Addicted After All (Addicted #3)(148)

“LET ME GO!” he shouts with more alarm.

His friends hesitate by the corner of the hall. The police sirens are audible in the distance. The cops might even be parking in the driveway.

“I warned you,” I grit. “I told you that we’d press charges this time.”

“We need to go,” one of the other guys says. “I’m not going to jail, man.”

“Neither am I,” another says.

The guy in my clutch thrashes. “DON’T LEAVE ME!” he screams. “YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME!” Fear trembles his voice, and his so-called friends disappear around the corner, sealing his fate.

He’s shorter than me, thinner. I easily lift him by the waist and carry him towards the staircase, even as he fights against me. “It was a f*cking joke!” He keeps repeating, can’t you take a joke?!

My stomach overturns and I pause at the top of the staircase. I firmly grip his wrists behind his back. “That’s funny,” I say dryly. “Really funny. Destroying someone’s shit. Hilarious stuff.” And then I pull off his mask.

My mouth falls some.

The red hair is familiar, one of the guys I met at Superheroes & Scones. But he’s not Garrison. His face is splotched red with anger, and I push him forward so he heads downstairs. When we veer into the living room, my pulse heightens a shot.

I scan Lily, who leans her ass on the couch. Without her jacket, I notice her reddened arm, like she’d been scratching. Dammit, Lil. Nausea churns, but I focus on Moffy in his blue onesie. His glassy eyes seem to connect with mine, and he outstretches his arms, squirming like he’d prefer to be held by me right now. Lily tries to comfort him, refitting his mini-Wampa cap that he smacks off his head. Like Jane, he’s inconsolable.

“You little penis,” Rose curses.

For some reason, I think she’s insulting me. But her penetrating yellow-green eyes are planted on the redhead in my clutch.

“Where are your friends?” Rose almost shouts at him like he’s under interrogation.

The redhead presses his thin lips shut.

Rose spins on her heels and begins marching to the backdoor. “We need to find his friends quickly.” Since Connor has Jane, she must feel free to chase the rest of the teenagers. Problem is: she’s in heels. And she’s Rose. Anyone with two feet can outrun her, including her seven-year-old niece.

“Yeah, you do that,” I tell Rose. “Fly in your magic bubble, Glenda.”

“Shut. Up. Loren.” She huffs as she gets ten feet from Connor. And then he catches up to her, and he hooks his arm around her waist.

“They’re gone, darling.” He tugs her to his body.

“Richard—”

“You can’t run after them,” Connor says. “But he’ll rat out his friends.”

The redhead lets out a pissed laugh. “Like hell, you prick.”

Connor’s lip tics, and he straightens up, his arm wrapped around his wife’s shoulders while he holds Jane. She cries into his white button-down, soaking the shirt.

In a controlled voice, he says, “Burglary is a felony. In case the severity escapes you, I’ll clarify. You will now have severe trouble obtaining a job and applying to colleges. That Ivy League you dreamed about is now scratching you off their lists. And inside your social circle, you better hope you have loyal friends. Because those that care about status will write you off just as quickly as everyone else. You’re a social carp, a bottom feeder. You take the meager scraps that the more fortunate hand out to you.”

Rose opens her mouth to pipe in, hopefully not to call him a penis again. I wait for her retort, but her lips tighten closed and her shoulders constrict. She cautiously looks to Connor.

I frown and inspect the redhead.

He’s crying.

His eyes redden as tears streak his face. If I was more callous, I’d feel good right about now. I’d feel justified in his pain. He f*cked with us for a while. He deserves this, right? But the pity that surfaces belongs to a guy who’s been there. Who’s hated everyone and everything. Who just wanted to go and drown.

I didn’t want them to choose this. But I will never have another night like tonight. There will never be another shadow passing through our hallway. No amount of empathy will change my mind.

Connor’s demeanor softens as he says to the redhead, “Or you can make a deal. Reduce your charges, try to turn this felony into a misdemeanor.”

I see where Connor is headed with this one. “You’ll just have to give up your friends.”

He laughs weakly, and then he nods a few times in agreement. Right then, the police burst through the front doors with handguns outstretched and bullet proof vests, shouting multiple things at once.

It’s over.

I release my clutch on the guy, and he staggers forward with his hands in the air. I immediately lift a terrorized, wriggling baby out of Lily’s gangly arms. He latches onto my chest and I press a hand to his back, rubbing him as he settles down.

Lily hides her eyes behind her Wampa cap, like she’s hiding from me.

“I’ll talk to the police first,” I barely hear Connor say. One of the officers is about to near me for questioning.

“Can I have a minute?” I ask him.

With two authoritative hands on his belt, he nods once and steps back.