down, her hand on my arm, but I pull away. “I can’t sit down, Z. I need to walk. I need to run.”
Knock-knock. Officer Johnson’s knock is obnoxiously loud. I’m so angry at him, so disgusted that he’d do this to me, to my little brother. I walk to the door, open it.
And Wyatt is standing behind him, looking party-worn and drugged-up. But alive.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, he’s alive.
I burst past the officer and throw my arms around him, kissing Wyatt about a million times as he tries to squirm away from me. He even hugs me back, probably because he’s high.
“You scared the shit out of me,” I growl in his ear.
“I know, sis. Shit. I’m sorry. I’m—shit.”
“Go inside,” I tell him.
He walks past me and I turn to the officer. He’s a tall, military-looking guy with ‘Campus Police’ written on his shirt. Ah, so he’s not a real cop, then. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Oh shit. I know what he’s going to say before he says it.
“Miss Wood, we found your brother in possession of several grams of a Class B controlled substance, as well as a large amount of marijuana. He says it’s for personal use, but it is very strong stuff and I’m not so sure.”
He’s doing his job. He’s not in the wrong. But the way he says it, like he’s so proud of himself, like he’s fucking Sherlock Holmes and he’s cracked the case, drives me crazy.
“My brother isn’t a drug dealer,” I snap.
He seems taken aback. “In any case, he will most likely be expelled,” he says.
“How do you know it’s strong stuff?”
“Pardon me?”
“The drugs!” I snap. “You said it was very strong stuff. How do you know that? What, you got it back to the lab, had it tested, and then got the results all in a few hours?”
He fidgets a little awkwardly, and then mutters, “I examined it. It’s a powerful stimulant narcotic, as far as I can tell.”
“You fucking examined it?” I yell.
From the doorway Zora says, “Is something wrong here? What’s going on?”
“Oh, nothing.” I turn to her, pointing a finger at the campus cop. “Just that Officer Johnson here is moonlighting as a goddamn chemist now.”
“Miss Wood,” he interrupts coldly. “I didn’t have to come here. It was a courtesy.”
Even as I do it—flip him the bird, right in his face—I know I’m the one being a bitch. I know I’m in the wrong. Yet I’m just so fucking angry right now. “How’s this for a courtesy?” I say. “Are we done here, or you wanna threaten my little brother some more?”
His lips stiffen. “No, I think we’re done, ma’am. Have a good night.”
Zora and I just stand there for a moment, silently acknowledging how messed up this is. She nods down the hallway. “Don’t feel bad about him, Dani. He’s the one scaring the shit out of you at four in the morning. I know that look. You feel guilty.”
“I don’t care,” I snarl. “Not about him. I don’t even remember his fucking name right now.”
I turn and look at Wyatt, already curled up on the couch. Zora puts her hand on my shoulder. “Go easy on him tonight,” she says. “If he’s on something, it’ll just make it worse. Trust me. I come from a town of drug addicts. Not that I’m saying Wyatt is a drug addict,” she adds quickly. “Sorry, that didn’t come out like I wanted it to.”
“He’s going to be expelled because he can’t stop doing them for one fucking night. What the hell else would you call him?”
“Come on.” Zora pulls me inside. “Get some sleep. Or go for a run. Or something. But don’t think about this anymore for a little while.”
I walk into the apartment and stand over Wyatt. I want to slap him and hug him at the same time.
In the end, I just sit down next to him, my hand in his hair, wondering what Mom and Dad would say if they could see us now.
16
Angelo
“I don’t like the look of that car,” Felice comments, glancing in the rearview.
“Which one?” Levi turns, his hand over the back of the seat, eyes narrowed. “The Chevy?”
Felice nods. I squeeze my fist. This could turn into a fight.
It started when we drove down to Boston to arrange the King Kong shipment with Giraldo. We came down and loaded twenty crates onto the truck that Giuseppe’s now driving about half a mile ahead of us. Everything