Vigilant

“I guess.” Guilt pressed down on her for the first time that night. Was it wrong? And what did she choose? Certainly not a relationship. Was it just sex? Davis had only said things would get complicated. They already were. “Have you ever been with a guy that makes you just feel…alive? Like when you aren’t with him you kind of crave him? Like you just can’t wait to get another…hit?”

“Sure.”

“Yeah?” Ari asked. “I haven’t. Not until now. Not until this guy. I mean, he just left and I want more.”

Veronica raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like you made the right choice then—over Nick.”

“Yeah, but sometimes, it feels like it may consume me. At least what I felt for Nick was controllable. This? I feel like chasing him down the street.” Ari blushed after saying it. Why was she telling Veronica about this?

“Does he want to chase you back?”

Ari thought about Davis’s public kiss and the way he moved against her. She thought about how his hands parted her legs, pushing her knees to the side. The way he counted her stars, lingering over the new one, in the center of her chest. Like he knew. Like he knew she got the ink because of him. “Kind of. Yes. He’s always there. Like he needs it, too.”

Veronica yawned and stood up, stretching her arms wide. “I guess you’ll have to ride this out then. See where it goes. If the burn fades or if it turns into something else.”

She stepped over Ari’s legs and handed her the remote control. “What else would it turn into?” Ari asked.

Veronica gave her that same smirky grin. “Love.”

NINETEEN

Standing at the heavy, metal door, Ari waited for a guard to open it with a key. She’d gotten a call from Ms. Cox on her way into work. She turned her car around, stopped at the coffee shop, and headed to the detention center. Sometime last night, Devon had been arrested. After a ten-minute wait, someone finally came to unlock the door.

“Ms. Grant, awful early for you to be here.”

“Tell me about it. I figured I should just get it over with,” she said to the guard whose name she’d forgotten. Tall and thin. He had a weary look about him just like everyone else in this building.

They parted when they passed through the next locked door. Ari knocked on the open door of Ms. Cox’s windowless, basement office. “Morning.” She offered her one of the cups of coffee. “Thanks for the call. What’s going on?”

Ms. Cox accepted the coffee and placed it on her desk next to a large, looming pile of files. “I get emails at home when the kids are processed. I shouldn’t bother, but it makes me feel better knowing what’s coming at me during the day. I saw Devon’s name pop up and the associated charges. I knew you’d want to know.”

“Thanks. I’ve got a ton of work to do today and a staff meeting at ten. What were the charges? I’m assuming she’s not listed as a runaway. I just saw her and her mother hasn’t called.”

Ms. Cox thumbed through the files and slid one out near the top. “Says here disorderly contact and resisting arrest, but the notes mention her talking about witnessing an abduction.”

“An abduction? Does it say anything else?”

“Not really. I doubt the police believed her, and since she already had a record they just brought her in. I’ll call her up.”

Devon arrived with a guard fifteen minutes later. She wore the standard blue jumpsuit and paper slippers. Ari saw a thin cut down the side of her cheek, partially covered by a bandage. Her eyes lit up when she saw Ari. “Ms. Grant, you come to get me out?”

“No, not yet. You’ve got a hearing sometime later today or tomorrow. Do you want to tell me what happened?”

The girl eyed Ari and Ms. Cox suspiciously. “You won’t get mad?”

Ms. Cox rolled her eyes. “Girl, you’re in lockup. This is beyond mad. You better tell us what happened so we can try to help you. The uncensored version, too.”

“Okay, last night I went out with some friends, looking to score some weed.” Her eyes lowered when she admitted that but kept talking. “So we went down to the park, you know, where everyone hangs out. There was a pretty big crowd. Everyone was passing around forties and my friend Big Sauce said he had some weed to sell us.”

“Big Sauce?” Ari asked.

“Yeah, I don’t know his real name. He’s huge, though.”

“Okay, keep going.”

“Well, everything was okay and then I saw Shanna. I hadn’t heard from her since that last group.”

Ari was mildly surprised. And more than a little annoyed. “So she was down there?”