“So…we’re not just fucked, but we’re really fucked?” I sigh.
“Pretty much.”
“Shit, Noah. I really want to hate on you for this,” Tully groans.
“I know, just…promise you’ll get mom and dad out of the house. I don’t want him going back there and looking for me only to find them. Things are bad enough between me and mom, I can only imagine what would happen if she saw Anton in her home.”
“Maybe that’s exactly what we need,” Tully scoffs. “An angry Mumma Bear.” Noah rolls his eyes before raising an impatient brow towards his sister. “Fine, I’ll do it,” she snaps back at him. “Consider mom and dad safe.”
“Good. And then you’ll come straight back here?” he confirms.
“Well, I ain’t sleeping there by myself, though, it’s not like here is any safer. Anton was on his way here when you intercepted him.”
“Shit, you’re right. Maybe with mom and dad gone, we should be sleeping there.”
I shake my head. “Nope. No way. Not with Dad and Ari here. I don’t want them left unprotected. I mean, no offense, but I’d prefer Anton and his douchebags walk through your empty house than walking through mine and finding my family.”
“Good point,” Noah says walking into me and wrapping his arms around my waist, holding me tight. “We’ll stay here. Your family will be safe.”
“Good,” I say only just now realizing how freaked out I must look with my wide, panicked eyes and high-pitched fretting. “They’re all I have.”
Noah presses his lips to my forehead. “You’ve got so much more than you could ever know,” he tells me. “I don’t know how, but we’re going to kick Anton’s ass and at the end of all this, he’s going to be behind bars.”
“Wait,” I say, straightening as I step back to look at him properly. “What about the gun?”
Noah searches my eyes with deep confusion. “What do you mean ‘the gun’? We already handed it in.”
I smother a grin and hide my scoff. Noah handing in that gun was a whole new adventure. By the time we pulled up at the cop shop he was sweating bullets. He looked so fucking guilty and was terrified of the ramifications of walking into that place with a loaded gun.
On the way there he asked me at least a hundred times if he should leave it in the car, go in and explain before allowing one of the police to come out and take it from his car or if he should just go in calmly and explain exactly what’s going on with it wrapped inside his shirt.
I simply searched around the floor of his car and asked if he’d dropped his balls somewhere which promptly settled that; though I can’t say he was too impressed with me right then.
After walking into the police station, he spoke to the guy at the front and handed over the gun saying he’d ‘found’ it on the street after seeing Anton Mathers hanging around. He refused to give his name despite having been brought in so many times that they already knew exactly who he was and he didn’t dare tell them what had really happened as an explanation would have led to questions which would implicate Noah in ways that we’re not prepared for.
All in all, it was a terrifying trip to the police station despite not having done anything wrong. I just hope the cops are smart enough to run the gun for prints and link it to something.
I snap back to reality. “Think about it. If that gun has been involved in any crimes, then Anton is going to come looking for it and he’s not going to stop until he’s got it. I doubt he’s going to realize that you handed it in,” I say with a cringe, “so the first place he’s going to look is your place and I have a feeling he’s going to tear it apart.”
“Shit, I didn’t think about that,” Noah says as Tully hangs her head, devastated for her home which is no doubt going to be torn to pieces.
“Maybe we could set up a camera or something? If the gun comes back clean, they’ll be able to get him on that, or at least the guys he sends to do it.”
“Not bad, babe,” Noah says, pulling his phone from his pocket. “I’ll get that geeky computer nerd, Simon, to come set something up.”
With that, Noah steps away, leaving me beside Tully who looks sick. “You ok?” I murmur, keeping our conversation private from Noah as there’s no way she’ll be honest with me if he was listening in.
Tully sighs. “I don’t know. I don’t like this. I mean, if Rivers were here for back up, I could maybe see a way out of this, but without him…I don’t know. You and me, there’s only so much we can do for him. If it gets physical, these guys would just toss us aside like ragdolls. Fuck, Henley. Anton tried to pull a gun on him today. I could have lost my brother over this stupid shit.”