Chapter 57
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
LOLA
I’m crying so hard I can’t see the keys in my hand.
My fingers are shaking. The truck lock blurs in front of me. I jab the key at it once, twice, miss both times, and a sob rips out of me that sounds like it belongs to someone else.
“Lola!”
A voice cuts through the crowd. I turn, and Harper is running toward me, weaving between the gawking idiots with their phones still raised. “You’re in no state to drive, girl. Come with me.” She holds out her hand.
Violet looks at me. Completely lost. I nod, I don’t have the energy to explain. I grab Hunter’s hat from the ground, and we follow Harper around the back of the building to a silver sedan parked in the shadows.
We pile in, Harper turns on the engine, and I let out a breath that is burning in my lungs.
“Call Ace,” she says calmly. Almost like she’s used to this manic life.
I blink at her, pulling out my phone with trembling hands. “I—I don’t have his number.”
Harper nods and recites it from memory. Every digit. Without hesitation. I type it in and hit call.
“Do not mention me,” she says quietly.
Ace answers after two rings, breathing heavy. “Who is this?” he grunts.
“Lola.”
“Oh.” His voice changes completely. “Hi, Lola. What's up?”
“Hunter got arrested in Red Creek. He’s been taken away. He told me to call you, that you’d know what to do.” The words tumble out of me in a rush, tripping over each other.
“Fuck.” A pause. “Fuck.”
Something smashes in the background.
“Where are you? I need to come and get you first. He’d kill me if I left you there.”
I half laugh and half sob. The sound that comes out is barely human. “It’s okay. A friend is driving me home,” I say quietly, glancing at Harper, who can’t even look at me.
“Actually.” I sit up straighter. “I’m going to the station.”
Harper now looks at me. Violet leans forward from the back seat and smacks my arm.
“Uh. Shit. Okay.” Ace regroups fast. “I’ll sort out what I need to on my end. I’ll send Colten to the station to meet you. I’ll stay here with Wyatt. We gotta figure out where they’ve taken him and if we can get in.”
“Alright. Well, I’ll keep you in the loop. Thank you, Ace.”
“You sure you’re good, Lola-pop?”
I press my lips together. Holding back the tears. “Yes. And that nickname is atrocious. Try again.”
He chuckles. “I’m glad Hunter married you.”
We say our goodbyes and cut the call.
I glance at Harper. Her hands are tight on the wheel.
Her jaw is set. And her eyes are glassed over in a way that has nothing to do with the road.
She was listening to his voice. She looks like she’s holding on to the sound of him like a woman pressing a bruise just to feel it.
And then it clicks. Every little comment Hunter has made about Ace.
The way he said his brother would never get over his first love.
She’s the girl.
“Harper,” I whisper.
She turns to me and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand.
“He isn’t over you either,” I say softly.
She chokes on a laugh. “Oh. I’d say he is.”
I need to know what happened between them. But now isn’t the time.
Harper pulls onto the main road. “So, to the station? I have no idea if that’s where they’ll keep him. Depends if he’s being questioned or thrown in a cell. We won’t get near him if he’s actually in jail.” She glances in the mirror. “Let me make some calls.”
She starts talking to people through her Bluetooth.
Names I don’t recognize. Questions I can barely follow.
Everything blurs. The road, the streetlights, the sound of Harper’s voice negotiating with people who speak in codes and half-sentences.
I guess reporters can get themselves into places others can’t.
She better not screw over Hunter, but my gut is saying trust her. That the pain she’s showing for Ace is enough.
All I can think about is Hunter. His face pressed into the hood of that truck. The sound the cuffs made when they clicked shut. His hat rolling into the gutter.
I need to get to him.
“Okay. We will try this station first and see if I can get some answers for you. We might be waiting around a while, though.”
Tears stream down my cheeks as I nod. I didn’t realize there were this many places he could go to. Everything about his case, this charge, is backwards.
Like Hunter says, it all seems like a big setup, but I’m not going anywhere until I find him and I see him.