Julian caught my gaze before sitting back down.
“Hey, dude,” I told him, feigning an innocent expression. “Sorry for getting you wrapped up in this. You want me to call someone to…”
“My sister Kate’s on her way,” he said simply. I nodded and walked out.
The cop guided me down a long hallway into the waiting room. Kam was the only person there. Her loose blond hair shining like always. Her long legs clad in the same jeans she’d worn to the bonfire. I’d been watching her in them from a distance, a drink in my hand, thinking how incredible she looked. She had her sweater hanging over one arm—it was too hot in the police station to wear it. Her white cotton shirt was snug, showing off her tiny breasts. But none of that mattered, only her face. Her precious face swollen from crying, and the worry in her eyes as she saw me.
She hurried over, hesitated for a moment, unsure whether to touch me. I decided for us both, grabbing her hand and pulling her close for a hug.
“Taylor’s…”
“I don’t care.” I cut her off, smelling her hair, her perfume.
My brother deserved better. Of course, he did. I hadn’t lied when I said that, when I’d let her know what she was doing to him was wrong. But my real motivation was to get her away from his arms, from his kisses. I wanted her for myself. She and I, we deserved each other. Right? I knew I’d hurt her when I told her I was testing her that time we’d hooked up, but of course, that wasn’t the whole story. I knew she wanted me in a way she could never want my brother—some things are just obvious. I was losing the ability to stay away from her, to pretend she didn’t matter tome, to deny the attraction I felt for her. And it wasn’t just attraction. It was much, much more.
“I see you’re all right,” Taylor said, cutting short our embrace. I opened my eyes and found myself face-to-face with my brother’s tense, cold stare. The atmosphere was uncomfortable, and Kam didn’t know which one of us to look at.
“I talked to Perez,” he said, taking me by surprise. Part of me had been ready for another possible confrontation, but this time with my own brother. Perez was a hacker. He’d come in handy more than once. What a coincidence it was for Taylor to mention his name, because I’d just been thinking about him on my way out of the cell. Taylor continued: “I told Kami I asked him to look into what was going on with her Instagram. He said he’d try to have something for us in few days, but then when he got back to me, he made one thing clear: This isn’t just some regular guy doing this, it’s someone who understands firewalls and things like that. Once he’s cracked one of your passwords, he’s in. It’s not just someone fucking around. If he’s hacked Kami’s phone, he could have all kinds of other information about her. For now, Perez hasn’t got much more for us.”
“I already told you guys, it’s Danny. He’s the one behind this,” Kami said, hugging herself.
A cop came over and clapped my brother on the back with a smile. It took me a few seconds to recognize him.
“I heard you boys were back, but I sure as heck didn’t think I’d see you here,” he said.Milo, his name tag read. It was the same cop who had driven us home when my sister Lucy died in the accident on the bridge eight years before. Seeing him again made my heart ache. But he had been good to us, the father figure we needed when our parents went to the hospital with my sister, when they couldn’t be there for us because their grief was too great.
I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten his name, but I guess when you have a traumatic experience like that, you suppress the details because you don’t want to ever relive them again. Taylor must have felt the same as I did because he looked a little confused as well.
“How’s it going, Milo?” I asked, shaking his hand. Taylor followed suit.
“I hear y’all got in a fight?” he said, looking at me.
“Something like that.” I responded as Milo’s eyes glanced down at my bloody knuckles.
It looked worse than it was—I hadn’t had a chance to wash my hands, which were caked with dried blood, my shirt was torn, and there was dirt and blood on my pants and in my hair.
“I see.” He frowned.
“Sir, he was defending me,” Kami said.
“I know.” The cop looked at her. “I’m going to have a word with the sheriff, and we’re going to see if we can’t just pretend this never happened. No promises, though.”
I had to fill out some paperwork while Kam and my brother waited outside. One look was enough to tell how tense they both were. My brother looked like he wanted to smash something with his bare hands. When I was done, I walked straight up to Kam. Staring into her swollen eyes, I couldn’t forget for a second why we were there. “You should press charges,” I said.
“I don’t want to,” she answered. I could tell from her tone that my brother had already been trying to convince her of this.
“Why not?” I asked. “What he did is a crime. It’s sexual assault and an invasion of privacy. People can’t get away with that shit anymore. You need to file a report.” I tried to sound relaxed, hoping to be more persuasive that way.
“I just want to forget all this ever happened and go to bed.”
“Kam…”
“Kami…”
My brother and I had spoken her name at the same time.
“I appreciate everything you guys are doing, I really do,” she said, looking back and forth between us. “But there’s no way to prove it was Danny, and I don’t feel like starting a war and suffering more than I already have.”
“You’re wrong, though,” I said, taking a step toward her. I stopped myself from grabbing her hands since my brother was there. “If you don’t turn him in now, it may never stop.”
