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  At this point, I’m annoyed with Jess way more than I’m pissed at Myra.

  “Why don’t you follow me where we can talk in private?”

  “Sure,” I tell him. Small-town police departments make big deals out of the stupidest shit, and Jess is playing it up like the best of them. “Let’s walk and talk.”

  He opens the door for me. “Second door on the left,” he says, following behind me. I expect to see Myra when I walk in, but it’s just a table and two chairs. I sit down, crossing my arms in front of my chest and wait as Jess closes the door and takes a seat across from me. “Where’s my sister?”

  “You can see her in a few minutes. They’re finishing up with her now.”

  I turn my head like I might have misheard him. “Finishing up with her?”

  “My partner is questioning her.”

  “Why? She’s just a kid.”

  At this point, I’m about to explode like a firecracker. Jess is the fuse, and this entire situation is the gunpowder. Three… Two…

  “She was found intoxicated at a party. We brought in all the kids about two hours ago.”

  “Big deal.” I roll my eyes and can’t believe they called me down here for this shit. They made my mother a nervous wreck over some alcohol. Dumbfucks. “We got drunk all the time when we were in high school. If I remember right, you had a huge party at your place when your parents were away.”

  He did it more than once too.

  “We received a tip that there were narcotics at the party, and we decided to raid the location in hopes of catching the distributor. This is a small town, Jack, but things aren’t like they were when we were kids.”

  If he says Myra is behind a massive drug ring in town, I’m going to squeeze the life out of him. “Did you find anything?”

  “Not as much as we hoped, but we did find drugs at the scene.”

  I resist the urge to roll my eyes again. “Then why was Myra arrested? Sounds like you have more shit to worry about than a kid drinking a little too much beer.”

  He taps his finger on the table, staring me down, and doesn’t speak at first. I want to lunge at him and rip him limb from limb.

  “She was brought in as an accomplice.”

  “An accomplice to what? Beer?” I snort and slap my knee instead of smacking his face.

  “We found her in the bedroom with a boy who had three grams of cocaine on him.”

  I grab the edge of the table and hold myself in my seat. Even though it would feel amazing to pop Jess in the face, it would do nothing to get my sister out of here. “You still haven’t said what she did?”

  “We found residue in her purse,” he says point-blank with all seriousness.

  I throw my hands up in the air, and they come down hard on the table with a loud thump. “Are you fucking kidding me with this shit right now, Jess?”

  “I’m afraid not.” He looks cocky, but only because he’s wearing the uniform and knows I can’t do anything. At least, not while I’m at the station and he’s on duty.

  “Half the money in this country has residue on it. It could’ve easily transferred.”

  He shakes his head. “You’ve watched too much television.”

  “Either you release my sister, or I’ll bring down a fancy team of lawyers that will crush this police department and sue them for every penny for detaining my sister without cause.”

  “I’ll release her into your custody because we’re friends, but you’d better get her straightened out, Jack. We may need to question her again once she’s sobered up about the boy she was with tonight.”

  I climb from my chair and follow him when he opens the door. “I want to see her while you get the paperwork done.”

  “It’s against regulations until we’re through with her, but I can make an exception for you.” He smiles as if he’s being my friend, but it’s just a prime example of what a douche he really always has been. I can’t stand the prick.

  He takes me down a hallway to a row of cells, but there’s no Myra. “She’s still in interrogation,” he tells me. “I can leave you there with her while I discuss her release.”

  I don’t bother with a response. Nothing I can say will make any of this any better, but with my smart mouth, I could make the entire thing worse.

  “Jack,” Myra says from a bench when I enter the interrogation area.

  I hold out my arms, and she runs to me, wrapping her tiny body around me. “Hey, baby girl.”

  “I was so scared,” she whispers, squeezing me tightly as if I might disappear. Tears spring to her eyes as she refuses to let me go. The makeup running down her face gives me pause. She isn’t the same little girl who would follow me around anymore. She’s growing up—and fast.

  I remember the day she was born. Her tiny body was placed in my arms, and my mother told me it was my job to protect her. I promised my mother I would always look after my sister and keep her safe. Even when I lived away, I checked up on her. But these last few weeks, I’ve become distracted and lost sight of what might’ve been going on with her.

  “I’ve got you.” I kiss the top of her head and hug her back. “I’m getting you out of here.”

  She buries her face against my chest and says, “Thank you.”

  “But you have a lot of explaining to do, Myra. You’re not getting off so easily on this one,” I warn.

  She exhales into my shirt but keeps herself tangled around me like a scared little girl. “I’ll tell you everything.”

  “Damn right, you will.” With the absence of my father, I need to step in and fill his shoes. He was tough but fair and never raised a hand to us. He’d use this as a lesson, telling us what could be learned from such reckless behavior.

  “Good news,” Jess says, walking into the interrogation room moments later. His hands grip his belt, his belly hanging over it and hiding the buckle. “She’s free to go.”

  “We’re done?” I ask him, ready to bust out of here probably just as much as Myra’s ready to go too.

  “Yep. But we may need her to come back in to answer some questions about the boy,” he reiterates.

  “You have my word,” I tell him before looking down at my sister. “Ready?”

  She looks relieved as her eyes fill with more tears. “I’ve never been more ready in my life.”

  “Come on. Let’s get home.” I wrap my arm around her shoulder, letting her bend down to grab the purse that started the problem in the first place, and head for the door. I don’t bother to thank Jess because he doesn’t deserve a thank you.

  His department fucked up. He fucked up. He knew I knew it too. There was no way I would let them get away with arresting her, processing her, and questioning her without a parent at her side and have it not end in some sort of lawsuit. I’m not sue-happy, but when it comes to my sister, I’d rain down hellfire to keep her safe and happy.

  The ride home is quiet. She stares out the window, and I mull over my first words to her in my head. What would my father say at a time like this? I don’t want to judge her or make her feel even guiltier. I did some shit in my day, but luckily, I never got caught.

  “Ready to talk?” I’ve given her space and time to think about what she’s done. The way she molded her body against the door and stared out the window told me she’d been thinking about the entire situation. Myra can be a pain in the ass, but she’s never been a complete brat. She’s good at her core, but like every rebellious teenager, she’s pulling some shit to test her boundaries and mine.

  She glances in my direction for a moment before staring out the front window. “I swear I wasn’t doing drugs, Jack.”

  “I believe you. But what happened?” I need her to know I am on her side. Yelling at her and calling her an idiot won’t get us anywhere.

  “A kid that used to go to my school, Cory, asked me on a date tonight. He told me that there was a party and that it was supposed to be the event of the year. So, I said I’d go with him.”

  I grip the steering wheel tigh
ter and make a mental note that I’ll probably want to kick Cory’s ass at some point. “Go on.”

  “Well,” she says, pausing and mashing her hands together in her lap. “I didn’t know he did drugs. He asked if he could put a few things in my purse when we got there. You know, for safekeeping because there were so many people.”

  “Did you even ask what he wanted to put in there, Myra?” I want to ask her how she could be so dumb, but I keep my cool. She’s young and learning.

  Her head moves side to side slightly. “No. I didn’t even think about asking him that.”

  “Don’t ever let anyone put anything in your purse. You could’ve been arrested for possession if the cops found it inside.”

  “It was close.” She blows out a shaky breath before continuing. “Cory and I were upstairs when the cops busted through the door. Cory snatched my purse and ran to the bathroom, trying to get rid of whatever he had inside, but the police got to him first.”

  “He had cocaine inside. Your purse tested positive for residue.”

  “Fuck,” she groans and shakes her head, staring down at her lap and avoiding all eye contact with me. Tears pool and run down her face as she weeps silently.

  I keep my eyes on the road and figure she’s making herself miserable enough. When my mother gets ahold of her, she’s going to have hell to pay anyway. “Don’t ever give someone the ability to put you in that situation. You could’ve been in serious trouble that not even I could’ve gotten you out of, but you got lucky.”

  “Yeah,” she whispers with a hiccup.

  We pull in to the driveway, but she doesn’t move. I know she’s scared to go inside. My mom has a temper even though at times she seems calm and serene. “Ma’s going to beat me for this one.”

  “She won’t,” I say, and I can’t hide my smile. “Let me ask you this, Myra. You’re not planning to see this Cory douche again, are you?”

  She turns her head and gives me a look that answers the question immediately. “I want no part of anyone who’s involved in drugs, Jack. I seriously didn’t know he was into that shit.”

  I want to believe her, but it’s a small town, and people talk. There’s no way she attended the same school with a whopping enrollment of four hundred kids and she didn’t know. Kids talk more than adults, and in our closed-off slice of heaven, there are no secrets. “Good, ’cause I’d hate to have to go to jail for beating an underage kid to death.”

  She rolls her eyes and smiles. “He’s not worth it.”

  “He’s going to be in a lot of trouble. He’s at an age where they’ll probably charge him as an adult. It’s time for you to grow up, Myra. You’re not a little girl anymore. With age comes more responsibilities, and problems get bigger too. You can’t pass everything off on being a stupid kid. You know what I mean?”

  “I know, Jack.” She yawns. “I get it. I promise, I understand how bad this could have been.”

  “We’ll talk more tomorrow after you get some rest.”

  “Only if I survive Mom,” she groans.

  I laugh and pull her across the seat of my truck to hug her. “You’ll be okay. Promise.”

  “Can we…um… lie to her?”

  “I’ll try to break it to her gently and leave out the part about the drugs, but she may find out on her own.”

  “Ugh,” she grumbles and rests her head on my shoulder. “I don’t want her to know what an idiot I am.”

  I kiss her forehead, knowing that she’s growing up and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. “Just don’t do it again.” All I can do is help guide her and set her on a path to success.

  “I won’t. Lesson learned.”

  I walk in front of her as we enter the house. My mom’s sitting on the stairway in her robe with her hands clasped tightly in her lap. Myra digs her fingers into my side as she peeks around my body and catches a glimpse of our mother.

  “What happened?” Mom asks, pushing herself off the stairs and coming in our direction.

  Normally, I’d be scared, even for Myra, but I can see Ma’s not mad, she’s scared. “Just a typical teenage party. No big deal. The cops were being assholes.”

  “Myra, baby,” Ma says when Myra doesn’t speak or move out from behind me. “Come here.”

  She finally steps to the side and runs into my mother’s arms. “I’m sorry, Ma.”

  My mom wraps her arms around her little girl and holds her tightly, resting her cheek on the top of Myra’s head. “You’re safe, and that’s all that matters.”

  I’m exhausted, and it’s past three in the morning. I can’t go back to Evie’s now. I’ll scare the crap out of her. “Good night,” I say to my sister and mother and leave them downstairs to talk before heading to my room.

  I settle into bed and close my eyes, thinking only of Evie. I’m excited about what the future holds for us. There’s no going back after what happened tonight. She’s mine, and there are no denying that fact. She can’t hide her feelings for me any longer.

  I fall asleep with a giant smile on my face, knowing things are finally starting to look up.

  14

  Evie

  I roll over to an empty bed. I stare up at the ceiling, sulking and feeling completely embarrassed and humiliated.

  “Morning, sunshine,” Evan says as he stands in the doorway of my bedroom with a cup of coffee in his hand. “Jack left you a note.”

  I push myself up and rest my back against the headboard with a yawn as I motion for him to hand over the mug. My body is stiff, and I feel like I spent the night at the gym instead of in bed with the man I love. “Gimme that coffee and the note I’m sure you’ve read.”

  “I was hoping I’d find his fine ass in your bed.” He pouts as he enters and sits on the edge of my bed, but he finally hands me the cup when I glare at him. “Did you tell him?”

  I take a sip and read the note, blinking a few times because I’m still groggy. Relief washes over me as I read Jack’s words. “I didn’t tell him.”

  I’m filled with guilt over not telling Jack the one thing he needs to know. The one thing that could change everything between us. I don’t want to ruin this before we even get started, but he deserves to know. I would want to be told.

  Evan pats my legs through the blanket and smiles lopsidedly. “You’ll tell him when it’s time.”

  “I tried, Evan. God, I tried, but he didn’t want to hear it.”

  “Sometimes it’s better to leave shit in the past. You said you tried. What more can you do?”

  I sigh into my mug. “He needs to know.”

  “Suit yourself, princess. Get up and get showered. We have to be at the cemetery this afternoon.”

  Fuck.

  How it completely slipped my mind that today is my father’s funeral is beyond me. I let myself get lost in Jack and pushed everything out of my mind. It didn’t help that I’m so angry with my father that not even I want to attend his interment.

  “Plus, you don’t need to look like a well-used streetwalker in front of the town.”

  I gape at him in horror. “I do not look like that.”

  He pushes off the bed and stops in the doorway, looking back at me as he holds the door. “Have a look in the mirror, and then tell me you don’t look like you’ve had a night of fantastic sex.” He winks at me, and I roll my eyes, my cheeks flaming with heat, remembering the fantastic sex he speaks of. It was amazing.

  When he leaves, I finally climb out of bed and catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Shit. My hair’s a mess, basically a bird’s nest, with pieces sticking straight up in the air. My mascara is smeared down my cheeks and has settled nicely under my eyes to give me that I-didn’t-sleep-a-wink-last-night, raccoon appearance. Even my lips are swollen and pinker than usual. Evan was right. I look exactly like a worn-out hooker.

  Even though no one is going to come, I still need to make myself presentable. With my luck, half the town will show up and start talking about me and my new appearance. It’s nothing that can’t be fixed
with a warm shower and a lot of makeup.

  An hour later, I’m downstairs in my nicest black dress and matching heels, with my hair in a smooth bun and a thick coating of