The older man waves his hands in front of his big belly. “No way. I want to meet this little hellion for myself. You never know, maybe she’ll be exactly the girl I’ve been waiting to match up with Marcus. It’s not like I haven’t bailed him out a time or two. Isn’t that right, Inmate 3775?”
Q’s head whips hard to the side. “Dad. That was ages ago. And fucking Christ. The girl’s only like eighteen.”
“Twenty,” I say. “And very smart for her age. She’s put herself through college on her own dime.”
“Street-racing cars,” Gabriel adds with a grin. “She’d make a hell of a daughter-in-law, Mike.”
Q grabs Gabe by the sleeve and shoves him in the direction of the double doors. “All of you, shut the fuck up. Let’s get this shit over with.”
I can’t wipe away my smile, despite the circumstances. Q’s face is way too red for me to stop grinning.
We head inside. Apparently, the process is much easier than usual since I brought cash, and we don’t need to wait for a bail bondsman. Flynn is released a half hour later. I stand up as soon as I see her coming through the doors to the lobby wearing a black crop top, a little red skirt, and thigh-high black boots. A little risqué for a date, but okay.
“Flynn!” I rush toward her and wrap her in a hug, squeezing hard. “Please tell me you’re okay. Nothing happened in there?”
She squeezes me right back, just as hard. “Thank you so much for coming. God, I’m so glad your douche ex-boyfriend sent you to that sex therapist, because I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had to call my mom.”
I wince, hoping not everyone heard her, but Flynn sounds as young as a twenty-year-old should, which is out of character for her. From the dark circles beneath her eyes, she didn’t get any sleep. “What happened?”
She glances over my shoulder, and her eyes go wide. “Whoa. Did you bring everyone? And strangers to witness my walk of shame?”
I twist to see Gabriel, Q, Hal, and Big Mike all standing a few feet behind us.
“Flynn, meet Big Mike, Q’s dad. We were at a barbecue at their house this afternoon, and he brought me here. Gabe, Hal, and Q met us.”
She nods at them with color rising on her cheeks. It may be the first time I’ve ever seen her embarrassed. “Nice to meet you. Sorry about the trouble. It was a big misunderstanding.”
Big Mike waves her off. “Always is.”
“What’d they pick you up for?” Gabriel asks.
Flynn shakes her head. “Not here. Can we at least go out on the sidewalk? Because I need some fresh air like now, and I never want to come back.”
“Well, you’ll have to because I just paid your bond, and if you don’t show up in court, I lose it.”
“Come on. Let’s go.” Gabriel holds out a hand to me, and I take it and follow him outside.
Once we’re on the walkway, Q stares down Flynn. “They impound your car too?”
Her shoulders go back, and her chin shoots up. “What makes you think this has anything to do with my car?”
“It’s a logical assumption, considering what you’ve been doing.”
Flynn shakes her head. “I don’t really want to tell you. God, it’s fucking embarrassing.”
“What? I’m starting to freak out here, and I need to know what’s going on before I make some crazy guesses,” I tell her.
Flynn’s gaze drops to the pavement. “They picked me up for prostitution. Okay?” Her head comes up, and her face is now completely red.
All four men near me choke. “What?”
Q bursts out, “Are you fucking kidding me? You’re hooking now too?” He begins to pace.
“No! It was all a misunderstanding.”
“Want to tell us what happened?” Gabriel asks, his tone gentle and not the least bit judgmental. I’m tempted to kiss him right here just for that.
“I went out with some guy, and we ended up at a frat party. I don’t usually do frat parties, but I was bored and didn’t have a race, and I don’t know how to sleep at night much anymore. So I went. And when we were there, the cops busted the party because they got tipped off that prostitutes were there . . .”
“And they thought you were one too?” I stare at the tiny crop top she’s wearing, and the skirt and thigh-high boots. Although they’re designer and definitely not hooker wear, I can see how cops who are intent on scooping up everyone possible made a mistake.
Flynn shrugs. “Yeah. Talk about humiliating.”
“What about this fucking guy who brought you?” Q demands, his expression like a thundercloud. “Didn’t he vouch for you?”
Flynn presses her lips together and shakes her head. After a beat of silence, she says, “He ran. Left me there to get arrested with the actual hookers and a few other girls.”
“Didn’t they look at your student ID?” Gabriel asks. “I don’t get how they could fuck that up so badly. They can’t just raid a party and accuse all the females of prostitution.”
“I didn’t have it on me, and they didn’t believe anything I said to them. They treated me like a criminal. It was awful.” Flynn sounds defeated, which is light years away from her bubbly, confident self.
“Maybe you should remember how that feels the next time you decide to go racing,” Q says, his tone sharp.
Flynn pins her shoulders back once more and glares at him. “Go fuck yourself. I don’t need you to tell me how to live my life.” She looks to me. “Can you give me a ride home? I really want a shower and to fall into bed and pretend the last fourteen hours of my life didn’t happen.”
“Why didn’t you call me sooner?” I ask, aghast at the thought of Flynn sitting in a cell for fourteen hours.
“Take it up with the justice system and apparently every hooker in town. I got my phone call when they gave it to me. It was a really busy night up in this joint. Can we go?” She looks like a lost little girl, and I nod.
“Absolutely. Let’s get you out of here.”
“At least give her your damn sweatshirt, Marcus. For Christ’s sake, the girl’s probably freezing. Did we not teach you manners at all?” Big Mike says, looking at Q disapprovingly.
Q peels it off and hands it to Flynn. “Here. Keep it.”
Flynn takes it from him with a quiet thank-you before slipping it on over her crop top.
Gabriel holds out his arm to point us in the direction of wherever Hal must have parked. “This way. Q, you want me to drop you off at the club, or are you going back to Jersey?”
Q’s gaze is glued to Flynn in his sweatshirt, and he has to yank his attention away to meet Gabriel’s eyes.
“Uh . . . I’ll, uh . . . go with my dad. I got some shit to do at home.” His focus returns to Flynn and hangs there for a long moment before he finally nods at his dad. “Let’s go to Jersey.”
“See you tomorrow, man. I’ll call you if I hear anything on Rolo,” Gabe says, and Q gives him a salute in return. As he and Big Mike take off down the sidewalk, we go in the opposite direction.
But as we’re walking, I notice Flynn glancing over her shoulder.