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“Not out. Down.”
“With a police baton,” I added.
“Yes.”
“And then Trey got up and chased him down, and flipped him onto the pavement.”
“Yes, and that’s all the other people happened to see. To them it looked like Trey attacked Chris from behind! And that’s what they told the police. That’s why they arrested him, and—”
“So where’s the nightstick?”
r /> Brooke stopped abruptly, halfway through her sentence. She stared back at me like I’d just spoken Japanese.
“W—What?”
“The police baton,” Dante said. “The cops said this guy Chris was unarmed when they found him. They searched him before taking him to the hospital.”
Brooke’s eyes lit up with hope. “Then he must’ve dropped it! Probably on the side of the building!”
I looked at Dante. He nodded quickly. “I’ll take care of it.”
I watched my friend walk off to find the nearest officer. Whatever happened, we needed to get back to the scene. The baton could exonerate Trey entirely, or at least corroborate Brooke’s story.
“So are you alright?”
Brooke nodded, nuzzling against my chest. “I am now. But Adam, it was terrible. From the front of the building, it looked… it looked like…”
“I know what it looked like,” I said. “I’ve read the witnesses’ statements.”
A friend of ours happened to work in the station and he’d given us a glimpse. So far, it was the best he could do.
Brooke’s beautiful blue eyes were glassy again. I pulled out one of the tissues I’d grabbed from the front desk and dabbed at them.
“Listen,” I said. “This is all going to be okay. It’s not the end of the world.”
“I—I know.”
“But right now, before we do anything else…” I placed two fingers under her chin and tilted her gaze up toward me. “I want you to tell me everything about this guy Chris.”
Forty-Five
BROOKE
It took literally forever to bail Trey out. Even after he’d seen the judge and our bondsman worked his magic, it seemed everyone took their sweet time putting him through the release process.
I was still in yesterday’s clothes. Still in the same outfit we’d all had dinner in. My makeup was smudged, my hair a total disaster. None of that mattered.
Finally we had him, and I rushed into his arms. I would’ve held him forever, wrapped tightly against his chest. Trey however, had other ideas.
“I’m starving.”
We stopped at the nearest fast food joint, which was famous for its waffle fries. Trey ordered two helpings of them. The rest of us sat and watched him eat, staring at each other from both sides of our booth. Absently picking at nothing in particular, while I told them all the whole, sordid story about Chris.
“I can’t believe you kept this from us,” said Dante, when I was finished. “I mean seriously, Brooke. Who knows what would’ve happened if he managed to get into your apartment that night.”
I’d told them that part too, including the encounter with Big Mike. The guys more than appreciated the old marine’s help. Adam and Dante set me immediately to the task of finding out what he drinks, so they could leave a case of it in front of his door.
Dante also shared what he’d learned from the police. It turned out Chris was fine, just shaken up. He’d checked out of the hospital and immediately given statements, indicating that Trey had attacked him, and that he’d tried to run. When questioned as to why he was on Cornell’s campus in the first place, he stated he was merely checking up on me. That we were still boyfriend and girlfriend, who dated off and on.
