeant to tell him I’d been arrested. Did you want me to hit him back?”
“No,” Addy says, and she tilts her chin up fiercely, her blue eyes narrowing, as she growls, “I wanted you to keep your mouth shut like I begged you to. Look what you’ve done, Connor! This is all your fault.”
“Hey, hey,” I say, squeezing in between them and pushing them apart. Tensions are high, and we don’t need a second fight erupting, so the mediating is left to me. “I don’t think that’s fair, Addy. This is Liam’s fault.”
“Yeah, your fiancé seems like a douchebag,” Jameson mumbles, and Addy glares at him with intense, penetrating eyes. She is a force to be reckoned with right now. “Sorry.”
“Look,” I say, frantically holding out my phone to the group as I search for the Clark County Detention Center on my maps, “the jail isn’t far. There’s a Starbucks next door. Let’s just Uber over there, get some coffees to sober up, and wait for their bail amounts to be listed. Okay? Okay?”
“Yes, let’s do that,” John agrees.
I’m not usually one to have all the answers in a crisis, but Theo is in jail—and we need to get him out of there.