Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Where’s Quinn? Is she okay?
“Don’t know,” Heisler calls back.
And he disappears out the door.
“Good riddance to that son of a bitch,” the other officer spits out as he secures his belt around his waist and follows.
“Wait!” I call.
But no one comes back. I need to call Quinn. I need a phone!
My heart thumps, and I yank on the bars. I can’t be sure this has anything to do with her or the rest of my family, but it’s too convenient. I get arrested two hours before he dies? He had to know I was taken into custody. Did he go after her?
Or was it Green Street?
I pace across the empty cell, the commotion outside quieting down. Cruisers race off, their sirens fading away.
Please let her be all right. Please…
Please let them all be safe. Reeves could’ve gone after anyone to hurt me, not just Quinn. What about Madoc?
I can’t stop the dread piling in my stomach.
The door to the room opens again, and Madoc walks in, still dressed in a light blue shirt with a black suit. The tie is gone now.
I rush to the bars as he closes the door. “Is Quinn safe?”
He slides a hand into his pocket, clutching his phone with the other. “She’s fine,” he tells me. “A little shaken up, but unharmed.”
“What happened?”
“Reeves went after her.”
I clench my fists around the cell bars. “What?”
“She’s okay,” he assures me. “She’ll tell you the rest. She’s outside.”
Exhaling, I drop my gaze. Thank God.
Madoc approaches me and stops barely a foot away. “Witnesses came forward and corroborated the story you told Quinn.”
Witnesses?
The guys on the banks of the river that night. Reeves’s crew.
Realization dawns. They work for Farrow now.
“You’re blameless in the death of David Miller,” he says. “My office feels that your hesitance to come forward was…understandable given the threat from inside our law enforcement.”
He keeps his voice low, but there’s something else in his tone.
He’s guarded, like he’s not sure how to handle me.
I must seem like a stranger to him now.
It takes a moment, but I clear my throat. “If you don’t prosecute,” I point out, “the town will see it as favoritism.”
“I agree.” He sighs. “If you’re amenable to community service, then it’s settled. You’re free to go.”
Pulling keys out of his pocket, he unlocks the cell, and we both open the door.
Standing in front of him, I wait for some signal. I don’t want to just walk out, because right now, we don’t feel okay.
His mouth opens, closes, then opens again. “I have never not been proud of you.” He lifts his eyes. “Between Jared, Jax, and me, we’ve done worse and more.”
Maybe. It didn’t feel the same, though.
“I lost Hunter for a while,” he tells me, “and then you…”
I had no idea he’d had trouble with the twins.
And with me abandoning him, he must’ve thought he was doing something wrong.
He almost whispers, “I’m sorry that you didn’t feel like you could fall.”
I shake my head. “It was nothing you did.”
He hugs me, and I feel my chest about to burst.
“Do you understand now?” He pulls back, looking at me. “The only thing that doesn’t make you a man is not getting back up.”
“I know that now.”
“When I was sixteen, you were my little brother,” he muses. “I wanted us both to forget our problems and only have fun, like The Lost Boys. But we became family, and I was prepared for it all because Fallon and I love you.”
I want to tell him I love him, too, but my throat swells, and I can’t talk.
“Don’t ever do that again, okay?” he teases.
I chuckle. “Never again,” I breathe out.
We start for the door, and I didn’t realize how much I had weighing on my shoulders. Drew is gone. Green Street is Farrow’s. Quinn is mine, and her brothers know.
I’m home.
I take the door, holding it open. “So does this community service afford time for me to get a job?”
I have money, but I can’t ask her father to trust me if I don’t have a steady paycheck.
But Madoc’s reply comes quickly. “Nope. Sorry,” he says. “The community service will be extensive, I’m afraid.” He leads the way out into the police station. “Weston needs a lot of help. Repairs and restoration, infrastructure re-established, fundraising, and they need to hire at least one cop, I think.”
“That’s a lot for one person to handle,” I retort.
Is he serious? That’s a full-time job.
He tosses a glance back at me. “It’s a mayor’s job.”
I stop dead. “What?”
He turns with a smile and holds out his hand. I take it, still processing. “Congratulations,” he tells me. “You’ll serve as provisional until the regular election, and then run for a four-year term.”
My face falls. “Madoc…”
Whipping back around, he starts to leave. “It’s not a discussion.”
I chase after him. “I’m not even a resident!”