WEEKS OF NOTHING, and everything happened in one day. Eventually leaving his youngest brother at the Lemonade Stand, under supervision of Sara Havens and with the understanding that they would be talking more as soon as Mike was off work, he went to the office.
He needed some time away from the kid. Time to look at Willie with different eyes. Time to assimilate all that he’d learned.
Time to come to grips with himself. He wanted to go to Kacey, but to do so would be selfish, and it could continue to confuse her regarding her need and right to press charges against his little brother.
She’d go t
o Lacey. Her sister would help her see what she needed to do. That was another reason he’d left Willie at the Stand. Better the kid be arrested there than at home with their father looking on.
Better that it happen without Mike around, either. The whole thing was killing him. He loved that kid so much. What was more, he believed every word he’d said about that night on the beach. He even understood. The circumstances that all led one to another. And then the panic.
Problem was, he couldn’t forgive. Willie shouldn’t have been anywhere near Kacey on that hellacious night. And he should have come forward sooner to help ease her pain.
But Kacey knew what Willie was to him. He couldn’t go to her. Period.
Work had always been his panacea.
And the first thing that hit him when he booted up his computer was an email granting him access, by an online media source, to call the reporter who’d posted the article about Kacey and Bo. He’d been given a cell number. And he made the call immediately.
And then made several more.
He wanted to call Kacey. To let her know who’d been behind the photos. But he knew the detective she’d spoken to in Beverly Hills was going to do that.
He couldn’t pull her back in his direction no matter what she thought of him or what she did about Willie. He couldn’t ask her to ever risk a repeat of what had happened today. Coming face-to-face with one of her attackers.
What he would do was work.
It was what he’d always done.
The only thing he could do.
* * *
KACEY WAS IN Beverly Hills that same day, late afternoon, when she got the call from a detective there, telling her that Bo Williams had been behind the photos of her that had been appearing on the internet. They’d questioned him and he’d admitted to the postings. He’d taken her email address from her computer one night at her apartment. His sole purpose had been to gain publicity for himself in an attempt to lure a lucrative movie contract.
The idea had been to show what a good guy he was to her, and then to show that, in the end, he had enough sense to walk away.
Unless she’d actually married him. Then he’d have posted photos of her after rehab and been an even greater guy.
The detective asked Kacey if she wanted to press charges against Bo for fraudulent use of her email address.
Hacking without any provable financial gain or loss was still a crime, but not one that any prosecutor was going to take all that seriously. And she didn’t want any more publicity on the Bo front.
In lieu of charges, she asked for a restraining order. Paperwork was already in motion to make that happen.
The whole incident was little more than a blip in her day.
The second call she received from the police was more than a blip. It came from Santa Raquel. Willie Valentine had turned himself in. He’d made a call from the Lemonade Stand, asking to speak to the police. And because the Stand was under such close watch for possible abuser infiltration, his call was immediately responded to by two policemen, in person.
He’d confessed what he’d done and turned both of his friends in. He’d already agreed to testify against them. His older brother, Mike Valentine, had also called with the names of the two seventeen-year-olds in question, and both had already been in custody.
Their question to her was when she could come in to identify them.
She said she’d only do so if they agreed not to press charges against Willie.
It was made clear to her that though she’d been saved from the rape by Willie’s actions, she could still press charges against him. Kacey held her ground. After a couple more phone calls, one to the prosecutor’s office, agreements had been solidified and charges filed against the other two.
And Willie’s brother was going to be called to come pick up his sibling.