The Falling (Brightest Stars, #1)(73)

I sat straight up in my seat. “What do you mean? Who’s trying to jump you? Where are you?”

Chaos. No longer brewing. It was here.





CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT




I couldn’t say no. Austin gave me the location and I asked Kael to drive me straight there. He put the address in his phone and pulled out of the parking lot, the restaurant lanterns fading in the background as we drove. Thanks to Kael’s ability to drive in crisis mode, it took us only about eight minutes to get there. I called Austin once a minute until we arrived, but he didn’t pick up. By the time we pulled up, two guys were rolling around in the middle of the street; a red T-shirt and a black T-shirt were all I could see. There was a crowd watching. Another guy pushed through and hit the guy in the black T-shirt in the ribs. I recognized it was Austin as he grunted on the ground. I pushed past Kael and he grabbed my arm.

“Stay here.” He put his palms on my shoulders and moved me a few feet away before he disappeared into the crowd. There were three trucks parked in the cul-de-sac and about ten people huddled together, cheering and booing.

I tried to figure out where we were. The street was a row of similar houses, all quiet and with the porch lights on. There were a few people outside, yelling to stop the fighting and saying that they had called the Military Police. We weren’t on post, but we were right outside the gate, so if the cops came it would be Military Police, not civilian. It was the last place my brother needed to be getting caught fighting.

I scanned my surroundings quickly, on my way to find Kael and Austin in the crowd. I shoved to the front of the adrenaline-fueled chaos trying to reach Kael in the middle of the brawl. He pushed one of the guys off Austin and Austin swung at him in the air.

“Stop it!” I recognized Katie’s voice before I saw her. I beelined toward her.

“Come on, Nielson, let’s get out of here!” someone said in the background. A couple more lines of toxic encouragement were thrown out before I saw Kael block my brother from getting hit in his ribs again. I screamed.

“Stop it!” Katie yelled again. I reached where she was standing, close to the fight, her face streaked with mascara tears.

“What happened?” I asked, grabbing her by the shoulders. Kael was yelling Austin’s name, trying to break up the fight.

“My ex, and Austin—” She started crying hysterically. It was useless trying to talk to her and I kept moving through the crowd.

Sirens whirred through the air as Austin got his arms around one of their necks and brought them to the ground. Kael was shoving a guy with a bloody nose toward the crowd. They started to scatter, except Austin and the guy he was wrestling in the grass. One by one, the trucks pulled away, Katie with them. I locked eyes with her as she climbed inside the cab of one of the trucks. This had everything to do with her and there she went, driving away from the storm.

I yelled Austin’s name as she passed. Begging him to stop, to get up and get in the fucking truck! Kael grabbed Austin by the waist and tossed him to the side. He propped himself up on his elbow, sitting up, ready to go back at it.

“Austin, STOP!” I screamed again, desperate to connect with him, to snap him out of this before it was too late. If he got arrested again, he would be fucked. The siren cut off and the voices got louder. There was a small group of onlookers left outside now, mostly neighbors yelling and arguing all at once; it was complete chaos.

Everything happened so fast.

The MPs rushed out of their cars, heading straight for us. I screamed as they got closer, and I realized they were going for Kael. I tried to run toward him as my brother was shoved to the ground. An elbow or fist was flying toward my face, so I lifted my hands up to block myself and heard Kael’s voice booming.

“Not her!” His voice shook me.

When I couldn’t see him anymore, I panicked. I didn’t even know if I had been hit or not.

“I was breaking it up! I don’t have a weapon!” I heard Kael’s voice again and my eyes found him.

I was no longer thinking about shielding myself. The only thing on my mind when I saw an MP reach for his black baton was Kael. The officer’s focus was on him as the other two officers approached. Kael was on the ground and about to be blindsided, as the officers got closer. His leg!

He would have direct contact with Kael and Kael wasn’t the violent one here.

Another scream rang through the air; it was a woman’s voice.

The officers turned to me. I looked at Kael again, then for Austin, who had found his way to the Bronco. He managed somehow to lift his drunk ass up inside and lie down. Hiding from it all.

While one of the officers stepped toward me and the others to Kael, I moved quickly, shoving myself in front of him. He grabbed me by the shoulders and tried to push me out of the way, but I put up a fight.

“STOP!” I screamed, recognizing that I had been the one screaming the whole time. “FUCKING STOP! HE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!”

My pleas finally got through to two of the MPs, who then stopped the one with his weapon out. The tallest of the officers cursed and shoved at his partner, and I wondered how the hell these power-tripping assholes could possibly be protecting anyone. I couldn’t fathom why they were even going after Kael in the first place.

“What the fuck is your problem? He wasn’t even involved! He was trying to break it up! Give me your badge number or whatever I can fucking report you with!” I shoved the shorter officer who was holding the baton with everything in me. He lost his footing and stumbled back. The other two were staring at me but weren’t moving. I couldn’t control my anger. I tasted salty tears on my tongue and all I could think about was grabbing the baton from this fucker’s hand and bashing his head in with it.