Your Fault (Culpable Book 2)

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’t want 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.”

A half hour later, we were still waiting for my new coworker to show up. I’d turned to her because I knew she had contacts nearby. Her father lived in a nearby development, and she was handling a lot of our pro bono work, so she knew her way around cases involving minors. If I remembered right, she had helped get a kid out of jail for a possession charge and even had the arrest expunged from his record. Sophia Aiken might be a pain in my ass, but she knew what she was doing.

A white SUV pulled around the corner. It had to be her. I told Noah and my friends to get in the car and let me handle it. I didn’t know what kind of mood she’d be in, and I preferred to deal with her on my own. From what little Lion could tell me, it had all happened fast: Jenna didn’t even have time to get in the car; they chased her down while she was running away. She wasn’t the only one arrested, but for now, I couldn’t deal with the others. They’d known the risks they’d been running, and my friend was my top priority.

Luckily someone had taken care of Noah’s car, and Clark assured me they’d have it back at Dad’s house by the next day. The last thing I needed was the cops getting Noah’s tag number and her having to deal with them. I walked away from Lion’s car toward Sophia.

“You owe me a big one. You won’t live long enough to repay this,” she said, getting out of her car dressed impeccably, but with her hair pulled back clumsily in a ponytail.

“Thanks for coming,” I said, trying not to back talk her. She seemed to be enjoying herself with that smug grin of hers.

“Did you just thank me?” she asked, perversely amused. “I almost think I’d like to hear that again.”

“If you get my friend out, you will.”

I guessed my face said it all, and she looked over to the car where Lion, Luca, and Noah were waiting nervously.

“I don’t know what kind of shit you’re into, Leister, but you’re getting more intriguing by the day.”

It took all the patience I had not to tell her to go fuck herself. “Can you get her out or not?”

“What’s her name?”

I hesitated briefly. “Jenna Tavish.”

“Tavish? Like Tavish Oil Corporation?”

I nodded nervously.

“You’re kidding, right?” She was angry, but I could tell she was going to do it. “You’re calling me, an intern, to get the daughter of a petroleum bigwig out of jail?”

“We need discretion. We don’t want anyone to find out. Anyway, she didn’t do anything. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” I was praying for all this to work out.

Sophia started chuckling as she looked through her purse. “If I had a dollar for every time some delinquent said that…”

“My girlfriend’s no delinquent, you hear me?” Lion shouted. I didn’t even realize he’d come up behind me.

Putting a hand on his shoulder, I said, “Easy, Lion. Sophia’s here to help, right, Soph?”

With a condescending smile aimed first at me, then at Lion, she told me she would help us. “But don’t call me Soph again, otherwise we’re going to have problems.”

I laughed at the seriousness in her tone.

Sophia ordered us to stay outside while she started making calls. After what felt like an eternity, she went inside, and we all waited for her to work her magic.

I stuck my head in the car window to talk to Noah. She looked tired and had dirt and grime on her from the construction site.

“You okay, Freckles?” I asked. Luca was passed out next to her, seemingly indifferent to all that was happening.

Noah nodded without even looking at me, but before I could try to get her attention, I heard the door to the station open, and there was Jenna, only slightly worse for wear, with her hair undone and a small scratch on her right cheek.

Noah opened the car door and took off toward her.

Sophia came out behind her grinning, looking satisfied, her eyes pinned to mine. I smiled, watching her get back in her car and return to where she’d come from. Maybe she wasn’t as big a pain in the ass as I’d thought.

My peace of mind didn’t last long: the dry crack of a slap cut the silence of the night. When I turned, I saw Lion with his hand on his cheek, looking at Jenna cluelessly.

Shit!

“I don’t want to see you again, you hear me?” she shouted, tears coursing down her cheeks.

Noah looked over at me, as if asking for help, but I was as clueless as she was, and we were both waiting to see how Lion would react.

“Jenna, I’m sorry. Listen…”

“No!” she roared, stepping back. “Don’t you dare ask me for forgiveness! You swore to me this was over. I’ve been putting up with your shit all summer and waiting for you to change, for you to just do the right thing for once! And now I’m over it!”

I walked over, not knowing what to do. I understood Jenna, but I saw Lion’s side of it, too.

Lion looked lost, desperate, and he reached out to touch her. He looked stunned when she jerked away. “Jenna, I’m just trying to give you all you deserve… I’ve been saving up, you know…”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Jenna stepped forward again and shoved him as hard as she could, sobbing now. “I don’t give a shit about money! You’re the one I’m in love with! Do you not get that? You, not your stupid money!”

Lion grabbed her by the wrists to stop her from pounding on his chest.

“You let them arrest me… The old you would never have left me alone. I was everything to you…”

“You still are, Jenna, I love you,” he said, trying to get her to look at him.

Jenna shook her head, then looked up, and we knew something bad was coming next.

“You have no idea what it is to love someone.” She tugged her hands free from Lion’s grip and walked away from him. “I’m not going to let you drag me down with you.”

“Jenna…” Lion sounded broken. This was going to crush him.

“I want to go home,” Jenna said to Noah, who walked over and hugged her as I approached Lion.

“Dude,” I said to Lion, “I’ll get them both home. You just try and chill, okay?”

Lion seemed almost not to see me as Noah helped Jenna into the back seat.

“Take the bike,” I said, tossing the keys to Luca, who had woken up and gotten out of the car in the meantime and was watching the scene without emotion. He caught them in midair. “And take care of your brother,” I added before getting into the driver’s seat.

I’d have liked to stay with Lion, but I knew the best thing I could do just then was get the girls to safety and pray they’d see things differently the next day. Noah said she wanted to stay at Jenna’s house, and when I kissed her goodbye, she felt cold and distant. I’d gotten a clear warning about what could happen if we weren’t careful. Noah was surely thinking the same thing.

I was afraid my friend and I had crossed a line, one we hadn’t even known existed before that night.

I spent the next two days with Lion. He looked like hell, drunk and in need of a shower, as he lay around on his sofa at home. His apartment stank like weed and grime and looked like a dump. Luca couldn’t have been happier, though, and with his brother down in the dumps, he had the run of the place. His four years in the pen had done nothing to correct his bad habits, and I was worried about the influence he might have on Lion.

“You need to wash up, bro, you stink,” I told Lion, bagging up all the trash lying on the sofa and the end table. I was getting pissed. It wasn’t my job to clean up their shit, but I did it because I knew he needed help.

“Leave me alone, dude. I just want to drink and forget about all this.”

I dropped the bag, furious. “Lion, it’s been two fucking days, okay? I’m not telling you to just get over it, but at least get off the fucking couch.”

“Jenna’s all fucked up, and it’s my fault. I wasn’t good enough for her. Fucking rich people, man. How’s a guy from the hood like me supposed to make a girl like her happy?”

“You gotta be a fool to hook up with an oilman’s daughter…” Great, now Luca was giving his two cents. Lion tossed an empty beer can at his head.

I had to do something about that relationship. Lion had his problems, but he needed Jenna; she made him whole.

“If you think Jenna’s laid out on her bed crying over you, you’re wrong,” I said, washing my hands. Lion sat up then and looked over at me. “She’s on the beach with Noah. This is supposed to be their last day out with their old classmates before they take off for college.”

“She’s out with those dickheads from that fancy-ass school?”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Don’t look at me like that. You’re different, the rest of those people blow,” he said, getting up and going to the bathroom. “Give me five minutes.”

I dropped the bag on the floor and smiled at Luca. At least I’d gotten Lion up off the sofa. As for calling me a rich dickhead, well…I’d get him back for that.

Honestly, I wasn’t that crazy about Noah being on the beach with the people from her graduating class either. I’d promised to leave her alone, but what was going on between Jenna and Lion gave me an excuse to go make sure everything was okay…that we were okay, to be more precise. We hadn’t seen each other again since our fight, and I wasn’t sure where things stood with us. I needed to see her and talk to her.

They’d started the day at the home of one of Noah’s friends, Elena something-or-other, who had a place right on the beach…not like that was special for those kids, of course.

I parked outside, noticing there were a lot of cars here for what Noah had told me would be a small gathering. When we went inside, there were more than a hundred people there, almost everyone in a bathing suit. The music was blasting in all the rooms. Lion looked so out of place among those people that I walked him to the back of the house.

There, overlooking the shore, I saw two bonfires and big groups seated around them roasting marshmallows and drinking straight from the bottle.

“I thought she’d be crying, but look,” Lion said, pointing at two girls walking along the shore with their arms around each other, holding what looked like a bottle of tequila.

Jenna and Noah. Great.

We walked over. When they saw us, they turned to stone for a second. Then they burst out laughing.

“Look who we have here, Noah, Dickhead One and Dickhead Two,” Jenna said, bringing the bottle to her lips and frowning. They were both wearing swimsuits and tiny shorts.

Lion walked over to her cautiously. “Hey, Jenna, can we talk?” he asked her, clearly nervous.

Jenna looked at him like an insect under a microscope. “Sorry, Dickhead Two, but I’m not in the mood,” she said, stumbling.

“So that means I’m Dickhead One?” I asked.

Noah shrugged. “Sometimes,” she said, but she didn’t stop me from putting an arm around her waist.

“Can I at least take you home, Jenna? You’re drunk,” Lion said, holding her up when she nearly tripped.

“Let me go,” she shouted, jerking away and falling on her butt in the sand.

Noah twisted free from my grasp. “Leave her alone, Lion.”

I watched the scene attentively. I knew Lion almost better than I knew myself, and I wasn’t surprised to see him trying to get Jenna back. I would have done the same—in a way, I was doing the same.

He leaned down and grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Let go of me, you Neanderthal!” she screamed, dropping the bottle on the sand but not managing to break free of him.

“You can call me all the big names you want, but you’re coming with me.”

Noah turned to me, flushed. “Do something!” she said, and I held her back when I thought she might go over there.

“She called him a Neanderthal. I can’t get involved after that. A guy’s gotta have his pride, right?”

Noah grimaced and I laughed, hoisting her over my shoulder and walking to the less crowded of the two bonfires.

“You need to let them talk it out, Freckles. Otherwise, nothing will ever get solved.”

Noah was shivering from the cold and drunk enough to forget how angry she was. When I sat her down on top of me, she curled up in my arms and let the fire warm her.

“I’m tanked,” she said.

“You don’t say! I’d have never guessed.”

“I’m still pissed at you, though.”

I rubbed her back softly. “I imagined… Anything I can do about it?”

“You can keep touching me like that,” she answered, making me shiver. I leaned back and took off my sweatshirt, carefully guided her arms inside it, then zipped her up. She leaned her head on my shoulder, and I felt her breathing on my neck.

“Tomorrow, it’ll be a year…” she said sadly, and her lip trembled.

“A year since what?” I asked. But she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

I got up and carried her to the car. She’d had enough partying for one day. I had no idea where Lion was, but I couldn’t keep being his babysitter. He knew what he was doing. I put the car in drive and headed home. I hated to think of the hangover Noah would have the next day. It was normal for her to be drinking, but I never liked seeing her like that.

Despite myself, I decided to stay at Dad’s. In a few days, Noah and I would be living together at my apartment. Already, I was counting the days.