Page 102 of We Are Yours

“Now, Officer.” Roland stepped in, taking a stance beside me. “Can you please?—”

“Sir, unless you’re the parent, I advise you to step aside.”

“Where are you taking him?” Julius asked, making them look at him.

“He’s going to the courthouse for an arraignment before the judge.”

Isla and I locked stares that night at the party, which quickly played out in front of us.

She screamed, “Is this who you are? Is this what you do?”

Her voice was smooth like silk, but it still sliced me open like daggers on my skin. Her words hit me as hard as my fists had laid Justin out.

She fervently shook her head, scowling. “Do you even know who you are?”

“Yeah,” I firmly argued. “I’m the guy who just beat his ass for fucking talking to you that way.”

She stumbled back, winded.

All the fight in her was gone like it was that night when she first spoke to me. When she first spoke to anyone. It was her sympathetic expression that hurt me more than getting arrested.

We were reliving it all over again, there in a room full of the closest people to us. The fear was evident on her face, but in a much different way. This time, I knew it wasn’t from her possibly being scared of me. She was terrified of where this was going to lead me.

They finished handcuffing me and escorted me out with everyone’s prying eyes on me. I wish I could say this was the first time, but what could I say… I got in trouble a lot. They placed me in the back of their cop car. Too many times to count on how many occasions I’d sat in the back of one of these.

I hated it then as much as I do now.

After we arrived, I was fingerprinted, a mug shot was taken, and then I was set in front of the judge. I took a deep breath, sitting on the bench with my head leaning back against the wall.

Waiting for him to arrive.

My entire life flashed before my eyes, a movie reel I couldn’t pause or stop.

I heard footsteps down the hall, and I didn’t have to wonder who it was.

Justin… you fucking pussy.

His revenge was served on a cold platter. After over a year, he finally got the last word, fully aware I wouldn’t have the funds to get a good attorney. I didn’t know much about the law. However, I knew enough. I was almost eighteen, and I’d spent years dreaming about the day I’d finally be an adult.

* * *

I just never imagined it’d come with handcuffs and a warrant for my arrest for defending her.

Chapter

Thirty-Five

Isla

“What do you mean you can’t find him?” Julius paced back and forth in his lawyer’s office, pulling his hair back.

I sat in the chair in front of his attorney’s desk. A lawyer he’d been using for over a year as he tried to adopt Kraven. That was only one of the things I learned about Julius in the past week of dealing with the fallout that was Justin.

I couldn’t get too upset about Julius keeping things from me, considering I was doing the same. That didn’t stop the hurt I felt that he couldn’t trust me with his plans, especially since I kept asking him about exactly that.

Not only was I learning new things about Julius but his parents were included as well. We hadn’t been able to locate Joe for the past two weeks. He was MIA, and without him, the detention center holding Kraven wouldn’t release him. Once he turned eighteen, we could request to go before the judge again, but that could take months to get approved.

When it came to the law, nothing moved fast.