Page 51 of Honest With You

A few of the kids disperse downstairs and Nate comes to stand between Dean and us.

Ryder smirks beside me. “That’s right, we called the cops.”

Dean shoves his finger into Ryder’s chest. “You’re going to pay for this, Kim.” He looks at Ava and I. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with. My mom’s a lawyer.”

Ava steps up between me and Ryder, her phone in her hand. “It’s you who has no idea who he’s dealing with.”

Fuck.

I grip her hand. “Ava.”

She ignores me. Instead, she puts the phone to her ear, and when it stops ringing, she stares straight at Dean as she says, “Hi, Mr. Cain? This is Ava Torres. I need Mr. Figgs down here now. I’m filing a case for physical and sexual assault. My friend will also need representation.”

* * *

Ryder is holding a still sluggish Vanessa in his arms while Ava finishes up with her lawyer. We’re sitting in one of the detective's offices, two hours later.

After Ava’s family’s lawyer let it slip who she was, the detective tripped over himself trying to accommodate every one of Mr. Figgs’ demands.

Dean was booked with multiple counts of physical and sexual assault.

They took all our statements, except Vanessa’s. She wanted to after finding out what Dean did to Ava but they let us know she had to come back to give her official one after she had sobered up and got checked by a doctor.

The memory of when Ryder and I walked in just in time to see Dean’s hand wrapped around Ava’s throat and the other on her breast is now seared into my memory. It was definitely enough to constitute that what we did to Dean was nothing short of self defense.

A text notification chimes on my phone and I send a quick reply to my mom, telling her not to worry. She’s out of town with my dad, scouting a location for a new restaurant, so she’s antsy she’s not here with me right now.

Luckily, Ryder, Vanessa and I are all eighteen so we didn’t need an adult to come get us. Ava, unfortunately, is still seventeen for another few weeks so she had no choice but to call her brother. Her dad is stuck on set, shooting a movie in the Bahamas, so now we’re waiting on Stephen.

Ava has her arms wrapped around her middle, chewing on her bottom lip nervously as she sneaks a look at Vanessa.

My fearless girl really kicked ass tonight, but I can see that the fight drained a lot out of her. I want nothing more than to wrap her in the safety of my arms but she’s already dealing with a lot. I can tell she’s on the precipice of a breakdown and my hovering might push her over the edge. I really wish she had waited for me to cross that backyard before she decided to do anything, but my girl is nothing but protective of the people she loves. I fucking love that about her but her pain… her anxiety — I feel them and my heart aches for her. I wish more than anything that I could take all of it from her.

She never wanted anyone here to know who she was and now that the cat’s out of the bag–she’s definitely second guessing herself. But I know deep down she had to do it, or the three of us would wind up in the same jail cell as Dean for assault.

Stephen comes barrelling through the door twenty minutes later, looking frazzled, his hair sticking everywhere like he rampaged it with his fingers.

Ava drops my hand and shoots to her feet at the sight of her brother causing Vanessa to stir. Ryder quickly grabs hold of her and props her neck against the back of the chair. Stephen bypasses their lawyer, who had also risen when he entered. He does a double take when he sees Vanessa, an odd look crossing his face. Then Ava runs straight into his arms, sobbing and apologizing. Stephen grits his teeth, seeing the marks on her neck that the sweater she borrowed from me is not covering. I don’t miss the glare he shoots my way or the way his eyes slide right back to Vanessa, his mouth pinched in anger.

The lawyer approaches them and I hear snippets of their conversation. Most of what they’re saying is spoken in hushed whispers by their lawyer and Stephen. But words like NDA, press release and settlement make their way to us. Ryder and I exchange looks over Vanessa’s sleeping form. He throws me a questioning look and I answer him with a shrug.

After a few more minutes, Stephen nods at the lawyer before turning all his attention on Ava. “Just get it done.”

The lawyer starts to approach us when Ava peers over Stephen’s shoulder and whispers, “Not right now.”

“With all due respect Miss Torres, it’s imperative that the NDAs get signed today.”

Ava straightens, arching a brow at the lawyer. She raises her voice, “And it will be Mr. Figgs. But it’s two in the morning. We’ve had a horrible night, followed by a long, grueling process here at the police station. Forgive me if I don’t want to subject my friends to more of that, or wake my friend who still needs to be seen by a doctor. Do I need to call my father?”

The lawyer blanches. “My apologies, Miss Torres. I will be at your home later today.”

Stephen chimes in, “Make sure everyone else has signed an NDA.”

Nodding his head, Mr. Figgs all but flees the room. No one pays him any mind as we’re all sort of just staring at Ava and marveling at how easy it was for her to commandeer the lawyer.

“Ace?”

Ava’s calm mask slips and her bottom lip quivers. “I want to go home, Stephen.”

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