Fallen Crest Home(97)

After Garrett left, I knew the others would come closer. They’d want to know what was going on, since they’d hung back to give us space. I only had a moment of privacy with Logan. Taylor was here, but she was a part of Logan now. I looked at him and said, “So this is what it’s like to be on the outside.”

He sighed, giving my arm a gentle squeeze. “I’ll talk to James tomorrow. I’m sure he’ll help.”

He probably would, but not tonight, and maybe not even tomorrow.

I didn’t know how things worked in the legal system, but I had to assume every minute counted. We needed someone to help, and there was only one person I could think of left to ask.

I held my hand out. “Give me your keys.”

“Why?” Logan frowned, digging in his pocket.

He placed them in my hand, and I got into the driver’s seat of the Escalade. He could get a ride home with someone else.

“Sam?”

I started the car, then opened the window. “Mark?”

He moved forward with Cass right behind him. “Yeah?”

“Go talk to Keifer. See if they have anything there that might help us. I know Petey will try to help.”

He nodded. “Got it.”

“Sam.” Logan stepped close to the door, resting a hand over the opened window. “Where are you going?”

“We need help now. I’m going to call in a favor.”

“With who?”

There was really only one person who owed me.

“My mom.”





It was irrational to come here.

Logan would talk to James tomorrow, and he’d help Mason. But I wasn’t listening to the rational side of me. I was all irrational at this moment, and that was why I was waiting in a hotel lobby at one in the morning.

The elevator doors pinged, and I looked up.

Analise stepped out, wearing a robe with her nightgown covering her feet underneath. She saw me, frowned, and pulled her robe tighter around herself. The lobby was relatively empty, only two desk clerks and me.

“Samantha?” She came over. “What’s going on? Why are you here at this hour?” She glanced around, smoothing her hair. She hadn’t taken out the pins, so it was still swept up in the curled twist she’d worn at the wedding.

I searched her face for any signs of sleepiness, but her eyes were alert, and none of her makeup looked smudged. “I didn’t know if you’d be here or if you guys would’ve gone somewhere else for the night.” I didn’t know any of their plans, actually. I now felt like I should’ve. “I’m sorry if you were sleeping.”

“No.” She shook her head, still frowning. “We just settled into bed, but that’s it. We were talking about the day. Sam.” Her head inclined toward me. “What is going on?”

This was so stupid. The words, the urgency, all of it left me in a sudden whoosh, and I realized the real reason I was here.

“Mason was arrested tonight.”

“What?!”

I glanced down to my hands, balled into fists at my sides. “We were leaving the hotel, and two cops showed up. It’s because he attacked someone, but he was only defending me. The guy was going to hit me.”

“Oh, Sam.” She leaned toward me, her hand reaching for my arm.

I saw it coming, and I did nothing. I found myself leaning toward her, and then she realized what she was about to do. Her hand stopped, flexed a couple times, and returned to her side. She tucked it into her robe’s pocket.

“I’m so sorry, Sam. I’m sure everything will be fixed, especially if Mason was only defending you. James always gets his sons off, you know that. He’d never let anything really hurt them.”

A small laugh left me. I reached up, pressing my hand to my forehead. I felt a headache forming.

“What?” she asked me.

“Nothing. It’s just—” I heard her words again. James always gets his sons off, you know that. He’d never let anything really hurt them. Oh, the irony. Mason and Logan were so angry at their dad because that was all he did was hurt them.

“He does help them, doesn’t he?” I murmured.

“In his way, he does.”

I looked up at her. She was saying he. I was saying he. We weren’t talking about James.

There’s a moment in life—when you become a certain age and see your future laid out before you—that you have to make a decision. Whatever fractures are inside of you, whatever emptiness or wounds there are, you must become whole again because it’s time.

It was time to let go.

I felt that wave of realization now, and something fell from me. It was an old lens. I could now look at Analise a different way.

It was time to step into my future.