Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Would my mom advise me to give a sample? No. She would tell me not to answer any questions without a lawyer present. She would tell me I’m being set up.
This definitely could be a setup.
I blow out my breath. “Sure.”
Black Shirt nods at the detective, who goes to the door and says something to the people outside.
“Is she alive?” I try to sound cool, but my voice cracks.
Black Shirt studies me. After a long, agonizing moment, he nods. “She’s in the hospital. She was drugged and sexually assaulted at your party.”
Chapter Eighteen
Lara
I huddle with the members of Baranov House in the kitchen. It’s five in the morning, and no one has slept. I made espresso and steamed milk for everyone with the Italian espresso machine they have. The police searched every room in the house, possibly looking for drugs or drug paraphernalia, but they also seemed to be doing wellness checks on anyone who seemed inebriated. Leo, Alex, and Feliks followed them around like silent guard dogs waiting to be sprung. Except their owner wasn’t here to command any action.
The house feels completely different without Baron’s quiet authority. I didn’t realize until his absence how much his control brings a sense of safety. Without him, everything feels unsteady. Adrift.
Scary.
I don’t like the idea of Baron being down at the police station. Not one bit. Once again, it seems like he sacrificed his own comfort, safety, and pleasure in exchange for taking any pressure or stress off everyone else.
Except I do feel the strain.
I want him out. I want him safe. I want to know why they’re harassing him when he worked so hard to keep everything above-board for this party.
“Should someone tell Lili?” I ask. She left the party at some point and went home. She knows nothing about her older brother being taken into the police station.
“Let her sleep,” Leo says immediately, like he’s already thought it through.
It seems like Baron’s not the only one with protective instincts when it comes to Lili Baranov.
“Explain the American laws to me again,” I say to Leo.
“He wasn’t arrested when they left. They just took him in for questioning. If they don’t have enough on him to charge him with a crime, they can’t hold him for more than forty-eight hours without bringing him before a judge for probable cause.”
I shake my head, still not understanding what it all means.
“I’m going down there,” I declare, standing. “To break him out or bail him out or whatever.”
Anders’ phone beeps. “It’s Baron.”
We all crowd around.
* * *
Did you take Melinda home last night??
* * *
Ander’s face turns pale. “Shit. Something happened to Melinda? Oh God.” He quickly types back:
* * *
No, you said you needed me to shut the party down, so I called security to escort her to her dorm.
* * *
They want you to come to the station for a statement and DNA swab as soon as possible.
* * *
Anders rises to his feet, looking wobbly.
“I’m going with you,” I say firmly. “I don’t care if I have to wait at the police station for forty-eight hours. It’s better than sitting here not knowing what’s going on with him.”
Leo also stands. “Me too. I can pull security footage of her leaving, in case it helps.”
Fifteen minutes later, the three of us walk into the small Whisper police station, where the cop at the front desk immediately leads Anders back, ignoring me and Leo.
Leo starts working on his phone, pulling up camera footage from the front porch of the house. His face is grim. “I hope nothing happened to Melinda,” he says tightly.
“Are you friends with her?”
Leo shakes his head. “No. But I would feel terrible if anything happened to her leaving our party. I’d feel responsible, and Baron–”
He stops.
I try unsuccessfully to swallow. “What about Baron?”
Leo catches the intensity in my voice and looks up from his phone, where he’s still working while we speak. “There’s nothing between them,” he says dismissively. “I don’t mean that. But Baron has a hard time with people getting hurt on his watch.”
There it is again—another reference to this protective aspect of Baron and a hint to an underlying trauma that caused it.
“What happened to him?” I ask quietly.
Leo sends me a quick look, then shakes his head. “Not my story to tell.”
My pulse quickens simply at hearing I’m right–there is a story. But I respect Leo’s boundary. He’s right–Baron should share it with me. I hope he can.
Leo’s phone buzzes, and he responds to something.
“Fuuuuuuck.” He runs a hand through his hair.
“What is it?”
He hands me the phone, which is open to the New York Times app, with “Breaking News” at the top.
The headline reads “Daughter of Vice Presidential Candidate Gabe Tracy Drugged and Assaulted at Thornecroft Party.”
I suck in a sharp breath, ice sluicing through my veins. “But… that didn’t happen. Did it?”