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I nod once. “Yeah.”
“We’ll have to book you.”
I blow forward. “I need to be with her at the hospital. I can’t be stuck in a holding cell—”
“It’s important that no one in your family knows you drew us here. It’d put you at risk, and that’d put the Hales at risk again. And frankly, your involvement is an asset we can’t lose right now, so just hang tight.”
I go quiet. I barely blink in the passing minutes. My eyes feel dryer and dryer.
I only awaken when he gets off the phone and tells me, “We’re putting someone else in the car with you.”
I edge over to one side and make room for them. God, I hope it’s not Colin. Or Patrick. The car door opens, and mixed emotions course through my body as my dad slides next to me, hands bound behind his back.
He’s silent at first. His face is set in harsher lines while he looks ahead. “What’s the saying?” He speaks as we’re driven to the station. “Like father, like son.”
I lean back into the seat. Unable to glance at him. All I can think is,fuck me.
* * *
“Hey,hey,”I call out in the jail cell, my ankles and wrists chained and a thin metal bench under my ass. Blood is caked and dried on my busted knuckles. The cop on duty ignores me completely. “I need a phone call. Just one call! Please!”
Nothing.Goddammit.Frustration and fear are eating at my patience, and I just need to know she’s alright. I’ve heard from no one in probably five hours. Time is agonizing here.
“They’re not gonna let you call anyone.” My dad is chained beside me. He’s the only other person in this holding cell. Must be purposeful since private security and the police have been working together for a while now. Police have been informed that I’m the rat for a lot longer than just tonight.
My dad, though—he has no clue I’m the reason the copsactuallyshowed up. He didn’t know Farrow and Oscar were tailing me from the Rhino. He has no idea what I’ve been doing, and even if he stuck his neck out for me, I couldn’t tell him the truth and take that risk.
Still can’t tell him.
Guilt shouldn’t gnaw at me like a monster at my heels, but it’s arrived somehow. Probably because I couldn’t have convinced my family I’m on their side without him. They would’ve never let me inside that house.
“You still on parole?” I ask quietly.
“Yep.” He stares ahead like this is same old, same old.
He’ll be thrown back in prison for breaking parole. They one hundred percent found large quantities of meth there. Kidnapping and assault—he might have a good alibi from bartending at the Rhino, but it won’t matter too much. He was around drugs tonight, and that’s enough to send him back.
He’s gonna go back to prison because of me.It’s never happened like this before. I’ve never been a cause or a reason my dad has hit this bad square on the Monopoly board.
“This is your first time?” he asks me.
“Yeah.” Feels like bees stung my throat.
“They might let you out.”
I say nothing.
He shifts his ass, the seat uncomfortable, and the chains jingle at his ankles. “Someone will come post bail for you.”
“Why are you so sure?” I ask him.
“‘Cause you’re not like the rest of us, Donnelly.” It takes me aback, hearing him call me that. His blue eyes finally meet mine. “You never really were. And according to your mom, that’s always been a good thing.”
“And according to you?” I wonder.
“I’ve never wanted you to follow us to prison, if that’s what you’re asking, but I do wish you stuck around.” He lifts his shoulders in a tight shrug. “You’re my kid. I do love you, you know.”
Nah, I don’t know.The love he had for me was buried underneath his love for drugs, and I didn’t spend time trying to dig it out. Now, it feels different. It’s like he’s been unearthing that love himself, without asking me to do any heavy-lifting, and it’s makingthishard—sitting handcuffed in jail beside him, knowing he’s taking the fall for me.
