Things haven’t been easy over the past week, especially with all the shit that went down with Monica yesterday. He hasn’t forgiven me for keeping him in the dark and I haven’t exactly been forward with an apology about it. Then add the Anton bullshit and it’s been a complete mess.
Luckily for us, the physical side of our relationship seems well intact. Noah and I are just…compatible. We’ll get past this all this bullshit and when we do, we’ll be free to soar once again. It’s just a bump in the road, though I guess you could say it’s a fucking ditch now that he got arrested. That fucking idiot. Who would be stupid enough to get arrested?
Though, maybe it’s about racing. No, it wouldn’t be that. He’s too careful when he races. It’s definitely the shit he’s doing for Anton. Besides, the races weren’t on tonight.
How am I supposed to actually bail him out? I’m not over eighteen. Does that even matter? Does it cost? Fuck. I am not equipped for this. What was he thinking?
I do a quick google search.
Great. Looks like I need some cash, a ride, and a shitload of patience.
I ransack Noah’s room, knowing he must have some sort of cash hidden around here from the bullshit he does with Anton, and I’m not surprised when I find it.
I grab a stack of cash and then double it because no doubt Rivers is in there with him.
I go to leave when I realize Noah probably took his car before he got arrested and dad’s old pick up is at home, happily not working once again. I mean, it’s about time for that truck to go, but dad can’t seem to part with it.
With a cringe, I take the keys for Tully’s Jeep and hope she can forgive me when she finds out about this. Though, I have a feeling she wouldn’t mind. She’d be more pissed that Noah wanted this kept from her, once again proving that there are cracks in his ‘pack’ theory.
I haul ass down to the cop shop and make my way through the door, hating how the drive over here was more than enough time to build me up into a rage. I find an officer at the front desk and give him the boys’ names.
The officer looks up and I can’t help but notice how young he is, and damn, he looks pretty damn good in that uniform. “Ah, yes. You’re here for the two idiots caught stealing a car red-handed.”
My mouth drops open and the sudden thoughts about how cute he is shrivel up and die. “Excuse me?” I stutter out. “Did you just say…?”
“Stealing a car?” he smirks, pleased that I seemed to be shocked by this information. “Yeah. They tried to run too.”
I shake my head as the information overwhelms me. “So, what now?”
“They’re still getting booked so it looks like you’re in for a little wait. I’ll process their bail and then they’re free to go.”
“So, that’s it? They won’t get charged?”
The officer lets out a breath and leans forward. “Look, I really shouldn’t be telling you this, but if my gut feeling is right and these two were doing this under… someone’s instruction, then I have a feeling the charges will mysteriously disappear.”
My eyes widen. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah. Trust me, this isn’t their first time being locked in the slammer.”
“What?” I shriek.
The officer smirks once again and the need to question his professionalism fares through me, but I keep my mouth shut. After all, he’s giving me information that I sure as hell wouldn’t have gotten from Noah or Rivers.
“Yep. Now, go get yourself comfortable. I need to start processing this if you intend to get home before the sun rises,” he tells me before indicating towards the left hand side of the room to a door. “There’s tea and coffee through there if you need it.”
I wander off and help myself to a coffee that tastes like shit before making myself comfortable.
I wait for nearly two hours, pleased that I have my Kindle app on my phone, otherwise the wait would have been excruciating.
Noah walks out with Rivers behind him and I walk forward, ignoring both the boys. I find the officer at the front desk and give him a grateful smile. “Thank you,” I tell him. “Is there anything else I need to do?”
“Yeah,” he says, handing me two identical release forms, the only difference being the photo’s attached and the names printed at the top. “Sign these and you’re good to go.”
I do as I’m asked as Noah leans against the counter staring at me, probably hating that I’m refusing to look at him. I slide the release forms back to the officer and dig my hands into the pockets of Noah’s hoodie.
I go to walk away when the officer calls out to me. “Miss?” he says, drawing my attention back. I stop and turn to find him watching me with curiosity and interest which naturally puts Noah on edge. “You ever feel like dating someone who has their shit together, just let me know.”
“I…,” my mouth slams closed. How do I even respond to that? “Um, thanks.”
Noah all but growls beside me. His arm comes over my shoulder and I’m pulled into his side. Hell, I’m surprised he doesn’t whip out his dick and start pissing all over me to mark his territory.
Fucking men.
I shake my head, push Noah’s arm off my shoulder, and storm out the door, more than ready to get into the privacy of Tully’s Jeep and scream at the two idiots who thought it was a great idea to steal a car.
Yet, when I get in the car and pull away from the curb, the words refuse to come.
We sit in silence as I drive and it’s not until we’re halfway home when Noah finally speaks up. “I’m sorry,” he murmurs into the quiet car. “I know that’s not exactly how you had intended on spending your night.”
I snap.
My hand shoots out and I whack him across the chest. “Are you,” whack, “a fucking,” whack, “idiot?” My eyes shoot up to the rearview mirror, taking in Rivers in the backseat looking extremely uncomfortable. “That goes for you too.”
He gives me a tight smile but remains silent as Noah attempts to catch my hand so I can’t hit him again. “You stole a fucking car. What the hell were you thinking?”
“We had no choice,” Noah defends. “We had to. The job came in and we had to go.”
“In the middle of the fucking night? You just snuck out of bed, hoping I wouldn’t notice, and then went to steal some poor asshole’s car?”
Noah cringes and doesn’t respond, just leans back in his chair, letting out a heavy breath.
“Ummm,” Rivers careful voice comes from the backseat with a cringe, looking even more uncomfortable than he had before. “I know now isn’t a great time and you two seriously have some issues to work out, but I need you to pull over. I’m going to shit myself.”
“What?” I demand, glancing up at him again. “You’re shitting me, right?”
“No,” he grunts. “I’m about to be shitting me.”
“Fuck, Rivers,” I cringe in disgust. “Just wait ten minutes. We’ll be home soon.”
“Henley, I swear, if you don’t fucking pull over right now, you’re going to be the one explaining to Tully why there’s shit all over the backseat of her Jeep.”
“Damn it,” I growl, pulling over to the side of the road and slamming on the brakes a little too hard, but I think the boys get it – I’m fucking pissed off.
Rivers basically jumps from the Jeep and scurries off into the bushland beside the road and I secretly wish that he would sit his ass down on a porcupine or have a snake cross his path while he’s trying to take a dump.
The silence in the car is so freaking loud.
Without Rivers here, it’s like our issues are staring us in the face and neither of us is ready to talk about them, but we have no choice. The quieter we remain, the more they begin to tear us apart. “I really am sorry,” Noah murmurs beside me, reaching out and trying to weave his fingers through mine. I pull my hand away, way too pissed off for a gesture like that. “I’ll pay you back.”
“Don’t need to,” I grumble, staring straight ahead out the windshield to where the Jee
p’s headlights shine on the dirt before us and watch the mosquitoes and bugs dance through the light. “I found your stash. You bailed yourself out. If anything, Rivers now owes you.”
I watch through my peripheral as Noah presses his lips together and slowly nods his head as the silence begins to grow again. “Come on, baby. Don’t hate on me,” he begs. “This is killing me. I fucking love you and I hate that you’re so mad at me.”
My mouth drops open and I turn to stare at him in horror. “You say it now?” I demand. “After all the times you could have told me that you love me, you do it now? Right when you need to butter me up, hoping I forgive you? Are you trying to make this worse?”
“I…I’m fucking lost, babe. Help me out here.”
“You can’t do that. You can’t tell me you love me to try and worm your way out the shit you dumped yourself in. Own what you did so we can move on.”
“I do fucking own it. I know what I did and I don’t fucking like it. It’s not exactly something I want to keep being reminded about. I did what I had to do and I got caught. Fuck. I’m sorry you got dragged into it, but it’s fucking over. Can’t we just move on?”
“This isn’t over, Noah. It’s far from over,” I yell back at him. “You stole a fucking car because some douchebag told you too. Can’t you see how fucking wrong it is? Why the hell do you let him dictate your life like that? I just…I can’t understand why you do this. Why do you work for a man like that? Is it about the money? Because you make more than enough racing.”
Noah scoffs and shakes his head. “It’s not the fucking money, Henley,” he says, hanging his head. “I made a fucking deal with the devil and now I’m living with it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demand. “You can’t keep giving me these half answers. I need to know who the hell I’m getting myself involved with, Noah. Stop keeping me out in the dark.”
“Fuck, alright,” he yells, running his hand through his hair. “Anton gave me the money for Lily’s treatment. My parents couldn’t fucking afford it and she was dying. Is that what you need to hear? I was eleven and desperate, so I went to the one person who I knew could help us. I didn’t know what the hell I was getting myself involved in, but I did, and now he fucking owns me.”
I suck in a breath as I stare at Noah in shock. “Are you…” I struggle to find the words. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to that,” I tell him honestly. “You’re eighteen. Haven’t you paid him back enough?”
Noah slowly shakes his head. “I owe him my fucking life,” he tells me. “He paid for Lily’s treatments for over a year. Don’t you get it? Even if I wanted to leave, I can’t. I’m indebted to him. He gave us an extra year with Lily that without him, we never would have gotten. She was going to die without it. She was dying and he saved her for another whole year.”
The emotions overtake me and I quickly climb across the front seat of Tully’s Jeep and straddle Noah’s lap. I bury my face into his neck and let him hold me as fucking tight as he needs. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “If I’d have known…”
“Don’t,” he says. “I should have told you ages ago. It’s just…I’m not proud of needing his help. Mom and dad had exhausted all other options and we were just sitting back watching Lily waste away. I knew they’d never ask someone like Anton for help, so I did it instead. I sold my soul to him to have those last twelve months with my sister, and fuck, Henley, I’d do it over and over again.”
“I know you would,” I tell him, raising my head from his neck and pressing my lips to his. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”
“I more than deserved it,” he admits. “I’m sorry I told you I love you. I’ll remind myself never to do that again.”
I hit his chest as a smile pulls at my lips. “Don’t be an idiot,” I tell him. “Just do it at the right time.”
His eyes sparkle as he watches me. “Noted,” he grins. “But next time this happens, try not to look so damn fine. I was worried I was about to be charged with assaulting an officer.”
“To be honest, I was a little worried about that too,” I let out a sigh as I watch this broken man before me. “Do your parents know about, you know, it all?”
He shakes his head. “No, and I don’t want them to. I think dad has his suspicions about how the money came to us, but he doesn’t know it was me who went to Anton and he sure as hell doesn’t know I’m working for him now.”
“And Tully?”
“She knows enough to keep off my ass about it, but Lily was her sister too, and she would have done the same damn thing.”
I let out a bated breath, finally understanding Tully’s hesitation in talking to me about it. "Ok.”
“Ok, what?”
“Ok, I’ll back off. I understand why you’re working for him and I get it’s something ingrained within you that you owe him, but just know that I don’t like it. He’s a dangerous man and it terrifies me that something could happen to you, and tonight is the perfect example of that.”
Noah nods, understanding where I’m coming from. “I’ll be more careful,” he promises.
“And don’t keep secrets,” I prompt. “I don’t like you going out and me not knowing what you’re doing and what kind of people you’re dealing with.”
“I won’t keep secrets,” he promises.
“Ok,” I tell him. “I can live with that.”
“Good,” he sighs before crushing his lips to mine.
I pull back before he can take advantage of me in Tully’s car. “There’s just one thing I don’t understand,” I murmur. “How’d Rivers get involved with him?”
Noah scoffs. “Rivers was involved with him long before I was.”
“What?” I laugh. “Now you’re lying.”
“Nope, scout’s honor,” he says. “How’d you think we became such good friends?”
“School?” I suggest the obvious answer.
“Nope. Anton threw us together on jobs. Who would suspect the two little kids fucking around on their bikes to be drug mules?”
My mouth drops open in shock and I stare at him in wonder. “And all this time I thought you were a good little boy.”
Noah presses up into me. “A good little boy, I am not.”
My lips crush down on his and before I have a chance to rip his shirt from his body, a figure walks out in front of Tully’s Jeep. Noah barks out a laugh and I spin around on his lap to find Rivers standing before us, holding his shoes and missing a sock.
“Gross,” I groan with a laugh as I imagine the kind of hell his missing sock just went through.
“Not a fucking word,” Rivers says, walking around the side of the car and climbing in the back. “If Tully ever gets wind of this, I’m going to fuck you both up.”
Chapter 20
I sit under the boardwalk in the place that used to be mine and Kaylah’s, but lately, it’s just been mine. I squish my toes into the cool sand, loving how smooth it is under here compared to the sand out near the shore that always seems to be littered with crap.
It’s peaceful under here.
No one even comes down here, they prefer to be up the top, on the actual boardwalk. Not me and Kaylah. This was our haven, the place we could come to unwind, and after the crazy week I’ve had, I more than need to unwind. I need to let myself move on and start looking forward to the future.
I can’t help but wonder what happens now. Monica will probably leave, that is if she can convince her parents that it’s the right thing for her, otherwise she’s up shit creek without a paddle. Noah will keep on keeping on with Anton. Rivers too, but hopefully they’re a little smarter about what they do.
Tully and Rivers…who knows?
Me and Noah…well, let’s just hope things keep heading up. Our talk last night helped to make me see a little clearer. He seems to have forgiven me about the Monica thing, not that I believe I was in the wrong, but yeah, maybe I should have let him know that shit was about to go down.
“Hey,” a voice calls
, startling me out of my own head. I flick my eyes up and see Tully waking towards me with her shoes in her hand. “I thought I’d find you down here.”
“Really?” I question in surprise.
“Uh huh,” she says as she plonks down into the sand beside me. “Everyone knows you come here.”
“How the hell do they know that? I only ever came here with Kaylah and I didn’t tell anyone.”
Tully shrugs unapologetically. “We were curious and followed you one night,” she admits. “I’ve got to admit, I was pleasantly surprised. I thought you were going home to sulk, but instead you brought us all to the beach.”
“Huh,” I grunt, not sure how I feel about my secret being out of the bag. “Don’t get any ideas,” I tell her. “This is my spot. You can’t start using it whenever the hell you feel like it.”
“Hey, don’t worry about me,” she laughs. “I have my own secret spot.”
“Really? Where?”
Tully scoffs. “Like hell I’d tell you. It’s a secret unlike yours. We’re not all stupid enough not to notice when we’re being followed.”
“Shut up,” I laugh. “But you do realize this means I’ll be following you everywhere you go now.”
“Bullshit. You’re too busy with your tongue down Noah’s throat to realize when I sneak off.”
I grin. She’s probably right. “What are you doing here?” I ask, scooping up a handful of sand and curling my hand around it, watching as the tiny little grains pour out from the bottom of my fist before doing it again.
“Nothing, just thought I’d come and cheer you up.”
“I don’t need cheering up,” I tell her. “Everything is fine.”
“You can’t bullshit a bullshitter,” she tells me. “Something’s up with you and we’re not leaving until I get to the bottom of it.”
“Seriously?” I groan. “Everything is fine. Noah and I were a bit rough, but now we’re good.”
“No, it’s not about Noah,” she tells me, studying me intently. “It’s something else. Start talking.”
I look across to her, hoping a glare would help her to see that I’m all good, but she doesn’t budge, not even a little. “Fine,” I groan. “The Monica thing is still bugging me.”
Unbelievable: Haven Falls (Book 2) Page 19
