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“Well… no,” Trish said.

“Good.”

She didn’t see my fist coming. Mostly because I started it before she even spoke. It hit her directly in the nose, and she rocked back like she’d been shot.

“Dammit, Charlotte,” Eugene said. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back. You’re under arrest for assault.”

I did as I was told. As Eugene slapped the cuffs on me, I found myself eye to eye with Tamara, whose jaw was gaping like a fish.

“Worth it,” I muttered.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Jesse

Every time I woke up, I felt a little bit better. This most recent time, I actually felt great. There was only one problem. Charlotte had been missing for a couple of hours, and no one knew where she was.

I assumed she had just gone somewhere to sleep. That made the most logical sense. She’d been back in town for at least a day and had spent the entire time in the hospital with me. She couldn’t have possibly gotten much rest, and this was after flying back from Paris overnight. I didn’t think much of it until Luke came into the room, pulling Amber aside and having a hushed conversation, in which I heard her name several times.

“What’s going on?” I asked when Amber made her way back to me.

“Whoa, you’re talking,” Luke said. “You look like you feel better.”

“I do,” I said. “Quite a bit. Still feel like I got hit by a truck, but maybe a smaller truck now. What’s going on with Charlotte?”

The two of them glanced at each other, and Collin, who was also in the room, perked up as well.

“Well, he’s going to have to find out,” Amber said.

“Youjustsaid not to tell him because it might stress him out too much.”

“Yeah, but if you don’t knowwhenthey will have her out…”

“Excuse me,” Collin said. “Can you just tell me what’s happening? I don’t have a heart condition at the moment.”

“Might as well tell them both,” Amber said, sighing. “Do you want to, or me?”

“You do it,” Luke said, exasperated.

She nodded and turned back to me, putting on a huge fake smile.

“Oh lord,” I said. “What happened?”

“Well, so, you see, Charlotte went to see her mom, and, well, there was someone there. And, look, a lot of things kind of happened quickly, but you need to know things are going to work out, okay? You just need to remain calm. But..”

“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Luke interrupted, “Charlotte is in jail. She punched Trish in the nose, might have broken it, and Tamara is up at the station to bail her out.”

“Yeah, that,” Amber finished, lamely.

“She’s injail? ForpunchingTrish?” I asked.

“Yes,” Luke and Amber said at the same time.

I glanced at Collin, who also looked at me. It felt like both of us had the same shocked and perplexed expression.

“Charlotte?” I asked again.

“All right, so, when she got to her mom’s place, Eugene and Trish were there, apparently,” Luke said. “I don’t know the exact words because Tamara was a little bit… upset. But the long and short of it is, Eugene wanted to float some crazy idea, and it pissed Charlotte way the hell off. Trish got in her face about her not respecting Eugene, and Charlotte dropped her like a sack of potatoes. Eugene arrested her on the spot, and now everybody’s hopping mad.”