Page 102 of In the Air Tonight

“Please. My wife and kids are watching.”

“Put your hands behind your back.”

As the cuffs encircle my wrists, I glance toward the stands where Caroline is watching with a confused expression. She hands Grace and Elise off to a friend and comes down the bleachers to the fence. “What’s happening?”

“Where are you taking me?”

“Wickford Barracks.”

“Call Cam. Tell him I need him in Wickford right away.”

“Ryder… What’s going on?”

“Call Cam, Caroline. Right now.”

They lead me out of there as everyone watches in stunned silence. The game has come to a complete halt. As we walk to the State Police SUV, one of them tells me I’m under arrest for first-degree sexual assault and sexual assault of a minor. They recite my Miranda rights.

My son comes running in from second base. “Dad!Wait.Where’re you going?”

“Stay with Mom,” I tell him over my shoulder. “Just stay with Mom.”

“Ryder!” Caroline’s hysterical cry breaks me.

Tears fill my eyes.

They don’t know yet that I’ve ruined their lives.

Cam

NOW

I’m eating dinner with Sienna and the kids when I get a call from Caroline. I’d hoped to make it to Miles’s game, but I got home late and was starving. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Cam! They arrested Ryder! Just now at the ballfield. No one will tell me anything. He said to call you.”

Her every word hits me like a knife stabbing me in the heart.

“Cam!”

“I’m here. Did they say where they’re taking him?”

Sienna gasps, immediately putting two and two together from what she can hear me saying.

“The Wickford Barracks. What’s happening, Cam?”

“I’ll find out.”

“What should I do?”

“Take the kids and go home. I’ll update you as soon as I know anything.”

“Miles will want to finish the game.”

“Then finish the game.”

“What do I tell people?”

“Just say you don’t know what’s going on, which is the truth. I’ll be back to you as soon as I can.”

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