Page 136 of Trapped With You

Forever Yours

Ella

The Present

Smirking, I flipped my middle finger on the last picture of my mugshot, holding a sign with my details displayed. Despite looking haggard with my mascara staining my under eyes, I still held onto my pride with enough smugness to piss off the cops.

I was a Cordova. We didn’t bend a knee to anyone.

On the outside, I appeared calm, collected, and arrogant.

On the inside? I was seething.

Long story short, the cops came to St. Victoria after receiving an anonymous call about a ‘disturbance’ during Initiation Night, but left when they found nothing. They came back once they received a second call around the time Shaun returned for us. Cade and I got cuffed and dragged to the police station, while Shaun, luckily, was rushed to the hospital after we scrambled to shout about his injured state.

The MPD tried interrogating us. We remained silent except for when we asked to call our lawyers. Afterwards, we spoke to our respective parents. Mypapásounded like he was having a heart-attack when he found out his ‘goodie two-shoes’ daughter got arrested.

Once that was done, they took off our cuffs and threw us intoa holding cell with more than half a dozen individuals.

A biker with tattoos and a wiry beard gave me a crooked smile full of invitation. I scrunched my face and looked away in a dismissive manner.

Cade glared at him. “Keep your fucking eyes to yourself.”

The biker balked under his scrutiny. The Remington boys were familiar faces in the underworld with notorious reputations. No one wanted to cross them. Or invoke Vance Remington’s wrath.

I leaned my head against the bars of the cell, taking note of the irritated skin around my wrists. On the way to the station, I concluded that the only cuffs I enjoyed were the ones Cade tied me with when we fucked.

“How did we even get here?” I mumbled more to myself than anything.

“Do you really want the answer to that?”

“No.” I groaned. “But tell me how your uncle took the news?”

“Uncle Vance sounded annoyed at being woken up at four thirty a.m., but he wasn’t pissed per se. More worried.” Cade leaned against the bars too, facing me. “How did your parents take it?”

Not great at all.

“Mypapáwas the one who answered. He lost his shit andmamátried to calm him down in the background.” I sighed. “I’m probably never allowed to leave the house again unless I’m supervised.”

Like I once said, it didn’t matter that I was nineteen. In my parents’ eyes, I was forever a little kid who needed to be sheltered. Maybe that’s why I rebelled harder over the years.

I was going to have to work for decades to get back into their good graces. Probably until I was old and grey and had one foot in the grave.

“It’s going to be okay, Ellie.”

I smiled weakly. “Promise?”

Cade snagged my pinky finger with his and kissed it. “I promise.”

My heart swelled. He never forgot the way we promised.

We contemplated our situation in quietness for the next few minutes. The cops contacted Principal Hill to ask her if she wanted to press charges, which she swiftly declined. Initiation Night, as everyone in the inner circle knew, was a sacred tradition and once you pledged your allegiance, you were bound to it the same way mafiosos were bound to their omertàs. Plus, Principal Hill—while strict and a bit scary—was not a snitch. St. Victoria’s reputation was a direct reflection of hers and she couldn’t risk throwing us under the bus, as that would affect her and her daughters as well.

I wondered how Darla was faring with this news. Her mother must have told her that we got arrested. Was my ex-best friend worried? Did she even care?

Speaking of best friends, I was once again bombarded with the image of the masked guy and Callie standing beside one another, like a villain and his heroine, watching the world burn to ashes after they set it on fire.

Who was the masked guy?