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Mara heard that, and her whole face went flat. We were thinking the same thing. Carrington was told we were at the beach.
She came over to me now. “She called her roommate. She’s coming to pick her up.”
I settled more firmly against the wall behind me. “She hangs out at the house. Labrowski was best friends with her brother. And now this? I stopped myself, but Labrowski, he won’t.”
She moved closer to me, her hand resting on my chest, falling to my pants and her fingers tucked in. Holding on. It appeased me a bit. But the thought of what he did? And the worst part: “He’s going to get away with it.”
She moved, turning her back to the police station. It was just the two of us in our corner. I rested a hand on her hip, drawing her closer. I needed to touch her. My head folded down. Hers lifted, and she said softly, “Don’t say that.”
“It’s true, and you know it. His dad is a senator. He’s going to get special treatment, and he’ll have some fancy lawyer come in and then what?”
She held her phone up, her eyes looking almost dead. “Then I leak this.”
My hand tensed over her hip. “I thought the police wanted that.”
“They do. I’m supposed to send it to them, but I’m keeping a copy. I don’t care if it’s wrong.”
“That’s Angela’s recording more than yours.”
“I know.” Some of the dead look lifted, just slightly. Some humanity came back to her. “I won’t do anything without her blessing. I’m not like that, but Cruz, I did this for you too. He’s going to target us. You know that. You and me. He was screaming how he was going to end you. Him? I take that seriously.”
“Cops know that too. It’s documented, and we have proof.”
“Yeah.” She turned and leaned her whole side into me, both of us watching Angela. I moved my hand up, my arm curling around her shoulders and I held her tight.
Then we waited.
Her roommate showed up a little over an hour later. There wasn’t a lot of conversation after that. Mara went over. She talked a little with the roommate before they left.
The detective had come over earlier too, filling us in on what he could. It wasn’t our case, we couldn’t know everything. He did promise that they had already been speaking to Flynn. He sounded genuine so we’d see what the fallout would be, if there was any.
That’s when they questioned me, saying Flynn was claiming I attacked him on the beach. I gave them a full rendition, and they asked, “He threw a bottle at you first? Threatened you and raised his arm, coming at you?”
“He started for me first.”
That went a long way, and they said with the bottle, threat, and bodily movement coming at me, that he incited the violence first. Once I heard those words, a cement truck of stress lifted off me. Then I remembered Angela and it came right back down.
We were free to go after that. Once in my truck, I reached for my phone, bringing up Labrowski’s number.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m calling Labrowski. He needs to know.”
“No. That has to be her decision–”
“Mara.” The emotions about my sister, the phone call with my mom, being with Mara and not being able to touch her, and then Flynn, Angela… I sighed. “I get your loyalty is to her in this situation, but I’m telling Labrowski. I’m on his team. We live in the same house. He’s my boy. If it were you, I would never forgive the roommate and teammate who knew and didn’t tell me.”
She let out her own sigh. “Just–don’t tell him the specifics.”
“Trust me.” I didn’t wait. I hit the call button.
After three rings, he picked up, sounding groggy, “What the fuck, Styles? You better not be calling from jail. You know what time–”
“Shut up for a second.”
He went silent. Then, rustling sounds came over, and he asked, way less groggy now, “What is it? You okay?”
“Listen.” I was staring at Mara as I spoke, “Daniels and I are at a police station, but not in Grant West–” He started to talk. I said over him, “We’re fine. I’m fine, but man, Angela.”
“Angela was there?”
“Listen to me right now, I can’t be the one to tell you, but I’m letting you know, she’s probably almost back to Grant West by now. You need to go to her. Okay? You hearing me?”
“Fuck! Fuck! Yeah. Jesus. Okay. You’re okay?”
“I’m okay.”
“It’s late. Where are you?”
“Don’t worry about us. Call Angela. Okay?”
“Okay. Jesus, okay. Let me know when you’re back.”
I was so tired and sore. My body had stiffened up from waiting at the station.
Mara said, “There might be a small inn here. We could stay here and go back in the morning?”
