show up at my arraignment. You will not try to bail me out of jail. There will be no bail.”
She points at West. “You and your sister will not beg your rich daddy to pull strings. You will all let me rot in that detention center until the system decides to let me out.”
I keep staring at Abby, feeling the coldness of shock, and she doesn’t take her eyes off of me. Isaiah joins us and West gives a brief rundown of what’s going on and Isaiah’s talking. Fast. Saying the words I want to say, getting pissed like how I want to get pissed, but the way Abby tilts her head and squeezes my hand, I understand she has a plan.
“Why this way?” I ask, and Isaiah shuts up.
“I can stay in Louisville this way,” she says. “Ricky won’t touch me physically and he won’t ask me to sell with law enforcement watching me as a possible dealer. If I do this, I don’t have to give up being me. I don’t have to leave town. I don’t have to be anyone other than Abby and I like being Abby. Almost as much as I love queso and bunnies.”
“How long?”
Abby briefly glances away and then slowly breathes out. “I made this deal and I asked them to keep me until at least a month before I graduate from high school. That way I won’t be in the foster system for long.”
West is shouting, “Hell no,” Isaiah picks up the pool stick and tosses it across the table, knocking several of the balls onto the floor. I step forward and cradle Abby’s face, lowering my forehead to hers. “Why?”
Her hazel eyes search mine for approval, for understanding. “Because I need to graduate. When I leave, I won’t have anything. Mac will sell the house to take care of Grams, there isn’t a social worker on the planet that will return custody to him. I don’t want to be in the system for long. I turn eighteen right before I graduate and I need to graduate. In juvie, I’ll have a somewhat stable place to live, hot meals, and an education. Since I walk out of there a ward of the state, I’ll get to take advantage of them paying for my college education.”
She smiles but it doesn’t meet her eyes. “Can’t you see I’m working an angle? Harvard wanted me, Logan. That means I got a shot at something decent if I can pull myself out of this mess.”
I breathe in, trying to memorize her scent. I kiss her lips, promising myself and her that I’ll do this again. “We still together?”
She nods. “There’s a bunny I plan on collecting at the end of this and I will be really fucking pissed off he dies before I get to hold him again.”
I haul Abby into me, hugging her as if I can keep her safe from her past, but I can’t. In order for her to move forward, she has to pay for her past sins. Better now than later. Better this way than her payment being her life.
“I’ve got to go,” Abby whispers.
I release her and try to ignore the burn in my throat as she hugs Rachel and then sends a pleading goodbye glance to West and Isaiah.
Abby blows out a long breath of air and when she inhales, back is the girl I first met at the garage. The girl who can face down death and not feel fear. That mask that has kept her safe, that will keep her safe, and will eventually bring her back to us as the person she wants to be.
Abby turns away from us and when she reaches the halfway point, Isaiah steps forward. “I can’t let her do this.”
I grab his bicep and press my fingers down hard. “Stay here.”
He circles, his back to the bar, unable to watch his best friend be arrested. I keep hold of his arm and Rachel slides up to his other side and offers support as if he’s a house on the verge of collapsing.
Abby leans over the bar to call the bartender and mouths move as she begins her conversation with the undercover police officer. After Abby shows him whatever was in her back pocket, in slow motion, the officers stands and shows her his badge.
My eyes burn when Abby’s shoulders sag in relief. Relief. Fuck. What has this world come to that this is relief? He produces handcuffs and when she turns,