AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I used the house as collateral. The property.”
The house.Myhouse. The very last dregs of the family property. The Montague mansion is crumbling—I won’t even bother arguing that point. I know that. I lived there until very recently. But the land it sits on is worth millions of dollars. It’s the one thing I have left. And now, it’s probably held by some dodgy fucking bail bonds company who will figure out a way to seize the property the moment I inevitably go missing or skip bail.
Fury blooms in the pit of my gut and sloshes up into my throat.
“Why would you do that?”
My dad throws a sidelong look across the car at me. “How else do you think I could afford the bail? You could either rot there, get stabbed, get beat to death, or I could use the house as collateral. Well...” He changes lanes with a hasty jerk of the wheel. “House isn’t worth that much on its own. I don’t have to tell you that. The land, though...”
Yeah. The land. The land is where our family fortune is buried, fucking literally. A buyer could raze the Montague mansion to the ground and still have a fortune sitting there in the dirt. I’ve always felt a duty to the property, which makes no sense, but there it is. In some distant way, I always thought I’d have a chance one day to rebuild that house to its former glory, bringing it back to life. If I could do that, it would mean my life wasn’t a heap of flaming wreckage.
Now I’m chained to it, whether I realize that dream or not.
If I don’t show up to court, they’ll take the house. They’ll take the last of what we have. And then what? I’m looking down the barrel of a future full of nothing.
“You put the house up for bail,” I repeat softly. “I can’t fucking believe you did that.”
“God, Rome.” He shakes his head, and my dad’s shoulders droop. He drove all the way here in his beater, and I’m still so fucking pissed at him. Maybe I always will be. Maybe that is my lot in life, and his, too. “It was the only way. What do I have to say to get that through your skull? There was no other way.”
I’m not anywhere near a jail cell or that stinking hole in the ground, but I hear all those locks slamming shut nonetheless.One, two, three, four.The sound repeats and echoes crushing me. I’m still there. And for as long as I’m alive, I’ll never really get out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
AVERY
“Wait here.” I’ve already got my hand on the door handle and my purse over my shoulder. My cousin should recognize that this isn’t the time to argue with me. He really should.
Nathan gapes at me from the driver’s seat. “What? You know I can’t do that. You have to be with somebody. It’s not safe, Aves. Your crazy stalker ex-boyfriend just made bail. He could be anywhere.”
He’s referring to Rome, though I understand crazy stalker ex-boyfriend could mean multiple people at this point in time. Truthfully, I have to fight to keep a grin from taking over my face at the relief I feel now that Rome is out of jail and safely with his father. A task that cost me a pretty penny, but Thomas Burton stuck to his word and used every trick in his shady lawyer handbook to make it happen. That he made it happen without anyone mentioning my name is a small miracle, and right now, I’ll take all the miracles I can get.
“I am going inside thepolice station.” I gesture at the hulking brick building in front of us and give Nathan what I hope is a convincing smile and not a parody of the anger and confusion that have been boiling inside me since I watched Will get dragged away by the police. Should I have left my gun at home? Probably, but it’s too late for that kind of consideration now. “This has to be the safest place in town. I’m not going to get kidnapped by a serial killer while I’m surrounded by the fucking police. Wait here.”
He puts both hands in the air, gets his phone out, and settles in.
He’s giving up awfully quick. Nathan glances at me out of the corner of his eye. “What?”
“Nothing.” All this makes me feel like a petulant teenager. People moving into my house to take care of me. My dad in intensive care. My own cousin pretending to be my keeper. But those are things to dwell on another day. Today, I need answers.
The air conditioning in the police station is cranked on high, probably to keep nervous criminals from sweating through their shirts and stinking up the place. I immediately wish I’d worn a thicker bra, but I honestly didn’t think of it. I’ve been tossing and turning since yesterday. I can’t sleep. I can barely eat. I’m crawling out of my skin with the need for actual information, and my aunt and uncle are either oblivious or purposely keeping it from me. I’m done. I’m so fucking done.
“I need to talk to Elliot McRae,” I announce to the woman behind the round desk at the front of the station. “Now.”
She looks me up and down. If she recognizes me from any of the news coverage, she doesn’t show it. “Do you have an appointment?”
“I need to talk to him now.” I smile at her, making my face soft. I’m certain the expression doesn’t reach my eyes. Let her see that too. “It’s an extremely urgent matter.” I will use the Capulet name if that’s what I have to do, so help me God.
The woman nods and picks up the phone. Murmurs something into it. I brace for a fight, for a throwdown. My throat tenses in anticipation of using the dagger-sharp voice I use when I need to get shit done.
“He’ll see you now. You can go on back.”
“When I said urgent matter—oh.” Heat comes to my cheeks, a response that didn’t use to be commonplace for me. “Thank you.” The animal inside backs down. It stops baring its teeth. “Thank you,” I say again, because I feel like an idiot and I look like one, too.
Elliot sits behind his desk at an office down the hall, peering intently at a computer screen. He doesn’t look up when I come into the room. I clear my throat.
He rises when he sees me. “Avery. I thought you’d be at home.”
“I’m tired of being at home,” I reply, dropping into the chair on the other side of his desk and pulling my purse into my lap.
