Page 49 of You Belong With Me

It’s probably fabricated evidence, but I’m not complaining.

I pop the car door open. “Thanks, McKnight. I appreciate you, man.”

“You’ll appreciate me less when you get my bill,” he says. “But do me a favor…”

“Name it.”

“Don’t knock anyone off for a while,” he says. “You’re under a microscope now. You so much assneezethe wrong way, and they’ll throw your ass back in jail.”

I smile. “I can’t promise anything.”

He points at me, and I slam the car door shut. He peels away, and I walk up to the house. Inside, it’s quiet. More quiet than usual. I walk into the living room and find Roman and Christian playing pool. They turn to see who walked in, shock registering on their faces when they see it’s me.

“Lucas!” Christian rushes over to me and pulls me into a hug, slapping my back. “What the fuck? They released you?”

Roman walks up and slaps me on the back, too. “Goddamn. Did they drop the charges or what?”

“Yeah, apparently there wasn’t enough evidence to charge me,” I say shrugging. “They lost the video, and no video, no crime, I guess.”

“McKnight said the victim on the tracks was connected to Shadow and Ash,” Roman says. “Did you know that?”

“Nah.” I shake my head. “I found out when you found out.”

“So both the witnessandthe victim were connected to Shadow and Ash?” Christian shakes his head. “Well, isn’t that a fucking coincidence?”

“You said it,” I reply.

“Just tell us one thing, Lucas. Was the video real?” Christian asks.

I look at my brother, who’s watching me intently, waiting for some kind of explanation for all of this. And I know I owe him one, but right now, all I can think about is Wyn. I need to make sure she’s safe.

“Listen,” I say, turning my attention back to Roman. “I’ll tell you guys everything, I swear. But right now, I need to check on Wyn.”

Christian nods once. “Sure, yeah. I get it.”

“Has anyone spotted Gabriel?” I ask.

Christian shakes his head. “We have security at Wyn’s place, just in case he shows up. And we have people out there looking, but there’s been no sign of him.”

I nod, my fists clenching. “Cool, let me know if you hear anything. I have a feeling he won’t stay hidden for long.”

Gabriel is a showman. He thrives on attention, and there’s no fucking way he’s going to hole up for more than a week or two. But he knows I’m pissed, so he’s going to wait until I calm down before poking his head out. What he doesn’t know, is that there’s no cooling off when it comes to him hurting Wyn. The second he pops up, however long that takes, his ass is mine.

Roman points at me, holding his pool cue. “You wanna join us? We can start a new game?”

“Nah, thanks. I’m fucking exhausted,” I say, glancing around. “Where is everyone?”

“Uh, Jackson put the kibosh on people coming over for a while,” Christian says. “We all agreed it just didn’t feel right with everything that was going on.”

“Respect.” I push out a breath. “I’m taking a shower, then crashing.”

As I leave the room, though, the absolute last thing I’m thinking about is a fucking shower. Wyn is on my mind—always—and I’m itching to touch her. My blood is buzzing, and I feel like a junkie that hasn’t gotten a fix in days.

As I head upstairs, I pull my phone out of my back pocket and immediately send a text to Wyn. I could drive to her place now—assuming that’s where she is—but I reallyshouldtake a shower first and wash the grime of that jail cell off my skin. She’d probably appreciate that.

When I get up to my room, I jump into the shower quickly—thinking about Wyn the whole fucking time. I consider rubbing one off in the shower, but I’d rather pump my load into Wyn’s warm, welcoming body, so I don’t.

When I get out and towel off, I reach over and check my phone. No text. It doesn’t even look like she’s read my message, which is strange. Instantly, my heart kicks into overdrive. Theguys said they hired security to watch her place, but…fuck, what if Gabriel managed to get past them?

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