Page 73 of Your Fault

“I don’t want to be near you right now!” I shouted with all my might. “You’re hurting me!”

Pain distorted his features, and his arms jerked on the fence as he tried to climb it. I stood up. This was madness.

“And you hurt me, goddammit!” Unable to get over the fence, he kicked it again. “I’ve given everything I have for you, absolutely everything, I opened up to you…and now you say I’m hurting you?”

I wasn’t going to explain things to him. If he couldn’t see the damage he’d caused, then there was no point in it.

“Just go!” I hissed, grabbing a brick and throwing it as hard as I could toward the fence. But it hit the ground before it reached it. “If we can’t make this work, Nicholas, then you should go.”

He turned around and cursed, and after a few moments, he turned back to face me.

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I really am. I was an asshole, but I freaked out when I saw you at the race. I was so mad, I still am, but I also know that if I hadn’t gone there, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now.”

“What do you think it felt like for me to see you there, Nicholas?”

“I know, okay, I get it… But, please, I can’t stand this distance between us. I need you to come out.”

I took a deep breath and wiped away my tears. “We haven’t solved anything. You know that, don’t you?” I said in a near whisper.

He stood there looking at me, and his expression was enough to make my feet decide for me. I walked toward him and came out through the cracked gate. He pulled me in, wrapped his arms around me, squeezed me as if it hurt him physically not to have me next to him. I breathed in the scent of his body, and my heartbeats slowed instantly. How could he be my sickness and my cure at the same time?

“You stood me up,” I reproached him. I couldn’t shake off that disappointment.

“I wanted you to be as far from me as possible.”

“You told me once we weren’t made to be apart from each other.”

“And we aren’t. I was a jerk. It’s not worth it. It’s not worth racing if the outcome is me losing you.”

I was going to answer, but just then, we felt a vibration. Nick took out his phone, and I waited while he picked up.

“Easy, Lion,” he said, then swore to himself. “Yeah, yeah, I can get her out, don’t worry. Give me twenty minutes, and I’ll be there.”

I felt a jab of fear when Nick put his phone in his back pocket and looked at me.

“They arrested Jenna.”

30

Nick

When we got to the North Hollywood Community Police Station, Luca and Lion were leaning on their car. Luca was smoking, and Lion was running his hands over his head. When he saw me, his eyes seemed to light up, but that didn’t detract from the sorrow on his face.

“What happened?” Noah asked, taking off her oversize helmet and walking over to him. I came up behind her, took it out of her hands, and hung it on my forearm. “How’d they catch her?”

“The cops showed up at the lot. Somebody had to have snitched,” Lion said. “I find out who did it, I swear I’ll kill them!”

“Easy,” I said, trying to think of what to do. I could call Dad, but if he found out what we were up to that night, who knew what his reaction would be. As I thought this, I looked at Noah and wondered what her mother’s feelings about it would be, too.

“Where’s Jenna? Do they have her locked up already?” Noah asked, obviously getting ready to go inside and try to bail her out herself.

I grabbed her tight. “Don’t even think about it, Noah. I don’twant you to step one toe inside there. Wait here with Lion while I make a couple of calls.”

Despite their gruff expressions, they both decided to listen to me for once. A name popped into my head, and I looked for it in my contacts. This was the last person in the world I’d have turned to ordinarily, but in these circumstances… The phone rang for what seemed like hours until I finally got an answer.

“What the hell are you doing calling me at this hour in the morning, Leister?” I heard a groggy voice reply on the other line.

I took a deep breath, swallowing my pride. “I need your help, Sophia.”