Page 9 of Second First Kiss

“She already told you she doesn’t know,” Kat said.

He ignored her. “Who fired the gun, Tessa?”

“Asked and answered,” Kat said, then looked at Tessa. “You don’t have to answer him again.”

Nolan’s expression was impenetrable. Gone was the man who’d made her a promise and in his place was a hall monitor with a gun. “She does if she doesn’t want to go sleep it off in the drunk tank.”

“Come on. She’s had, what, a beer or two?”

Nolan lifted a judgy brow and Kat looked down at Tessa, whose eyes were off-her-ass-drunk glazed over. She was swaying slightly and her sweatshirt was inside out.

Shit.

“So she partook in a little too much. It’s nothing that you and your brothers didn’t do every Friday night after the game.”

“There was never a gun in play. Someone could have been shot. This is a completely different situation.” He turned to Tessa. “Last chance.”

“Or what?” Tessa croaked.

“Seriously? You’re threatening her?” Kat said, stepping toe to toe with Nolan. “She’s seventeen and scared.”

“She should be scared. This is a serious situation.”

“You know, you want these kids to trust you, but you aren’t going to get it by being a tight-ass. I am willing to drive each kid home and explain to their parents what they were doing. But arresting them? Giving them a record only hurts their chances to get scholarships. It could even affect their college applications. Most of all it will affect the way they interact with law enforcement in the future. Most of these kids are first-time offenders.”

Except for the last, all of the above had been true for Kat. Scholarships, college, the way she interacted with the fuzz were all adversely affected by one stupid, single mistake.

“And at least one of them has a gun. What part of ‘someone could have gotten shot’ are you missing?”

“The part where you think my sister’s involved. She’s an honors student with her sights set on UCLA. It isn’t her. So you want to find that gun, search everyone. Then arrest the one asshole in the group. Don’t punish them all for some idiot’s choice.”

“They chose to party with that idiot.” Nolan looked down at Tessa’s coat. And that’s when Kat realized why her sister was being singled out. It was R. J. Locke’s letterman jacket. “You come here with R. J.?”

“No. She did not, because she promised me she wouldn’t see him anymore,” Kat said, glaring at her sister. Tessa’s answer was to toe at the ground.

Great. Just great.

“Did he have the gun?”

“It was R. J.,” a sheriff’s deputy said, approaching Nolan. “One of the kids said that he was bragging about having some cop’s gun earlier today.”

“Did anyone actually see him with the gun?”

“Not that anyone is admitting.”

Nolan rubbed his head as if he had a teen-induced migraine coming on. If he weren’t being such a jerk, she’d feel bad for him.

“There we go,” Kat said with heat. “Mystery solved. It was R. J., who is not here. Can we all go now?”

“The only place these kids are going is downtown for questioning. Then their parents can pick them up.” Nolan put his hand on Tessa’s shoulder. “You can ride with me.”

Panic flooded Kat’s body, making her a little lightheaded. Out of all the nights for Tessa to get arrested, she couldn’t have picked a worse night. If Kat didn’t fix this mess, she was pretty sure the social worker was going come to the conclusion that Tessa would be better somewhere else. And maybe she would, but Kat was willing to do anything it took to make the last few years of Tessa’s childhood perfect. The poor kid deserved it.

Kat reached out and grabbed Nolan’s arm. “Please, you can’t do this.” Then she did something she never allowed herself to do—she let someone see her fear. “You promised you’d bring her back to me.”

Nolan’s expression went soft with understanding and a flicker of hope pounded against her ribs. “She’s a witness.”

“Who’s already said that she doesn’t know anything. My sister is coming with me.”

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