Should’ve Known It’s You (Not You Again #7)

Chapter 57

CHAPTER 57

AUSTIN

T he cops finally arrived. A pair of uniformed officers who seemed a little confused sauntered down the hall toward us. Lori was the first to rush them with information, word vomiting her version of what had happened all over them before they’d even asked any questions.

“Thank the Lord you’re here,” she said tearfully, pointing a manicured finger directly at me. “That man over there, Austin Merrick, he’s the aggressor. He showed up looking for a fight and caught our friend and guest unaware by hitting him. It came out of nowhere, officer. So unnecessary. Please, take him away.”

The cops exchanged a glance. Jeff strode over to back her up, wrapping an arm around his wife’s waist. “Just be careful, officers. He’s dangerous and extremely unhinged. Danny, the victim, has been a friend of our family for years, but we don’t even really know this man. He showed up and started making vicious threats, and then he just sucker punched an invited guest. It was truly shocking to witness.”

I sighed, but before Jeff and Lori had even gotten out of the officers’ way, Danny was there, playing the victim like he was going for an Academy Award. It was unfortunate that I was now going to do exactly what I said I would earlier, especially because I knew he was only doing this to save face with the Sweets, but I’d warned him.

As it turned out, Danny had been involved in a seriously questionable deal in Ohio. It’d gone bad, including some fraud, and by all accounts, he wasn’t as squeaky clean as the Sweets seemed to believe. Either way, he’d paid a lot of people a lot of money to make this go away, and if I wanted to, I could blow it wide open again. It simply remained to be seen if I wanted to.

Danny pointed at the blackish bruise starting to form on his jaw. “Everything they said is true, officers. He hit me right in the face. I didn’t even see it coming. One second, I was just talking to my friend, and the next, he punched me. It was awful. Clearly, none of us are safe with him around.”

Right. We’re blowing it open then.

Kennedy was obviously fuming. Releasing my hand, she shook her head and scoffed when the officers finally stepped around her parents. “Let me start by saying that I’m really sorry about all this, officers. Unfortunately, none of what any of them just told you is an accurate depiction of what really happened here tonight.”

The man frowned at her. “You’re the friend he was talking to before he got punched?”

“He was telling me to watch my fucking mouth, yes, which is technically talking , but we certainly aren’t friends. And as much as they would like to believe that Austin over here is an unhinged maniac who just showed up with his fists flying, that’s bull shit.”

“So what really happened?” he asked.

“Well, my parents showed up uninvited a little while ago, and they tricked their way into my home by pretending they’d simply been in the neighborhood. The truth was that they’d invited my ex over. Without my knowledge or consent.”

She folded her arms around herself and inclined her head toward Danny. “I didn’t know he was coming until he was almost here, at which point, I asked my parents to tell him he wasn’t welcome. They refused, and before I could tell them to get out of my house, my friend arrived.”

As Kennedy spoke, the officer’s eyebrows twitched and he glanced over his shoulder at the Sweets and Danny before looking back at her. “He’s your ex?”

“Yes, sir,” Kenny said. “Those are my parents and this is my apartment. They invited him here but I don’t have any interest in speaking to him after our bad break-up. He’s made me feel unsafe on numerous occasions, has shown up where I am even if he shouldn’t know my location, and wouldn’t let me leave the last time we were alone together. I do not want him anywhere near me and I definitely don’t want him in my home, but as I’m sure you can tell, my lunatic parents refuse to accept that.”

The officers suddenly fell back completely. The man who had been reaching for his handcuffs took a protective step closer to Kenny while the lady cop scowled at Danny. She cocked her head as she looked him over from top to bottom.

She turned back to Kenny. “Do you believe he’s stalking you?”

Kenny drew in a deep breath and shrugged. “Honestly, I’ve wondered, but I have no evidence of that. I ran into him at a coffee shop near here one day and he wouldn’t leave me alone even when I asked him to. He just sat down at my table like he’d been waiting to have coffee with me, but he doesn’t live in the area and he wouldn’t really give me a straight answer when I asked what he was doing here.”

The woman frowned. “You said something about him not letting you leave last time you saw him. Was that at the coffee shop?”

She exhaled a long, slow breath. “No, ma’am. I had a fundraiser dinner at a home over on heritage row last weekend. I was setting up one day when he arrived. I was about to leave, but he grabbed my arm and dragged me to the parlor, then made me stay there regardless of how many times I told him I wanted to go.”

“Who’s he?” The male cop jerked his head toward me. “I’m assuming you know him even if your parents said they don’t really?”

“I do know him,” she explained, glancing at me with a grateful smile. “He was only protecting me because he knows my history with Danny. He also interrupted Danny on the day when he was keeping me in the parlor. I believe that Austin and his friend were the only reason I finally managed to get away safely.”

“What happened today?” the woman asked.

Kenny ran her fingers through her hair, and I noticed that her hands were still shaking slightly. Everything in me wanted to go over there and comfort her, but I didn’t want it to look like I was intimidating her to change her story by getting too close.

“Austin only got physical because Danny got in my face. He was protecting me, and that’s the truth. Danny got aggressive, and when Austin saw me shy away, he reacted. This is my home, and none of them except for Austin are welcome here, yet they showed up, tried to bully me into letting a man I feel unsafe with into my home, and now, they’re twisting the truth to protect their friends’ son.”

The police officers glanced at me. “Is this all true?”

I nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“You hit him?” the other cop asked.

“Yes, ma’am, I did. Just the once. Just so he would stop screaming in her face.”

They turned to Danny, who was back to scowling at Kenny after what she’d told the police. The male cop frowned at him, taking a much closer look now than he had before. “Are you pressing charges?”

He massaged his purpling jaw. “You better believe I am. That bastard nearly knocked a tooth out just because I was talking to my friend.”

Although neither of the cops seemed to want to do it, the man finally reached for his handcuffs. “We need to take you to the station, sir. Hold out your wrists, please.”

I did what they’d asked, appreciating that they didn’t tighten the cuffs so much that it hurt. They led me out to the cruiser and I went willingly, but Kennedy was in tears, panicking as the police lazily took statements from her parents and Danny, clearly not believing their story anymore, but having to do their jobs.

“This is protocol, Kenny.” I glanced at her from the backseat of the police cruiser. “Don’t get too worked up about it, okay? I’ll be fine. I have the best lawyers in town. Nothing crazy is going to happen.”

Her eyes were full of shiny fear and regret as she stared down at me. “I’m so sorry, Austin. I’m so, so sorry he called the cops on you. I’ll get you out of there. I promise. I’ll talk to them. Get them to tell the truth.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” I said, wishing I could reach out the window to pull her into my arms. Since it smelled like stale urine, old sweat, and cigarette smoke in here, it also would’ve been nice just to be able to get out, but I pushed it all down and tried to reassure her. “Don’t worry about me, Kenny. My lawyers will have me out in no time. Frankly, I’m not even sure these charges are going to stick. Self-defense counts even if it’s another person you’re protecting. Those officers didn’t seem convinced by your parents or Danny at all. I’ll be okay.”

Tears glistened in her eyes as her brow furrowed. “But still. You shouldn’t even be in there. Like you said, they were trespassing. Maybe I should press charges too.”

“That’s only going to make it worse for you. Do me a favor and call your sister, please? I don’t want you staying here alone tonight now that Danny knows where you live. Maybe they can pick you up and I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

She dipped her chin in a shaky nod, immediately pulled out her phone, and explained the highlights of what had happened to her sister. Her voice was breaking and thick with barely restrained tears, her whole body trembling again.

“They’re on their way,” she said when she hung up. “They told me to sit tight and that they’d be here in a few minutes.”

“Good,” I said evenly, doing my utmost best to keep my voice calm. “I feel terrible leaving you right now, but it looks like the officers are done.”

They were sliding their notebooks back into their pockets, exchanging nods as they bent their heads together on their way back to their cruiser. Kenny’s tears started falling, desperation tightening her features as she watched us pull away.

I hadn’t regretted throwing that punch until that moment, but I was suddenly really sorry that my fist had ever connected with his jaw. Leaving her when she was scared and alone felt completely wrong, rubbing against the grain in a way that made me feel sick.

It helped knowing that Winrey and Benji were on their way, but Lori, Jeff, and Danny were still back there, and I didn’t trust any of them as far as I could throw them. Leaning forward, I hoped and prayed that the officers would indulge me.

“Hey, uh, I know this is probably an unorthodox request, but do you mind pulling over for a minute?” I asked. “I’d just really like to wait until her sister and her boyfriend arrive to make sure she’s going to be okay.”

“I’m sorry, son. It doesn’t work that way.” The man offered me an apologetic glimpse in the rearview mirror, but the woman reached out and punched his arm.

“It’ll only take a few minutes,” she said. “I’d like to see the sister and her boyfriend get here too. There’s a potential stalking charge to consider and the girl did say she felt unsafe with the victim.”

The guy sighed but dutifully pulled over. I twisted in my seat, watching Kennedy stand at the curb a few feet away from her parents. Lori took a step toward her, and she must’ve said something to get Kenny’s attention, but she deliberately moved further away without even turning to acknowledge her mother.

My stomach tightened when Danny tried next, striding halfway across the space between them before she finally spun around. I couldn’t hear their interaction, but I saw her waving a fist at him before he slunk back to her parents’ side.

Once again, Jeff was mostly a silent bystander. He slid an arm around Lori’s shoulders and pulled her close but didn’t move toward Kennedy like the others had done. My heart gave a pang when I thought about my own father, always so positive and loving.

There had been a time when he and I had been on the outs. Long ago, when I’d first told them I didn’t want to be a farmer. In the space of one conversation, I’d gone from being the beloved son to the ostracized black sheep of the family.

It’d taken us years to repair that rift and it’d hurt like hell, but eventually, we’d all found our way back to each other. By then, things had been how they were meant to be, with Jess poised to take over the farm when Dad retired and me living and working here, in New York.

I couldn’t imagine what my life would’ve been like if I hadn’t made up with my family. If my father had never forgiven me. I honestly just couldn’t even begin to imagine what life was like for Kenny, knowing that her parents never had her back and didn’t seem to care very much about what she wanted at all.

Those years when I’d felt estranged from my dad had been the most difficult of my life. The thought of what it would’ve been like if that had been forever?

I shook my head at myself. At least Kenny had her sister, her boyfriend, and me. It wasn’t quite the same as having her parents in her corner, but it wasn’t nothing.

A light blue, beat-up car pulled up to the curb in front of her, and Benji and Winrey climbed out, racing around the hood to Kenny. Winrey pulled her into her arms and hugged her, and the female cop glanced at me in the rearview mirror.

“Good?” she asked.

“All good. She’ll be safe now.” I nodded and turned to face forward again. “Thank you.”