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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 cops actually showed 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 making this hard—sitting handcuffed in jail beside him, knowing he’s taking the fall for me.
He looks me over as though mourning time soon-to-be lost. “Ey, it was a good run.” He smiles off in the distance. “Can’t ask for more, can I?”
I can pull strings. Could I?
Maybe that’s not the right question.
Should I?
“Donnelly,” a cop calls out.
Our eyes shoot forward.
She glances up from an electronic tablet. “Paul Donnelly. You’ve posted bail.” In a matter of minutes, she’s unlocked the cell and me from the bench and chains. Rubbing my sore wrists, I step out while the hefty metal slings shut.
“What about him?” I ask her under my breath.
She leads me down a hallway and whispers, “With major felony charges, the court has suspended the right to post bail for the rest of your family. He’ll likely be held until his hearing or until the court changes its decision. There’s a vehicle waiting for you out back. Press can’t see you’ve been released this quickly, or else it’ll blow your cover.”
I’m shocked they decided to release me at all then.
She sees my surprise. “Your security firm has ensured us you’ll enter the hospital undetected.”
The hospital. I don’t ask her about Luna. I’m brought to the rear lot of the police station, where paparazzi are forbidden to go, and I climb into the back of an SUV, windows tinted pitch-black.
The driver throws a red baseball cap and a pair of gray sweatpants at me. “That’s all I had in the car.”
“Thanks, boss.” I sound a little choked, but I put the Studio 9 baseball cap on, brim low over my eyes.
“You okay?” Akara turns to me.
“Is Luna?” I ask him.
He can’t hide his wince. “She hasn’t woken up, Donnelly.”
My nose flares. My heart is being shredded alive. “And Lily?” I wonder now.
He just shakes his head, unable to speak. It takes him a second. “We’re headed there. You did a really good job tonight.”
“No,” I tell him, my insides crushing with this cold reality. “I was too late.”
PART TWO
“While you slept, the world changed.”
- Xavier, House of X #6
24
LUNA HALE
Sterile lights beam down on me in hot waves, and I imagine this is it. I’m on a spaceship. Taken away by an intergalactic species to be experimented on or be crowned queen. A hammer swings against my head, thumping and thumping. My bones feel like seven-tons of bricks. Are there bricks on this planet?
