Two cops got out and stopped a few feet from their car. They looked all around, and one slowly raised his hand to his radio. He called for an ambulance as James said, “Let me do all the talking. If you say anything, it’s to ask for your lawyer. You got it?”
He looked down at us to make sure.
We nodded, and he strode forward, meeting the policemen halfway.
SAMANTHA
James called me and explained the situation, and when I parked in the police station’s parking lot a little after three in the morning, Becky was the first person I saw. She hurried toward me, an angry set to her chin, and I was barely able to shut my car door before she was on me.
“You were supposed to keep quiet about what I told you,” she hissed in my face, her hands balled into fists. She held them up like she wanted to hit me, but she only pressed one into my shoulder. She pulled her punch, if it’d been intended as one. “You weren’t supposed to tell, Sam!”
“What’d you think I’d do? I had to choose between Adam and Mason.” The choice was obvious.
She hung her head, her hands dropping to her sides. “The choice was between me and Mason. I trusted you.”
“I’m sorry.” And I was. “But this wasn’t between you and me. It was between them.” It was ultimately between James Kade and Steven Quinn. “We just got in the middle.”
She sighed as a white SUV pulled in and parked next to her car. Adam got out. If Becky had been mad, Adam was furious. His jaw was clenched and a vein popped out along his neck. He started for us.
His eyes were cold as he turned to Becky. “I told you not to come here.”
She stood a little taller. “I wanted to be here for you.”
He turned to look at me again. “You wanted to yell at Sam.”
“So? You would, too.”
He shook his head. “I’m not the one she betrayed.”
“If it’s a choice between Mason and someone else, you know my decision.” He always had.
“Yeah,” he spoke quietly. “I’m well aware.”
“Sam!”
Heather came out of the station, shielding her face with her arm against a sudden gust of wind.
“What are you doing here?” I’d called her, but… “How’d you get here so fast?”
“I already knew what went down before you called. Channing has a police scanner. We were already on the way.”
She hadn’t told me that on the phone. She flashed me an apologetic smile. “I figured it was just easier to explain when you got here.”
I surged forward. “Are they okay?”
“James is the only one here.”
“What?”
“They arrested my dad,” Adam said. “They’re bringing him in.”
Two squad cars pulled into the lot and stopped right before the front door. But instead of seeing Steven Quinn in handcuffs, we watched as Nate and Logan were helped out of one squad car. Their hands were cuffed in front of them, and I gasped, reeling backward.
Their faces were covered in bandages, not to mention bruises on every bit of exposed skin, and their knuckles were scraped raw. They’d been fighting. A lot.
Heather stepped close and steadied me with a hand on my arm. “That’s what I was coming out here to tell you. Everyone else went to the hospital first. All of Caldron’s guys were admitted. Mason, Logan, and Nate—they were hurt, but they kicked ass.”
Mason…
I searched for him, but couldn’t find him. If Logan and Nate looked like this—the back door to the first squad car opened, and I stopped thinking after that.
A sob hitched in my throat. I couldn’t even let that out.
Mason stepped out with his hands cuffed in front of him.
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t do anything.
He had fewer bandages on his face, but one side was a giant bruise. His lip was busted, and I could tell he was in pain. He limped. I must’ve made a sound because he turned suddenly. His gaze found mine, though one of his eyes was covered by tape.
He stepped toward me, my name on his lips, but the cop yanked him back.
“Stop!” I ran to them.
Two cops moved to intercept me, but Heather and someone else stopped me before I could get to them. Heather shot a hand out to stop the police from coming closer.
“She’s fine. We got her.” She leaned close and whispered to me, “Chill or they might arrest you for making a scene.”
I could only watch as they led Mason inside. Then I looked to see who else had stepped in to help me.
Becky. She released me, her eyes darting away. “No one else needs to get hurt…or arrested.”
I reached out, saying a soft thank you before Heather started forward, and I went with her. I looked back over my shoulder. Becky watched us go, and I mouthed again to her, “Thank you.”