The Boys Down South by Abbi Glines
44
scarlet
“Whatever the bail is, I will pay it. But she’s leaving with me.” At the sound of that voice, my head snapped up and I looked through the bars of the cell I was in. Alone. Thankfully.
Bray was here. I’d found out Dallas had taken a life-threatening fall from a horse and could be dying in surgery from one of the officers we had gone to school with.
Why was he here?
“Bray?” I said his name as I stood up, still only wearing his shirt. I’d refused to wear the ugly uniform they put on prisoners. I wasn’t a prisoner. I was an arsonist. But they couldn’t hold me if the owner of the property I set on fire didn’t press charges. And the man I called Father, a good portion of my life, had called about ten minutes ago from Utah and told them to release me.
Bray took three long strides to get to me. His expression fierce. “I’m getting you out. Don’t worry. We can fight this.”
His hand reached through to touch my face.
I started to tell him there was nothing to fight. But the look of love and protectiveness in his eyes stole my words. It was new and I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to it. This feeling. Knowing I wasn’t alone in the world. Not anymore.
“No need for bail. Her father said he wasn’t pressing charges and to let her go. It was an accident,” Shane Lowry said as he unlocked the bars in front of me.
“You locked her in a cell? Are you fucking kidding me, Shane? Did she look dangerous to you?” Bray’s tone went from incredulous to angry so quickly, I almost missed it.
Shane shrugged. “Dude, it’s my job. I picked her up wearing,” he paused and pointed at me, “that! And she had matches in her hands and a house was just starting to burn in front of her.”
In other words, he was sure I was insane. At the moment, I thought he may be correct. Who ran out of their house without clothing, their purse or phone, drove until they ran out of gas, walked the rest of the way, just to burn a house down?
I sounded mental.
But the sight of that house burning. The smoke. My mother’s hysterical screams. All of it. Every second was worth it. Somehow it had allowed me to let go. Freed all the ugly I had kept buried inside. Tossed it into the flames and watched the ashes float into the air.
Shane let me out and Bray was grabbing me and pulling me into his arms faster than I could move toward him.
“Dallas,” I blurted out, worried that he was here and not there.
“Stable. He’s going to live.”
I sank into his arms, resting my head on his chest. Relief that the youngest Sutton boy had another chance at life.
“As much as I like you wearing my shirt, I am going to need you to wear clothes before I take you to the hospital.” His eyes were smiling. But he was pretending to be serious.
I lifted a shoulder. “So my dirty feet and messy hair are okay?”
He scanned me with his gaze. “Every inch of you is fucking perfect, Scarlet. But if I have to threaten one more man with my glare for taking in those legs and bouncing tits of yours under this shirt, it’s going to be me in that cell.”
It wasn’t time to smile. We had to get to Dallas. I’d just committed a crime that my father… was letting me get away with. Was that his last parting gift? His peace offering?
Whatever it was didn’t matter. What did matter was for the first time in my life, I felt normal. I felt loved. I was enough. The dirty was gone. Burned with the ashes and memories of my childhood home.
