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“I think we should worry about this one first,” my dad says.
Monty nods. “Agreed.”
His phone starts to vibrate as he gets a call, and he excuses himself to take it—telling us that he will keep us updated before he leaves.
“Where did you meet him again?” my father questions.
Mali chuckles. “A club. Laiken accidentally spilled a drink on him.”
Both my parents laugh, showing their relief, and my dad shakes his head at me playfully. “I’ve never been so grateful for your clumsiness.”
THERE’S NOTHING PRETTY ABOUTthe jail. Not the towers that hold armed guards. Not the barbed wire that lines the top of the fences. Not a damn thing. Just knowing that Cam has been here for the past five days makes me sick to my stomach. We wait outside the gate for him to come out, and the second I see him back in the clothes he was wearing when he was arrested, I feel like I can breathe a little easier.
“Thank fuck,” Hayes murmurs as they let Cam out of the gate.
He goes over and hugs my parents first, then comes to me. I wrap my arms tightly around my brother. We’ve never been the affectionate kind of siblings. Normally his version of saying he loves me is threatening to kick his friends’ asses for hitting on me, and mine is by flipping him off while smiling sweetly. But today, I don’t care. Today, I hug my brother because I wasn’t allowed to for almost the last week.
Hayes is next, and you can see the relief on them both as Cam thanks him for being there, not just for him but for me. I feel like the latter means more. It’s the first supportive thing he’s said about our relationship, and I can’t help but smile at it.
Finally, he goes to Mali. There’s something different about the way he embraces her. He’s speaking softly, straight into her ear. I can’t hear what he’s saying, but I see the way she nods against him. When he finally pulls away, he looks her in the eyes.
“I mean it,” he says.
An involuntary smile forces its way through. “I know.”
“I am so glad you’re out of there,” I tell Cam while we all climb into my parents’ van.
“You and me both,” he replies. “But it may not be for long. My preliminary hearing is in a week. Brent said we should know more then.”
My head rests against Hayes’s shoulder, and he presses a kiss to the top of my head, knowing I need it.
Please, God, let Monty work a miracle soon.
When Cam was first arrested,only the day after we started the renovations on what will be our future bar, I thought the timing couldn’t be worse. But now, as we’re waiting for his preliminary hearing and need something to keep all of our minds off it, turns out the timing is perfect. It gives us something to focus onanda way to take out our frustrations.
“Damn,” Cam says as he looks around. “You guys got a lot done.”
Mali snorts. “Not us. Just him.”
She’s not wrong. With the surf shop being closed, I technically don’t have a job at the moment. So, every moment Laiken spent working, I spent here—breaking shit, as Mali would call it. I got the one wall knocked down, the rest of the counter cleared out, and most of the debris into the dumpster we had put out back. The only big thing left to do is rip up the floor, and then we start the rebuild.
“What happened over there?” Cam asks, seeing a hole in one of the walls we didn’t intend on taking down.
I chuckle as I rub the back of my neck. “I may have gotten a little carried away.”
His brows raise in amusement. “Oh?”
Mali walks over and takes a seat on the stepladder. “What he means is he has anger issues and was raging a bit too hard.”
Laiken wraps her arms around me from behind and presses her face against my back. “Monty isn’t his favorite person in the world, but he’s dealing with it because he knows it’s your best shot. Right, baby?”
“Yes, dear,” I murmur.
Cam snickers but something about the hole has his attention. He goes over and inspects it closely before dropping his head.
“Well, you just created a whole shitload of more work for us,” he tells me. “But you also saved us from a shitstorm later.”
“What? Why?” It’s just a small hole. It would only take a patch and a little spackle to repair.
