Chapter Twenty-Three

Rory’s mum never comes back to the dining hall when I’m there. I’ve waited to see if she passed along my message. All of her words could have been lies, she is sick after all or she wouldn’t keep coming back here.

“Wait,” someone yells. I look up and see Lissa and Deacon coming my way. “You can’t be in here.”

“We can actually. We have a warrant for the arrest of Bristol Montgomery.” Deacon says, causing my heart to hammer in my chest. I didn’t kill anyone.

“She can’t leave. We would need to call her parents, she’s a minor.”

Lissa is pissed, her stare void of emotion. “Bristol Montgomery, you are under arrest for the murder of Milo Montgomery…”

She slaps handcuffs on my wrists and reads me my rights and walks me towards the exit. I don’t say anything until we are clear of the building.

“I didn’t kill my brother, you have to believe me.” I say.

“We believe you, but we don’t have much time before your mother finds out, and the facility finds out that there is no warrant. Your uncle has bought us a few hours. ”

“My uncle?” I question.

“Yes, he works on favours and apparently I owed him one.”

I raise a brow at her, she is by the book and yet my uncle got her to let me out. I have so many more questions, but now isn’t the time.

“You have to get in the car, we are off duty.”

“I will explain everything, but I need you to take me to my house and I need to borrow a phone.”

She stands behind me and unlocks one side of the cuffs. “Get in before you take your hand out.”

I do as she says and get into the car, they both do the same. My life keeps getting weirder and weirder.

Deacon drives away but he hasn’t spoken to me. Lissa leans back and hands me a phone. “Call your uncle, he said speed dial One.”

I speed dial the number on the ancient phone and he answers on the first ring. “Bristol, are you okay?”

“Murder charges?” I ask, as my lower lip trembles, not understanding what’s going on.

“Trust me, it’s the only way we could get you out of that place without your mother. We need to meet and I'll tell you what I have found out.”

“Actually meet me at my house and I will tell you what I remember. Be quick because I won’t have much time.”

I hang up before he can protest and Lissa heads towards my house. “Don’t pull into the driveway, I don’t want them to see us. If you pull up in the street behind the house, there is a back gate we can enter through.”

Deacon drives and I won’t lie, I’m nervous but this is something I have to do. The drive doesn’t take long and we pull up to the back of the property.

“I need to go in alone for this to work. Can you give me five minutes?”

Deacon goes to open his mouth but Lissa beats him to it. “You will tell your uncle that we are even.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, I still don’t want Levi around all of this but since I can’t force him to stop there is nothing that I can do about it. We have a few hours, so don’t do anything stupid.”

“I only need ten minutes and you can take me in. If I'm not back in that time, come in and get me.”

Lissa nods and gets out of the car and opens the back door. I step out and she removes the cuffs.

“Be careful.”

I nod and head in the back entrance, only the staff use this entry. I head straight through the back yard and into the house. I use the kitchen where the staff makes us meals to sneak through into the main house. It’s eerily quiet, almost too quiet if you ask me. Dad's office is on the ground floor and I know he keeps a gun in there, having snaps of my memory back, I know that I was taught to use a gun when I was eleven. Uncle Jarva and Milo would take me to practice every weekend. I also remember Milo telling me where our father’s gun is that he keeps in his office.

I locate it easily and head through to the living area and take a seat. “Carter, Mum, come downstairs.” I yell, loud enough that it echoes back to me. I know they’re here. I could hear Carter's music from upstairs and there was an open wine bottle in the kitchen.

My mum is the first to walk into the room, her eyes go wide and her mouth ajar before she composes herself. Carter steps up behind her and he smirks. I pull the gun from beside me and motion for them to come in and sit down.

“How did you get out?” Shandra asks, with a slight tremble in her voice.

“Why did you put me back in?” I retort. “Because I have my theories.”

“You’re not well Bristol, you haven’t been for a while.”

“Bullshit,” I snap. “Stop lying, you are always lying. Don’t you ever get sick of hearing yourself talk?”

“Welcome back Bristol,” Carter says with an evil smirk.

“I can’t say it’s nice to be back.”

“Do you think your little boyfriends will like this version of you? I applaud you, you did an amazing job with this JD persona.”

“Tell me Carter, was this all just you or did Shandra help? I know she knows, she was there.”

They both look at each other. “Yes, I remember what happened. How about we take a walk down memory lane?”

I know my uncle is here, I heard the click of the door. He will wait, hidden, until he gets his answers.

“I was in my room, it was a Wednesday and I know this because I was avoiding Sebastian. We all knew he was a means to an end. Daddy needed his family to sign the deal. Daddy was a smart man, he didn’t want me with Sebastian, so I just had to string him along. But Carter even knew that, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did, no one is good enough for the princess.” he snaps.

“I heard yelling and wanted to see what was going on. At first I thought it was Sebastian since I was avoiding him but the closer I came towards the living room I realised it was you and Milo. You told Milo that you were in love with me and he called you sick. That we had been siblings forever and over his dead body would you ever have me or a position in the family business. That our father would give you a job in one of the legitimate companies but never anywhere else. I stepped into the room and you aimed your gun at me. Milo tackled you and the gun went off, that's when Shanda came into the room. I screamed and ran to Milo; he was on the floor. I went into shock over seeing him dead on the floor. I didn’t remember anything because I was in shock and all but the key piece of the puzzle, that,” I smirk. “I can see vividly now.”

“And what's that?” Shandra snaps.

“Milo had gone out on a run with Uncle Jarva that day, they had to meet some pretty scary dudes. Milo insisted that he was only driving the car, that uncle would be doing everything else. I didn’t want him to go and he promised me he would wear a bulletproof vest. He always kept his promises.”

Shandra and Carter look at each other. I know that they would have been wondering where his body went.

“Then where is he and why didn’t he come back when you came home?” Carter snaps.

“That I can’t ask him until I call him, but I have one last pressing issue.” I say, tapping my finger on my lips.

“And that is..” he says with no care in the world, waving his hand for me to continue.

“The night I was leaving. I was beaten and left for dead. You came after me, you found out I was leaving. You knocked on the door and stupidly I had forgotten about what happened with Milo, the trauma of thinking he was dead and being pumped with medications. That entire night was blurry at best. But then I remembered somehow you were involved and you were pissed.

“Long story short, I know it was you but the messed up part, you wanted to rape me and it was Sebastian who convinced you not to.”

“And it’s your word against mine, no one will ever believe you. I thought you were dead, those damn idiots that saved you. The beach was empty.” He shakes his head. “All I ever wanted was to be part of the business, but Milo went and fucked that all up. You know he made a deal with your uncle so you couldn’t be involved, so if you did happen to fall for me then maybe I could’ve been part of it. I tried for years to get you to see me but you never did… So, now what? You’re going to kill us, because you know that bitch was involved?” He turns his attention to his mother.

“Don’t talk to me like that you ungrateful little prick, you had one job, one damn job.” Shandra snaps and it's beautiful really that they are turning on each other.

“Is it true?” My uncle asks, stepping into the room. “That Milo is alive?”

“I believe so, I can tell you about that later. I think I know where he is.”

My uncle nods and looks at my step brother and step mother.

“Where is my brother? He isn’t where he is supposed to be and if you don’t want a bullet between your eyes I suggest you start talking.” My uncle raises a gun at Shandra, and she whimpers.

“He went to see the fairy godmother.” Carter says with a smirk.

“Why? He would have told me about that.”

“Because she refused to deal with you, that I overheard on a call, so he will be away for awhile. He told me he would be unreachable for two weeks. He left his phone behind, it’s how she does business, even I know that.”

“Camilla the bitch.” My uncle shakes his head and I think there's a story there but I can save that for a different day.

A throat clears and Deacon and Lissa stand at the walkway and look around to see what's going on. They both pull their weapons when they see both my uncle and I have guns.

“JD, what’s going on?” Lissa asks.

“Uncle put your gun away, they need to arrest my stepmother and brother now.”

He tucks his gun back away and I stand slowly, setting the gun on the floor and sliding it across to them.

“I’ll come and give a full statement since I’m being arrested for Milo’s murder but he isn’t dead and I can prove it. Also, I want it known that Carter was the one who beat me, along with my ex boyfriend Sebastian and Shandra was involved in covering it all up.”

Deacon calls in back up and my uncle moves closer to me. “I’ll send my lawyers down to the station for you whilst you’re being questioned. I need to go and get my brother home, Camilla is a piece of work and he should have known better.”

“Guys, my uncle needs to go now and you can call your debt paid.” I say and look between my uncle and Lissa. They both nod and my uncle leaves the room, pulling out his phone as he goes.

The local police show up, Carter and Shandra are both arrested and taken in. Lissa and Deacon are possibly going to be in trouble, I’m not sure how they plan to explain pretending to have a warrant and taking me from a facility without parental permission, but I will ask my father to help them sort it out.

“JD, you have to come down to the station with us and give a statement. I highly suggest that you don’t say anything until your lawyer is with you.” I nod and follow them out to their car.

We drive in silence until we pull up to the police station.

“Can you call Levi and the guys and tell them that I’m okay?”

She nods and takes me in, where I’m led to an interview room. My lawyer is in the room with me within minutes.

He advises me not to comment about anything that happened today so I don’t incriminate Lissa and Deacon. All I have to do is give my statement about what happened the day Milo was shot.

The police officers taking my statement grill me, one even tries to trip me up. After what feels like hours I’m released into my uncle's custody. He is waiting for me out the front by the steps.

“So you remember me, huh?” he says, lifting his sunglasses, a wide smile overtaking his face.

“I do and I know where Milo is. He always had a back up plan, that if something ever went wrong, a place that we could hide out that no one knew about.”

“Why didn’t I know?” he asks furrowing his brow. I can see that he is slightly offended that I knew, and he didn’t.

“I think it was more in case I ever needed a safe place, but I can take you there. It's in New Hope.”

“Isn’t that where your mother went to university?” I nod.

“And where some of her family lives. Milo reached out to them a few years ago and he made a connection with one of them. His name is Arden.”

“Yes, I do remember him,” he says with a chuckle. “He was a small, weird kid.”

We navigate into New Hope, my memories are back but I have to dig deep to find the place that I'm looking for. We finally pull into an underground parking area and drive in.

“There’s surveillance, so he knows we're here already.”

My uncle nods and parks the car. We climb out just as an elevator bings and opens but no one steps out. We step in cautiously, my uncle’s security joining us. Both men are massive, taking up most of the space inside. I consider telling them to wait underground but I know my uncle won’t trust Milo. Not yet, anyways.