I tugged on it, trying to cover myself as the person stood, looming over me. Even using all my strength to scoot away was no use. Before I even got an inch, they backhanded me. Hard. Dear Lord, the pain. Blood filled my mouth as I fell back to the floor. Then they were on top of me, weight crushing me into the cold, hard floor, strong hands wrapped around my throat.
While I was choked, Trent’s sneering face came into focus. It was awful. This could not be the last thing I ever saw. I kicked and clawed at his hands, tried bucking him off me, but it was no use. I had no idea he was so strong. As the edges of my vision blurred, he leaned down, getting in my face. Was this all because of prom? Was he really so mad he would hurt me? It was impossible to voice these questions with his hands wrapped around my throat.
“I would love to make this last,” he breathed in my ear, making me want to gag. The scents of sour sweat and booze wafted up my nose. Some of his sweat dripped on my face. “But I have the feeling your boyfriend will be back any minute. So all I can say is, you can thank your sister for everything.” The awful smile that spread across his face had my blood curdling.
Wait. What? So many questions. What the hell does this have to do with Mia?
Thinking hurt too much.
There was a bunch of noise and maybe some flashing lights. I couldn’t tell, couldn’t hang on any longer. The pressure left my throat, but it was too late.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Cade
It took me exactly seven minutes to get there, but I still didn’t beat the cops. My heart pounded when I got out of my car and ran for the building. The cop at the entrance held his hands up. “You can’t go in there,” he barked out.
He was huge with short, dark hair and a gnarly white scar that started at the bridge of his nose, trailed under his eye, and across his cheek. I was pretty sure he had been the security guard that pulled me off Trent a while back.
“I was the one who called. It’s my girlfriend in there,” I yelled, ready to take on this muscle who carried a gun.
“Sorry, son, you’ll have to wait out here.” He shook his head, lowering his hands.
I wanted to shout, to attack him, to do anything to get in there, but I couldn’t. I wasn’t that stupid. Hands curling and uncurling at my sides, I shook with fury, hoping to God Ava was okay. She had to be okay. The officer watched me closely, as if thinking I would cause trouble. Then, his radio was going off, telling him to get an ambulance.
My blood ran cold. He confirmed and called it in. Everything moved in a blur while I stood there shaking. They hauled Trent out in handcuffs, making me see red. Charging toward him, I demanded to know what he did to her. He only smiled at me. Fucking smiled. I wanted to rip him apart.
Then I was being dragged away by that giant of a cop. The ambulance showed up, followed by more cops who had to keep the crowd of teens at bay. Rabia and Mason were at the edge, giving me horrified, questioning looks. But I couldn’t give them anything in return.
The officer took me to the curb. “Can you calm down? I don’t want to have to cuff you.”
I could only nod, falling to the curb. This couldn’t be happening. It was dreamlike, especially when the EMT’s brought Ava out on a stretcher. I surged to my feet, but the cop held me back with a hand on my shoulder. Her eyes weren’t open. She had a neck brace thing on, and the visible side of her face was swollen and red. She wasn’t dead, but I wanted to kill Trent for hurting her.
There was some yelling in the crowd of teens, and I looked over to see Rabia crying on Mason’s shoulder while he yelled at one of the cops holding the crowd back. A part of me wanted to go to them, but my entire body vibrated, the testosterone and adrenaline pumping through my veins. I needed to hit something.
“Can’t I go with her?” I pleaded, looking back at the cop who still restrained me.
“Sorry.” He shook his head again. “You’ll have to stick around, answer some questions. She’ll be all right. Her parents were already contacted.”
That meant nothing. I wanted to be with her, needed to be sure she was all right. But, you know, you can’t really argue with a cop, especially one who was being pretty understanding. On the plus side, I was going to help put that fucker in jail. So I watched them drive away with my girl.
He was right. A lot of questions were asked, and I told them everything I knew. Even Trent’s and my fight was brought up. The only questions I couldn’t answer were the ones they kept asking about Ava’s “twin sister.” I had no idea what Mia had to do with this. I had no answers. After way too long, they finally let me go. Rabia and Mason tried to get to me, but I ignored them and rushed to the hospital.
My hurry was pointless. Her parents were already there in the waiting room on the second floor, both of them looking shocked. Her mom rushed to me, tackling me in a bone-crushing hug, and Mr. Hart stood to give me a hard pat on the shoulder. I couldn’t handle Mrs. Hart’s sobbing; it racked me to the core. Emotions like this were too much for me, so I was glad when we sat and stayed silent, glad they didn’t ask any questions. I was too keyed up to answer any. A joint would have been helpful.
At one point, the cop with the scar showed up, and Mrs. Hart rushed him a lot like she did me. “Pierce!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him as if he were family.
Mr. Hart approached him too, and they talked for a long time in lowered voices before the doctor finally came out, letting her parents and this Pierce guy go back, but they wouldn’t let me. They had her in a high-security room, not allowing anyone but immediate family in. They didn’t come back out.
More cops showed up, Pierce coming back to the waiting area, all of them saying things about drug dealers and constantly talking about finding the twin sister. They had to be talking about someone else. Ava wasn’t mixed up in drugs—I knew for a fact, and I would tell anyone who questioned me as much.
What seemed like hours later, Mr. Hart came out with bloodshot eyes and sat next to me, resting his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. He looked defeated, completely broken, making a pit grow in my stomach. It had to be bad if he was this upset.
After a long minute, he sighed, sitting up to look at me. “Thank you, Cade,” he croaked.
Unable to handle any form of gratitude, I shot up from my seat. I was a prick. This was entirely my fault. He looked up at me with confused eyes. “Don’t thank me.” I shook my head, hands fisted at my sides. “I’m the dick who left her there. This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t left.”
He stood slowly, and I braced myself for him to hit me, but he only placed a hand on my shoulder, eyes full of sorrow. “You called the police. You did the right thing.” He squeezed my shoulder before letting go. “Why did you leave, though?”
Shame consumed me. It was such a selfish, pitiful reason. “She didn’t tell me about Vanderbilt. A girl told me during the dance,” I admitted, my shoulders slumping as I recalled the conversation.
I had mostly been annoyed when Sydney caught me at the drink table. She hadn’t given me any trouble since the party, which was nice because she was usually a drama queen. I thought I wouldn’t have to deal with her anymore, but apparently I was wrong. To get out of talking to her, I said I had to use the restroom, but she caught me at the door.
“Do you really think it will last with her?” she asked, with a look full of pity.
“Our relationship is none of your business, Sydney,” I bit out, wanting to run away because that exact question had been playing through my mind for the last week.
“But, really, how could it last when she’s moving so far away?” Her bottom lip stuck out in her exaggerated pout as my eyes snapped to hers.
“What are you talking about?” I tried to sound indifferent, as if I already knew, but it came out too angry.
She raised her eyebrows. “You don’t know?”
Then she told me how Ava had been accepted to Vanderbilt. How her parents had been scrounging every penny they could so she could go. All the while, I wat
ched Ava on the dance floor. I had no idea where Sydney got the information. Ava hated Sydney probably more than anyone else on the planet, but I didn’t care. It made too much sense. It was why she had been so distant. It wasn’t only because someone was prank calling her. No, she was moving away and expecting us to end when she did. What hurt the most was her lies. Why hadn’t she told me?
“That was the plan,” Jim said, bringing me back, but I didn’t know what we were talking about.
“Wait. What?” I asked, blinking rapidly.
“They planned on you leaving,” he told me, but I had no clue who “they” were.
“I don’t understand.” I shook my head, trying to clear it.
He proceeded to tell me Trent had basically rolled over, giving everything up in order to get a deal. The slime. Since that Pierce guy was a close family friend, he gave them as much information as he could. Apparently, Mia had gotten caught up in some drug ring at the school through her most recent boyfriend, Kenny. When Mia tried breaking things off with him, he started messing with Ava, hoping any threats on her would keep Mia in line.
Mr. Hart didn’t have much information about the group who was dealing prescription drugs at the school, but Trent and even Sydney were part of it. They both volunteered to mess with Ava because they hated her. Sydney had already been arrested and taken in for questioning, but they couldn’t find Kenny, which wasn’t surprising. The threats on Ava worked at first, but when they asked Mia to do something big at prom, she refused and was now nowhere to be found now.
No one knew where she was, not even her parents. Mr. Hart stumbled over this part, tears welling up in his eyes. He blamed himself, saying he should have done something when Mia first started acting weird, but they thought it was a phase. They had already reported her missing, and the search was now on since she was known to have a lot of information on the whole operation, including knowledge of the head supplier.
He broke down, leaning against the wall, silently shaking. Seeing a man cry dropped all my defenses. I wanted to comfort him, but I was feeling a large amount of guilt too. Everything he told me made me sick. I knew what it was like to get mixed up in drugs and the dangers that arose when dealing. I felt for Mia, hoping she could make it through this alive and still in one piece. If she were smart, she would find a way to disappear and never be found. You couldn’t get away from a drug chain, no matter how hard you tried. My biggest worry was, with Kenny missing too, that he was with her. The prick deserved to die.
While Mr. Hart wept, I grew anxious, needing to know whether Ava was okay. He finally calmed down, removing his glasses to wipe away his tears, then put them back on.
“I’m sorry.” He cleared his throat.
“Don’t be.” With wide eyes, I shook my head. Seriously, I couldn’t handle this shit.
“I can’t lose it in front of Keisha. She’s already having such a hard time. Mia’s gone, we almost lost Ava, and with Kai on another continent, this is breaking her. But I can’t always be as strong as I’d like.”
“Mr. Hart, you don’t need to explain.” I shook my head some more. It seemed a good thing to do in a situation such as this. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through.” I paused, rubbing a hand over my neck, squeezing until it hurt. “Is she… is she okay?” I croaked, a swell of emotion clogging my throat.
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat again. “She came to for a few minutes as soon as they brought her in. There’s a lot of bruising—” He broke off, squeezing his eyes shut. It had to be bad, that’s all I could think. The urge to throw up or hit something was overwhelming. He finally opened his eyes again, shaking his head. “She’ll be okay. They’re concerned about a concussion. He hit her on the side of the head with a bat. She’s in a lot of pain, but they will probably release her in a day or two if nothing else comes up.”
Scrunching my eyes shut, I rubbed my hands over my face, taking a few deep breaths. A bat. A fucking bat. I wanted to get a bat and beat the prick within an inch of his life. I wanted to break his legs and arms with it—break every single one of his bones. He needed to feel pain. A lot of it. She might be okay, but he deserved to die a long, slow death for hurting her.
When I looked back at him, he put a hand on my shoulder. “I should get back.” He sighed, and I nodded. “You could go on home, get some sleep. They’ll probably have her moved to a normal room by tomorrow.”
I wanted to say no, wanted to see her, needed to, but there was nothing to be done. I did need to change. I wasn’t sure I could actually sleep, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. If I sat there, I would go crazy. Okay, I would go insane anywhere, but I was pretty sure I would get kicked out of the hospital if I started breaking stuff.
“Yeah, okay. But could you tell her I was here and I’ll be back in the morning?”
“I will. Thank you again, Cade.” He gave me one more shoulder pat before going back through the double doors.
When I pulled up to the house, Darrel stood out front smoking. I snorted. Should’ve known he was the one who got my mom smoking again. Funny, with how caught up I’d been with my own shit, I hadn’t even realized he was a smoker. At a slow pace, I got out of the car and went to the porch. He gave me a nod when I sat on one of the steps. It was no use going inside—I wasn’t going to get any sleep.
“I heard there was some ruckus at your dance.” He paused, studying his burning cigarette. “Everything all right?”
I didn’t know if he was asking because he cared or to fill the silence. He seemed different—a little more caring than he was before. I never saw him as the dad type growing up, and I still didn’t, but it couldn’t hurt to vent.
“Some guy beat Ava up,” I told him, and he considered me with steady eyes, showing no emotion. “I left, because… well… I’m an idiot, but I guess they planned it. He attacked her while I was on the phone with her.” I rubbed my hands over my face, reliving the horrible, gut-wrenching moment on the phone. The loud crack, then her screaming before the phone went dead. It would haunt me for the rest of my life. “She’s at the hospital now, under high security or some shit. They won’t let me see her.”
He continued watching me in silence, took a long drag, then let the cloud of smoke out. I watched closely, remembering the burn, the taste, the feel of the nicotine. To say I wanted a smoke would be an understatement. I needed it. He must have read my expression. He reached in his coat, pulling out a pack and lighter and held it out to me. My hands shook when I took it from him.
It only took a second to have one in my mouth and lit. Taking that first sweet drag, filling my lungs, then slowly letting it out. My first cigarette in two years was pure ecstasy. Not that I wanted to pick the habit back up, but it soothed my nerves like nothing else could in that moment. He watched me some more when I handed the pack back to him and savored another drag.
“They get the guy who did it?” he asked after a long minute, and I nodded, staring at the hot ash on the tip of my cigarette. “So you didn’t get to beat the shit out of him?”
I snorted, took another pull, let it out. “I did once already. Almost did a second time, but she stopped me.” With a sigh I shook my head. “He hit her in the head with a fucking bat.”
His eyes became thin slits before he shook his head, then smothered his cigarette in an empty planter my mom never got around to filling with flowers. He may be a douche, may have cheated on my mom multiple times, but he never was abusive. Never once raised a hand at my mom or me.
Crossing his arms over his chest, he watched me finish my cigarette. “So why’d you leave?”
God, I hated that question—the cops and her dad had asked me the same thing. But I hated the answer even more because it made me sound and feel like a prick, which I was. “Ava got accepted to Vanderbilt. She didn’t want to tell me and some girl told me in the middle of the dance. I got pissed and left.”
“Vanderbilt, huh?” With wide eyes, he raised his eyebrows. “She must be pretty damn smart. Never knew you to date t
he smart type before.”
I grunted, shaking my head. “Should’ve known better. She knew it wouldn’t work out, which is why she didn’t tell me. I’m going to Seattle, she’s going to Nashville—it won’t work.” Saying it out loud ripped up my insides. Long-distance shit never worked. There was no way we would be the exception.
“Hey,” he snapped with a hard look. “Only one who decides whether it can work is you. You let her go, you’re the one giving up.”
It seemed as if he meant a lot more with those words than only that. Like, maybe he actually was deciding to make things work with my mom. I hoped so. The thought actually made me happy for my mom. If he stuck around, I wouldn’t have to worry about her as much, and she wouldn’t have to keep working so hard. If this was the new him, I could get used to it.
“I’m going in. Want me to leave the pack?” I shook my head. One was enough. “All right. Night, kid. Hope you figure things out with your girl.” With that, he went inside, and I stayed on my step to think over his words.
Surprisingly, I thought he was right. I couldn’t give up only because she was moving across the country. We could work something out. We still had two weeks of school to figure it out. I could help her get through this shit, and we’d be together.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Ava
In the hospital bed, I watched my mom sleep. Once the meds wore off, I couldn’t fall back asleep. Everything hurt—my entire body sore, my throat burning. I couldn’t imagine what I looked like. Even with the pain, I didn’t want any more pain meds. The icky sluggishness they brought with them was horrible.
My dad left the room a few minutes before, probably to get some coffee. That’s what woke me. Light streamed through the curtains, and the clock on the far wall told me it was almost ten. I was still tired, having been woken up by the nurses throughout the night to make sure I didn’t have a concussion.
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