Page 48 of You Belong With Me

Finally, I pull back, my face wet, my nose completely stuffed up. I sniff loudly, but it doesn’t help. I can’t breathe and my head is throbbing. “What the fuck?” I say, shaking my head.

“Tell me what you saw.”

“It was him. It was Lucas.” I wipe the tears off my face with my palms. “I thought maybe it was a deep-fake or something, but…” I shake my head again. “You can’t deep-fake certain things. The way he moved…” I know in my gut it was him. “Butwhy?Why would he do something like that, and then go around blamingmefor Gabriel’s death?None of this is making any sense.”

Lux is on her knees in front of me. “There’s only one person who can answer that…”

“Oh, fuck, no. I can’t face him. Not after seeing that.” I stand up and walk into the bathroom to grab a tissue, but I consider staying because bile is rising again in my throat. I wipe my face, then burst into a fresh wave of tears.

Lux follows me into the bathroom and sits on the edge of the tub. “I’m sorry, babe. This fucking sucks.”

“It’s not that I didn’t know what Lucas was capable of…” I say. “It’s the cold brutality of it. And the fact that Gabriel was someone he loved deeply. How could Lucas be capable of somethingthatcold?”

Lux shrugs. “Maybe there’s some kind of explanation…”

I sit on the lid of the toilet, face in my hands. “I have no idea what to think…” I say. “And maybe it doesn’t matter.”

“What do you mean, babe?”

“Lucas warned me,” I say, remembering our last conversation. “He said he’d done something, but he wouldn’t tell me what it was, because he was afraid I’d never forgive him….” I pull in a trembling breath and glance at Lux. “And he was right. Lucas West is a monster, and I never want to see him again…”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Lucas

I was heldfor a little more than twenty-four hours before being released—which is a full twelve hours longer than it usually takes McKnight to sort shit out. He’s been doing this for decades, and this isn’t the first time he’s gotten a Sacred Son off on a murder charge.

McKnight meets me at the Sheriff’s Station, and we walk out into the dark parking lot, where his car is parked.

I rub my wrists where the handcuffs bite into my skin. “You’re getting slow, old man,” I say.

He unlocks his brand-new luxury car and scowls at me. As we get in, he says, “Most of my cases don’t have my client on video committing the crime.”

“That’s surprising,” I say. “There are cameras everywhere nowadays.”

The engine roars to life, and he glances at me with a scowl as he turns to back out of the parking space. “Yeah, most people are smart enough to avoid cameras when they’re murdering someone,” he bites out, annoyed.

I raise a brow. “So what happens now?”

When they released me, the police didn’t explain shit. They just pulled me out of my cell, tossed my clothes at me, processed me, then let me go.

“I don’t know, you go back to doing whatever the fuck you do, I guess. The charges have been dropped.”

I reel back, shocked. “How the fuck did you manage that?”

He shrugs as we pull out onto the main road. “It’s the weirdest thing, but that video just… disappeared.”

I nod slowly. “Hm, interesting. Every copy?”

“It hadn’t been processed yet, so yeah, there was only one official copy.”

“How convenient,” I say, glancing out the window. My thoughts stray to Wyn like they always do. What does she know? Or maybe the better question is—what does shebelieve?“And the witness?”

He looks over at me and laughs under his breath. “Yeah, don’t worry about August. He won’t be a problem.”

I know I shouldn’t ask, but I’m curious as fuck. “He recanted?”

McKnight shrugs again, pulling up to Rush House. “More or less. He’s been discredited. There’s evidence that he was somewhere else at the time he claims he was at the train tracks.”

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