“Sawyer got arrested?” It seemed so unbelievable. I couldn’t get my head around it.
Vernon reached out, and now he was the one holding onto my arm so hard that I might bruise. “He didn’t just get arrested, Huck. He got committed.”
“What?” I mean, I said he was crazy all the time, but I never thought anyone else would take his mental condition seriously.
“After Ollie left, he turned his attention to some guy she knew at her previous college. Apparently, she casually hooked up with him and that’s how she found out your brother was spying on her. He had video footage of Ollie and this guy together, and apparently, he went nuts once she was gone and tried to threaten this kid with the footage. He blamed the kid for driving Ollie away. He did not like anyone else touching her, and it obviously severed the small tie he had left to reality.”
I interjected, “She left because her mom passed away and left her some money. She was finally free because Sawyer and his mom couldn’t hold her mom’s health over her head any longer. That guy didn’t mean anything to her.”
I wasn’t sure why I was so defensive about it, but I knew I didn’t like the idea of some other guy being the reason she finally broke free of my brother’s control.
Vernon shrugged and went on, “Unlike everyone enabling Sawyer, this dude did not let Sawyer’s obsessive behavior slide. He also comes from a well-off family and was not about to let your brother steamroll him or mess with his future by leaking a sex tape. He filed a restraining order. He pressed charges for stalking. He pushed back at every turn, and it looks like Sawyer snapped. They even got into a physical altercation at one point. But that might be what made Sawyer realize he couldn’t win in a fight against someone who wasn’t under his thumb. He tried to hire someone to kill the guy. Luckily, his behavior was so concerning, the cops who were handling all the complaints against Sawyer knew something like that might happen. It was obvious your brother was unhinged. Also, because the other guy came from money, they couldn’t look the other way. His parents were just as influential as Sawyer’s mom and your dad. They set a trap, and your brother fell right into it. The hitman he found to kill the guy was an undercover cop. They were going to arrest him, at the very least, on conspiracy to commit murder. It looks like his mom stepped in and tried to bribe the law enforcement officers involved in the case, so she ended up in some hot water too. Sawyer tried to commit suicide before they could take him into custody. For the most part, all of this is buried in redacted court documents, but the trail is bananas when you start to follow it.”
“What the fuck?” The exclamation burst out way louder than I intended. Several students walking by stopped to give me and Vernon questioning looks. “No way he tried to kill himself. He wouldn’t see Ollie again if he succeeded, and that’s the only thing he’s ever cared about.”
“He took a full bottle of pills and chased it with stupidly expensive cognac.” Vernon shook his head again and shifted his backpack straps on his shoulders. “Instead of putting him through a full jury trial where he would plead temporary insanity and likely win, the prosecutor in charge of the case agreed to send Sawyer to a state psychiatric facility for long-term treatment. He’s on a permanent suicide watch and has to undergo intensive therapy sessions. He won’t get out for at least a decade. It’s impossible that he followed Ollie here and highly unlikely he paid for someone to bring her back.”
I dragged a hand over my face and exhaled slowly. “I can’t believe this. How is it possible he went from the boogeyman to being harmless in the blink of an eye?” And how come I hadn’t heard a word about what was going on back at home? It wasn’t like I checked in on anyone from my past, but it seemed like something as huge as this should be on my radar. “I can’t tell if this is good news or bad news, if I’m honest.”
And what about Ollie?
Was she just so traumatized from the past that it was all in her head that someone was after her? Had she simply been afraid of Sawyer for so long that she didn’t know he was no longer a shadow lurking over her every move?
I was confused and pissed off by this new information. I hated the feeling of certainty slipping away as the unknown once again overtook everything.
Vernon sounded sympathetic as he told me, “I dunno either. I think you tell Ollie what’s going on and let her figure out how she feels first, and then we just follow her lead. If she’s relieved he’s locked away and it can’t be him, then we follow suit. If she seems even more freaked out and is still worried about someone trying to make her go back, we go from there. The priority is making sure she knows she’s safe no matter what.”
I lifted a finger to my lips and made a shushing sound as a familiar head of curly blond hair separated from the other students and made its way in our direction.
Ollie gave a little finger wave that Vernon returned. Low, under his breath, he muttered, “We’re keeping her. She’s one of us now. We can’t let anyone hurt her anymore, even if the culprit is Ollie herself.”
I nodded in agreement and reached out an arm to pull her close when she was within touching distance. She fit against my side like she was custom-made to be there.
“You’re so far away from the technology building, Vernon. What’s going on? Are you okay?” Her dark eyes were full of curiosity. She made a startled sound when Vernon suddenly lunged toward her and wrapped her up in a hug so that she was trapped between him and me.
“Everything is going to be fine. I promise.” Vernon let her go and flipped his hair out of his eyes with a sassy toss of his head. “You fill Ollie in. I’m going to find Harlen and give him a rundown. I haven’t been over to the athletic department in a long time. I should be better about checking up on him and making sure his teammates are treating him well.”
Ollie watched him slip away with a bemused expression on her face, then turned to look at me with a million questions in her eyes.
“Let’s talk when we get back to the house.” It wouldn’t change anything if I unloaded everything on her right now. She still had classes to get through this afternoon. Her world was about to go topsy-turvy. It was better she heard about all the changes when she was somewhere safe and could process them. I still felt a little like I’d been sucker-punched, so it would serve no purpose for both of us to feel that way.
She leaned more heavily into my side and lifted a hand to hold my jaw. She turned my face so we were looking at each other. One day I was going to figure out all the secrets she kept hidden in those dark eyes.
“I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to tell me if I sound irrational.” She frowned a little bit as she rubbed her thumb over the curve of my bottom lip.
“All right. If you sound crazy, I will let you know.” It would be hard for her to come close to that, considering what I’d just heard.
Ollie cleared her throat, and the hand she had wrapped around my waist clutched at the fabric of my t-shirt. I could tell she was trying to make light of whatever was weighing on her mind, but it really was bothering her.
“I haven’t heard from Mercer in a couple of days. It’s nothing new. She’s been acting weird since she started seeing this guy, and she’s the type to fall in love fast and hard. But she won’t let me meet him. She gets super touchy whenever I bring up how weird their relationship seems. She’s so defensive where he’s concerned. At first, I just figured she really liked him and was being extra protective, but now,” she frowned, and her fingers tightened their hold on my face. “I’m wondering if she might be caught up in something that has to do with me. What if the guy she’s seeing has ties to Sawyer? What if Sawyer paid someone to get close to Mercer so he could keep tabs on me? I didn’t want to worry her with that speculation, but the longer the relationship goes on, and the stranger her behavior becomes, the more worried I get.’’ She gave me a doe-eyed look that made me want to move mountains for her. ”You know, now that I think about it, I don’t even know his name. She’s never mentioned and I was too caught up in my own stuff to ask. I want to find out who she’s seeing. Since she won’t give me any information, I’ll have to resort to being sneaky. But after having Sawyer creep through my whole life, I think I sound nuts. I don’t want to be like him.”