“Shelby is working. If you speak to her, call me.”
“I will …”
I hang up. Just as I go to put it away, it rings again. “Hello?” I snap.
“Deke, man. It’s already all over the news,” Bennett informs me.
“I know. Becky just called and told me.”
“Shane called me, but I ignored it. I gotta tell him something. What if he just shows up at the hospital? I don’t want Cole kicking his ass and getting arrested twice tonight.”
I turn and jog back down the steps. “Ignore him.”
Cole and Shane were never the closest, but the tension grew between them once Austin entered our group four months ago. Shane was really close with Kellan, so I’m not sure which side Shane would pick right now. Even if he knew Kellan shot Austin, he’d be pissed at Cole for killing Kellan. And Bennett has already disposed of one body tonight; I don’t want him to have to do another one.
“What about Cole?” he asks. “Even with the evidence, they may still hold him. Especially with Kellan missing.”
I pick up Cole’s car keys off the table and run out the front door. Jumping into his car, I start it. “I’m headed to the precinct now. I called Jacob while Cole was in the shower, and he’s going to meet us there.” My father and Cole’s dad use the same attorney, and this isn’t the first time I’ve called him in the middle of the night.
“Okay. I’m almost there, so I will see you in a minute.”
I hang up, shift the car into gear, and throw gravel as I spin it around and speed down the long driveway. “Everything You Hate,” by Project Vela plays through the speakers.
When the phone rings again, cutting the song short, I growl, “This better be my sister.” But when I look down to see the number lighting up on my phone, I slam on the brakes, bringing the car to a stop in the middle of the driveway. Dust billows out from under the tires from the gravel. I let it ring a few more times and take a deep breath before answering.
Fuck!
“Hello?”
“Why in the fuck was my son just arrested for murder? And how in the hell are you involved?” Liam Reynolds snaps in my ear.
CHAPTER FOUR
COLE
I SIT IN A hard chair in a cold and silent room. They brought me in for questioning and wanna pin me for murder. But for the wrong person. My hands are still cuffed behind my back. I barely made it out the front door of the clubhouse before they had me face down in the gravel with their knees in my back while cuffing me. They threw me into the back of a squad car. I don’t expect special treatment, but I don’t think keeping my wrists cuffed for questioning is protocol. Then they brought me in here and left me. To sit. All alone. There’s no clock on the walls, but I can hear every second slowly tick by in my mind like nails on a chalkboard. They think leaving me alone with my thoughts will make me nervous and I’ll wanna confess to them. They can go to hell.
I look around for any cameras but don’t see any. And there’s also no two-way mirrors, letting me know that no one is looking in on me. We’ll be completely alone.
They think I killed Celeste and shot Austin, and I can see how they came to that conclusion. But things aren’t always what they look like. And they’re about to find that out.
The door opens, and Detective Monroe enters with a file in his hand and a bag in his other. “Cole Reynolds. It’s been a while.”
I show indifference although I want to knock his head off. I should be at the hospital waiting to see Austin, not here with this dipshit.
He pulls the only other chair out and sits down in it across from me, slapping the file on the metal table along with the clear bag marked evidence with red tape. It’s my gun. It’s covered in her blood as well. The one I left behind in Bruce’s house after the paramedics took Austin. I wasn’t thinking clearly.
Obviously.
When they loaded her into the ambulance, I noticed my car was still in her father’s driveway, so I called Deke to find out where in the hell he took Kellan. When he told me the cemetery, I just turned and ran around the house to the back and up the hill.
Monroe crosses his arms over his chest and sits back, staring at me. Waiting for me to speak. He’s trying to intimidate me into a confession he’ll never get. I have something better to give him, and it will be here shortly.
“Why were you at the Lowes’ residence to begin with?” he asks. “Were you there to fuck your girlfriend or her stepmom?”