She cleared her throat. “Um, both. A little. Mostly friend.”
“Are you in trouble?”
“I'm…adjacent to some trouble.”
“Where are you right now?”
“Santa's Village at the petting zoo.”
“Okay, meet me at the corner down by the gas station. That way I won’t pull up in my squad car and freak anyone out.”
Air whooshed out of her body that she didn't even realize she had been holding in her lungs. “You would do that?”
“I’m on my way now.”
Rory just shook her head. Maybe she did actually have more friends than she thought. That was a really nice realization. And that realization was thanks to Drew Ryan as well. She actually felt the back of her eyes stinging as she nodded. “Okay.”
They disconnected and Rory took a deep breath. So maybe asking for help wasn't the most terrible thing. And maybe it was going to show her that she had more people she could count on than she'd expected. Again, she had Drew to thank for all of that. Because there was no way in hell she would've called Zander to come help her with Roger if Drew hadn’t gotten involved.
She smiled. Drew Ryan had brought a lot of really nice things into her life in the last few days.
Her smile dropped a moment later. She really wanted more days with him. She really wanted him to stick around. She really hoped he’d been serious when he’d told Roger that he intended to stay. She would love to have him here, in her life, on an ongoing basis.
Which meant she really needed to keep him healthy and in one piece tonight.
12
Six hours later Rory was pacing her living room, chewing on her nails, and wondering why she hadn’t just driven out to Cypress and old Highway Six herself.
When her phone did finally ring, she jumped nearly a foot off the ground and gasped. But she immediately dove for where it was sitting on her coffee table. Please let it be Zander.
It was Paige.
“Hello?”
“Hey, we’re heading to the jail. Wanna come?”
Rory frowned. “Um. The jail? What do you mean?”
“Yeah, Drew’s been arrested.” Paige laughed. “Can you believe that he’s in jail? I mean, we’re obviously gonna get him out. He didn’t do it. But Zander had to take him in. So Mitch and I are heading over there.”
Rory knew her eyes were completely round. Her heart was pounding, and she felt a little dizzy. What the fuck?
Drew had been arrested. Oh, God. This was her fault. She’d sent Zander out there.
“What…” She stopped and swallowed. “What was he arrested for? Was there anyone with him?”
“Just him. He was driving a pickup that had the stolen game controllers in the back, I guess. They got a tip on the tip line about what the pickup looked like and where he’d be,” Paige said. “Come on. We’re going down to plead his case and keep him company while Zander does his thing.”
Rory frowned. It had just been Drew? And he hadn’t been in his pickup? And the stolen controllers had been there? Where the hell was Roger? What was going on?
“Someone called in a tip?”
“That’s what Holly said.”
“Who’s Holly?”
“The dispatcher. Or something. I’m not sure what her official title is. She’s the one who answers when someone calls and needs Zander or Michael or whoever,” Paige said.
How did Rory not know about Holly? Of course, she knew very little about how emergency services worked in Autre. She kind of assumed that there weren’t many emergencies in general, but she actually didn’t know if that was true.
“Holly is an old friend of Ellie and Cora and all of them. She keeps track of the boys,” Paige said. “And they say she knows about emergencies before they’re even called in.”
Oh, boy, another of the older generation who was just plugged in and knew things. Great.
Or maybe it was great. If a new generation was taking over protecting and serving the town and the people here, they could probably use a little mentoring and guidance from those who’d been doing it all these years.
Rory took a deep breath. Okay, so Drew had gone to meet Roger and Roger hadn’t been there. But the truck had been. And apparently the controllers had been. And Zander had gotten a tip…
She closed her eyes and groaned.
Roger had set Drew up.
That was suddenly clear as day.
Roger had set it up so Drew would be out there with stolen merchandise and called in the tip so the cop would find him.
But Roger was now without the controllers. Why would he do that? Roger must have already come up with the money he needed somehow. The controllers just meant extra money. His greed wouldn’t let him walk away or give them back. Or let him walk away from an extra chance to manipulate and torture her.
Then Drew had pissed Roger off when he’d confronted him and told him to stay away from her. This was Roger showing Drew that he was not intimidated and that messing with him was not going to be as easy as just telling him to stay away.
Rory rubbed the middle of her forehead. Dammit. Of course, this wasn't easy. Of course, Roger was still fucking things up. Of course, Drew had tried to do this amazingly protective thing and it had backfired.
“Rory?” Paige asked when several long seconds had passed without anyone speaking.
“Yeah.”
“You coming to the jail?”
The jail. Where Drew was. Because of her.
If there was a guy driving around with stolen goods, of course Zander had to pick him up. Zander didn’t know Drew like she did. And he didn't know the whole story. Hell, as far as Zander was concerned, Drew might've been an accomplice. Or Drew and Rory could have been making this other guy up.
No, she hadn’t told Zander who Roger was. She’d chickened out at the last minute.
When was she going to stop being weak and letting Roger mess everything up?
Zander didn't know her well enough to totally trust her either.
And that realization settled like a lead ball in her gut.
It was time to confess. It was past time. She was going to have to tell everyone everything.
And possibly lose them all.
“Yeah, I’ll be there,” she said.
He had never gone on an airboat on the bayou, he had never made love to a woman with green hair, and he had never been arrested.
He could cross all of those things off his to do list since coming to Autre.
Drew slumped back against the wall behind the bench he was sitting on. He was technically in the jail cell in Autre, but he noticed that Zander had left the door standing open. Zander was at his desk typing up his notes from what Drew had told him about how he'd ended up driving a truck full of stolen game controllers.
Drew had also given Zander Roger’s first name and a full description. He’d told him how he’d run into Roger outside the petting zoo and realized from their conversation that Roger had stolen the controllers and he was back looking for more. However, he left out the part about Rory being related to Roger and that Drew was exchanging the “additional controllers” for Roger leaving Rory alone for the next year.
“But the boxes were empty that you were giving Roger tonight,” Zander said. “Is that right?”