AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes. He does,” Niles refuted.
Kruger made a sound and spun away. There was a grunt, then a loud groan, and a few chairs skittered across the floor. I looked up as Niles fell backward and several uniforms swarmed my brother.
Our friends all pushed in front of him, blocking him from being seized.
“How dare you?” Niles shouted, voice nasally and high. Sitting up, he held a hand to his face. “I think my nose is broken!”
“You keep flapping your lips, and that ain’t all that’s gonna be,” Kruger spat.
“That was a threat!” Niles implored. “Everyone heard. I’m pressing charges.”
“My lawyers are coming,” Kruger retorted as if he had not one care in the world. “And they’re a hell of a lot better than you.”
“That’s enough.” Detective Paul stepped into the chaos. “You, you, and you,” he said, pointing at me, Arsen, and Kruger. “Into a cell.”
I took a moment to peek at Arsen, my boyfriend. Or was he now my ex? Could I even count him as an ex if we didn’t date very long?
I could never date someone linked to politics.
“Senator, I’ll speak with you and your lawyer in my office.” Detective Paul continued issuing orders. “Everyone else, get out.”
The doors swung open, and Coach rushed through. “I’m here! What’s—” His shoes squeaked against the floor with his abrupt stop. His eyes widened as he saw the entire crowd standing there. Reaching up to rub his stubbled jaw, he found Ryan in the group. “What’s all this, Walsh?”
“Thought the team might need you here, Coach,” Ryan replied.
Coach glanced around until landing on me. I hated he knew it was me that caused this drama. “Prism, are you okay, son?”
“Living the dream, Coach.” Look at that. I made a joke. Guess I wasn’t completely unhinged after all.
Yet.
“Out!” Detective Paul roared.
Instinctively, I looked to Arsen, hating that my brain was already hopelessly trained to seek him out when I was overwhelmed.
The second my attention landed on him, he was moving, weaving through the people between us until he was close enough that I could smell the stale beer staining the hoodie he wore. It made me look down at the black denim jacket, my stomach doing a little flip because it was like he was wrapped around me.
The urge to lean into him, press my face into his neck, and inhale while he used whatever magic only he had to soothe my frazzled system was overwhelming. How badly I wanted to soak up everything he was.
But I couldn’t. Not ever again.
Have you ever heard the saying, The eyes are the windows to the soul?
I didn’t know if that was true, but in that moment, I hoped it wasn’t because Arsen had already seen too much of my soul, and what would be visible now was a profound sadness I never wanted anyone else to ever see.
Lowering my lashes in an effort to conceal my windows, I whispered, “I told you we don’t fit.”
He grabbed my shoulders, shaking me hard enough that my lashes fluttered and I met his glimmering stare. “And I told you to show me the parts that don’t fit and I’ll saw them off so we do.”
“You didn’t mean that.” You said it without knowing all the information.
“Oh, baby. No truer words have ever been said.”
“And what if what doesn’t fit is in our DNA?”
His brief pause was like the stab of a knife. It barely dulled the pain when he said, “Not possible.”
“Star-crossed lovers, then.” I decided.
