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I keep my eyes on Mali, watching closely as she seems to guard herself a bit. No one else is paying enough attention to see it, but there are little things she does that show me that while she’s okay for the most part, she’s still affected—like how it took her twice as long to decide to crack open a beer. Or how she gravitated toward Cam once the guys showed up.
But Hayes was right when he said she’s strong, because if that were me, I’d probably still be curled up in my bed right now. Not Mali, though. She’s a spitfire, and while I’ll continue to keep an eye on her, I know she’s going to be fine.
Owen’s phone rings and he pulls it out of his pocket. “Hello?”
Everyone else goes back to normal conversation, but I notice the way he becomes concerned and looks toward the front of the house. It isn’t until I see the two police cars pull in that I put it all together, and my heart sinks.
“Cam,” I breathe.
We all stare as two cruisers come closer and the officers get out. There’s a small, naive part of me that hopes it’s a misunderstanding. That this isn’t happening. But as they walk toward us, with one clutching a piece of paper in his hand, I know that’s not the case.
“No,” Mali pleads.
“Dude, you’re a fucking dick for this,” Owen says into the phone, but I’m too focused on the officers approaching.
“Cameron Blanchard?” one asks.
Cam sighs. “What can I do for you?”
He walks over to my brother. “For starters, you can stand up and put your hands behind your back. We have a warrant.”
Hayes’s grip on me tightens as Cam stands up. Finding out he was arrested before was hard, but seeing it firsthand is one of my worst nightmares come to life. And judging by the look on Mali’s face, she feels the exact same way.
The sound of the handcuffs breaks through the silence. “You’re under arrest for the assault of Isaac Morrison.”
He reads him his Miranda rights as my heart breaks inside my chest. Cam keeps his mouth shut, his eyes only meeting mine for a second as they start to take him away. He only says four simple words.
“I want a lawyer.”
I can’t do this. The further they get, the more I start to panic. I fight against Hayes’s hold, finally managing to free myself, but before I can cross the yard, he catches me.
“He can’t—” I shout. “They can’t—”
Mali jumps in front of me as I struggle to get to Cam. “Laiken!”
“He’s going to go to prison,” I cry.
Tears build in her eyes, too. “I know. We’re going to do everything we can to help him. But there isnothingyou can do right now. Okay? We have to do this right, or we’ll all end up in jail.”
I feel like I’m breaking. Like my entire world is crashing down around me and all I can do is watch it fall. But her words manage to get through to me enough for me to stop fighting against Hayes’s hold.
“I know what he did,” Owen argues, still on the phone. “But this is a new kind of fucking low.”
Hayes’s body tenses up against me. “Is that Isaac?”
Owen doesn’t even get a chance to respond before Hayes rips the phone right out of his hand, but the call ends immediately. The coward hung up. Hayes tosses it back to Owen and grabs one of the camping chairs—sending it flying.
“I’m going to kill that little bitch!” he growls, then turns to Owen. “I know he’s your boy, but I swear to God, when I get my hands on him—”
“He’s not,” Owen corrects him. “Not after this. I can’t believe he stooped that low.”
“What the fuck are we going to do?” Lucas questions.
I wrap my arms around myself and lean into Mali. “You three are going to go home. Hayes will update you when he knows something. I have to call my parents and get to the police station.”
“I’m coming with you,” Hayes tells me as he lights up a cigarette.
“Me, too,” Mali adds.
