Defiance Falls War: Defiance Falls Book 3

by Dean, Ali

  Pops went to answer the door and the rest of us stayed frozen, listening.

  “Oh, hello Louise.”

  I sucked in a breath and looked at Dad. We hadn’t told the others about Louise or what Branden and Sean had done to me. Ruby knew, but did she know about Louise? Glancing at Ruby, I found her watching me for a reaction. She recognized the name, at least.

  “Hi, Mr. Ross. I was looking for Hazel. Is she here yet? I know you all have dinner together here on Sundays.”

  My fists clenched. That little traitor.

  Pops answered her but a low humming in my ears made it difficult to decipher. I was filled with indescribable anger, and it wasn’t what I was expecting. Last time I’d spent any time dwelling on Louise Janik, I’d decided to let her betrayal go, to ignore her. But she just couldn’t let it go on her end. What did she want from me?

  Louise came around the side of the stairs from the front door and halted at the sight of all of us. Pops remained behind her, one hand on the stair banister.

  “What are you doing here, Louise?” I lashed out, but no one admonished me. “My cousins, best friends, and boyfriend are in jail. Why would you think it’s okay to come here right now?”

  My nostrils flared as I stared her down, waiting for an answer. She looked stunned by my outburst, but what did she expect? When she didn’t respond fast enough, I kept going.

  “You can’t actually think we’ll be friends again after what you did. You’re lucky all I’ve done is ignore you, Louise. I could have done much worse.”

  I heard someone gasp, and I think it was Mimi. Then Aunt Vanessa did scold me. “Okay Hazel, obviously you’re upset with your friend. Or ex-friend,” she quickly corrected when I sent my burning gaze in her direction. “But let’s not go all Malone Mafia on the girl with threats.”

  Her words had me clenching my eyes shut. Was that what I’d sounded like?

  Aunt Vanessa gentled her tone. “Give her a chance to explain why she’s come by.”

  My heart pounded in my chest as I tried not to funnel all my frustration with this situation at the girl in front of me.

  “You’re right about all of that, Hazel. But I’m here to help.”

  I couldn’t respond to that. Well, I could, but I was afraid whatever I said would come across as a threat.

  Pops spoke from behind her. “Go on, take a seat, and tell us how you think you can help.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Defiance Falls Free Press

  In an unexpected turn of events, Bodhi and Emmett Boyd, Spike Matlock, and Peter Moody were released from the Defiance Falls Jail late Monday afternoon and all charges against them were dropped. This came after the young men were taken into custody quite publicly during a soccer game against Powell High School on Saturday morning. The Defiance Falls High seniors were charged with the first-degree murder of Flynn Malone, whose death had previously been ruled a suicide.

  An eyewitness, a minor whose identity will remain confidential at this time, provided an apparently credible report to law enforcement detailing the young men’s appearance around Mr. Malone’s property, and entering and exiting the house at the same date and time Mr. Malone passed away. She claimed she had not reported sooner because she feared retaliation.

  By early Monday morning, local law enforcement was flooded with reports contradicting this eyewitness testimony. The reports, submitted separately by dozens of individuals, stated that the four high school seniors were at a classmate’s party during the hours in question. While convincing alibi testimony on its own may not have necessitated dropping the charges, another classmate provided overwhelming evidence that the eyewitness’s testimony was fabricated. While the details of this story remain sealed due to the involvement of minors, it appears Mayflower Academy seniors Branden and Sean Malone are being charged with obstruction of justice and extortion for their involvement in this matter. They were already in custody for charges related to a recent car shooting (for details, see Saturday’s press release).

  Moments after the four Defiance Falls High seniors were arrested on Saturday morning, Cruz Donovan was charged separately for an unrelated incident that occurred several weeks ago on the Braven Lake property. Kai Tillson, a recent Defiance Falls High graduate, claimed that Mr. Donovan physically assaulted him and then paid him thousands of dollars to prevent him from reporting the assault. Once again, dozens of eyewitnesses came forward to contradict Mr. Tillson’s account, claiming Mr. Tillson was the initial aggressor. The thousands of dollars that were deposited in cash into Mr. Tillson’s bank account several days after the alleged assault were believed to be Mr. Tillson’s drug dealing profits, not blackmail money, according to witness reports. Upon learning of these reports, Mr. Tillson withdrew his testimony and the charges against Mr. Donovan were dropped immediately.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Cruz

  I knew I was capable of breaking, that I had fears I’d have to fight for a long time, maybe even the rest of my life, but right now I felt invincible, and I wouldn’t question it. With Hazel on the back of my bike, we sped down the highway from the beach. We were running late for dinner, and now that my girl was comfortable on my motorcycle, I zoomed toward the Defiance Falls exit. It wasn’t that long ago I’d forced myself to stay under the speed limit as she clutched my waist and I tried like hell not to get distracted by the feel of her hands on me.

  Who was I kidding? Her hands still did things to me each time they made contact, but this time I let her touch fuel me with confidence. She pushed away the fear that tingled at the base of my spine, the one I refused to let rule me.

  Parking outside Mimi and Drew’s place, we grinned at each other as we hopped off the bike and ran to the house hand in hand. We’d spent the entire day together, just the two of us, and we had our families waiting on us now. Before opening the door I pulled Hazel to me for a kiss. Her lips were cold from the ride, and I thought I’d give her a little tongue to help warm her up.

  “Cruz.” She pulled away, laughing. “We’re an hour late. Come on.”

  I snuck in a peck on the nose. “Today was already the best day.”

  She smiled wide, her cheeks flushed. “I know.”

  We walked into a house filled with people. It was Tuesday, but we were doing a make-up Sunday dinner. In addition to the usual suspects, Ruby was sitting by Bodhi, and my dad and Mitch were standing by the kitchen island with Drew. I did a double take when I saw Dad, not because I wasn’t expecting him, I was, but because he had a beer in his hand. He looked so comfortable, I wondered why we hadn’t encouraged him to get out more before. Oh yeah, that’s right. We still had to keep his diagnosis a secret. Not so much to protect us from the Malones, but to prevent further damage to Braven Pharma, which was already in some turmoil as it was.

  “Hey Dad.” I walked over to him, looking him in the eye. I wanted to make sure he knew who I was.

  “Hi Cruz, did you have a nice time with Hazel?”

  I smiled genuinely now. He was doing good today. “Yeah, Dad, it was a great day.”

  Dinner was great too. Having Dad there helped us keep the conversation light and away from the heavier stuff. He didn’t say much, and I knew all the banter made it hard for him to keep up, but he was happy to be there, that much was clear.

  After Gramps drove him home though, the floodgates opened. We’d all skipped school and practice today, but we hoped that would be the last time this year. Or at least the last time due to a crisis situation. We’d definitely have to play hooky once or twice in the spring. Maybe in the winter too. Any day was a good day to hang with Hazel and the crew as far as I was concerned. But real life was waiting and like Hazel reminded me, we couldn’t escape it.

  “All right, we’ve waited all damn day,” Moody said, “tell us what happened with Louise Janik.”

  “Wait, you don’t already know?” Hazel questioned. “You didn’t hack into the sealed files with her report?”

  Moody crossed his arms, pouting
. “Naw, I had to spend all day with my parents, appeasing them.”

  “Hmm, sounds like torture, man,” Spike deadpanned.

  “It was pretty bad. They wanted to ask questions, but they also didn’t want the answers. So it was awkward as hell. Basically, we ended up talking around each other about my future.” Moody’s eyes shot to Cruz. “Let’s get those Harvard acceptance letters moving sooner rather than later, dude. That will put their worries to rest.”

  “Okay, so Louise?” Emmett prompted.

  I’d already heard it from Hazel, but I let her explain what happened. “Louise had seen Branden and Sean talking to Kylie and her two friends, Melissa and Afua.”

  “When?” Spike asked at the same time Moody asked, “Where?”

  Hazel’s lip lifted on one side like she was fighting a smile. Those two hated being the last to know something. Moody in particular prided himself on having all the facts, being the first to figure anything out, make any connection. But this one was purely coincidental and couldn’t have been spotted through technology.

  “It was actually outside this SAT prep class thing.”

  “Branden and Sean do SAT prep classes?” Emmett asked in disbelief.

  “No, Em, it was the girls taking the class. They’re only sophomores, but clearly obsessed with college admission, so starting early,” Hazel explained.

  “Okay, so she saw them outside the SAT prep class place. I’ve seen it. It’s over by the Dunkin on Prospect,” Bodhi said.

  “Yeah, that’s the place,” Hazel confirmed. “It was Saturday, you know, the last day of tryouts. I don’t know if the guys tracked them down there or ran into them on a doughnut run and suddenly had the idea, but either way, Louise saw them all talking that afternoon. She was pulling out of the SAT prep place herself, and no one saw her.”

  “That’s it?” Moody asked, his brow furrowed. “That was the evidence that discredited the girls and got Branden and Sean charged with obstruction of justice?”

  “Let me finish, sheesh,” Hazel said.

  Jeremy was sitting on the other end of the table, quietly sipping a beer. He’d been there when Louise had shown up on Sunday with this, so he already knew everything.

  “So then she was there when those three girls asked me about getting on to varsity, you guys were there too. Anyway, she still didn’t put anything together, because why would she? But remember how last Friday Kylie confronted me in the locker room? Well, Louise was there and heard the whole thing.”

  All four guys let out the same “Ohhhhh,” sound, and it clicked for them. Kind of.

  Drew must have decided he wanted to be involved because he came over from where he’d been standing with Mimi by the kitchen counter. He pulled up a stool and took a seat. “Right, so Louise shows up on Sunday and plays us a recording.” Yeah, he was ready to put it all together for the guys. They were used to being the ones filling Hazel in and the role reversal was clearly making them all antsy. “She’d gotten the two other girls, I can’t remember their names.”

  Mimi stepped up behind him and put her hands on his shoulders. “Melissa and Afua.”

  Drew patted her hand. “Thanks hun. Yeah, Saturday after the game Louise tracked down those girls, who I guess were at SAT prep again. Kylie wasn’t there. She’d stopped going. Louise got them to confess everything.”

  The guys waited for Drew to continue but he took a sip of beer, like that was the end of it. I guess that was the only part he felt like telling. Hazel glanced over at me, her eyes dancing with amusement.

  Bodhi started grumbling and Ruby, who was sitting on his lap – to conserve chair space, she’d said earlier – patted his chest in reassurance. “Sean and Branden had blackmailed Kylie. Her dad works for a Malone company, I forget which one, and they said he’d get fired if they didn’t report this evidence. You want to listen to the recording?”

  “Maybe later,” Bodhi said. “What did it say?”

  “I think the other two girls just happened to be with Kylie and the guys realized the evidence would be more credible if it was three instead of one. So they started out being all like, hey you live near our grandfather’s place. Heard there was a Defiance Falls High party in the neighborhood that night. Did you go to it?”

  Emmett jumped in. “We met those girls. I’m sure they were all like, yes, we totally went to that party and snuck home in the middle of the night!”

  Ruby laughed. “Yeah, that was a pretty good imitation, Em.”

  Hazel said, “Basically they planted the seed that Cruz and his guys were there. Then Sean was like, oh, and your dad works with my dad. The girls said they didn’t explicitly threaten but it was pretty clear what was happening.”

  Bodhi asked, “Then the girls got this idea on their own they’d blackmail you, Hazel?”

  “No, actually,” Hazel said. “At first they were like, no we wouldn’t do that to Hazel, she’s our teammate and those are her friends.”

  “And then they didn’t make varsity,” Spike finished.

  “Right,” Hazel said pointing at Spike. “And they came up with this idea. I guess when we told them Cruz was with me that night Kylie decided to drop him from the statement.” She shrugged.

  I still wondered if Seamus had given some sort of ultimatum to his sons and nephews about accusing me of murdering their grandfather. Dad had thought so, and it’s possible Kylie had another run-in with Branden and Sean we didn’t know about. Her confession to Louise wasn’t very forthcoming; it was the other two who had been willing to share what happened more readily.

  Hazel looked over at her grandmother. “Hey, we never got dessert. I could have sworn I saw a key lime pie sitting out on the counter at one point.”

  “In a minute, tell the rest,” Mimi said. “And it’s not one pie. Bodhi eats half a pie on his own. I’ve got five different pies.”

  Jeremy seemed to finally start paying attention. “Coconut cream pie?”

  “Of course, baby boy.”

  Every one of the guys, Ruby, and Hazel erupted into laughter. “Baby boy,” Spike said through a snort. Jeremy was the furthest thing from a baby boy with his fighting skills, tattoos, and hacker badassery.

  Mimi ignored us, speaking louder. “They aren’t homemade. Just the frozen ones from the store. But really, baking isn’t my strong suit.”

  When we were able to collect ourselves, Moody asked, “Did Louise go talk to Kylie, tell her what she knew?”

  “Yeah, she recorded a statement from her too, admitting to all the same stuff. So the charges would have been dropped even without all the alibi testimony that came through,” Hazel said.

  “How’d that all happen so fast anyway?” Emmett wondered. “Did you guys contact all those people from school?”

  I shook my head then. “No man, all those people came forward on their own.”

  We all let that sit for a minute before Bodhi said, “Holy shit.”

  “Bodhi, not at the table,” Vanessa scolded and we all look around, confused. I thought she and Ian had gone outside or somewhere. She stuck a hand out from around the corner and then leaned her head back from the edge of the couch. “We’ve just been over here keeping quiet. Ian’s giving me a foot rub. Keep going, babe,” she ordered her husband.

  “Yeah,” Jeremy said, ignoring his older sister’s interruption. “We didn’t really do anything to help you guys out, but the town, your friends, classmates, they rallied.”

  “Was it the same for Cruz with Kai? I mean they kind of lied on that one, didn’t they?” Emmett asked.

  “Not about the drug money,” Moody said. “Well, okay, yeah, most of that money was from Cruz but Kai was dipping in the drug dealing stuff too.”

  “We actually don’t really know why everyone rallied on that one,” I admitted. “No one else was there to see what happened. Blake Carmen heard about it, but other than that no one else knew besides us.”

  “I think people just assumed Kai did something stupid,” Hazel said with a shrug. I knew she stil
l felt a little guilty Kai got called out in the news, but I didn’t. People saw what I’d seen, and figured he’d been doing something sketchy. “People trust Cruz,” Hazel went on, still unwilling to throw Kai under the bus. “They figured if he did beat up Kai there was a good reason for it. When they learned it was that night of the party, the basketball and football guys, the volleyball girls, everyone who was there decided to make a report.” Hazel put her hands out, palms up, like, what are you gonna do when the entire senior class is willing to perjure themselves?

  “Speaking of Blake,” Jeremy said, changing the subject. “We kind of screwed that guy over. He lost half his hockey team, or is about to, right?”

  “He’ll get more playing time then,” Spike said with a shrug.

  “Nah, we owe him. He dropped me off at the hospital, remember?”

  “What do we do? We can’t get him more players this late, can we?” Hazel asked.

  “Not this season. You’re right. He’ll just have to take advantage of getting more time on the ice. But we can help fill the roster with top players next season. Recruits will be wary after seeing half the team get booted, but we can help top players get accepted who might not otherwise, that kind of thing.”

  “This is why people like you, Cruz,” Hazel said with a little pat on my knee. “You thought they helped get the assault and blackmail charges dropped against you because they’re scared of you, but that’s not it.” She was calling me out for what I’d told her on the beach. Because really, why else would anyone commit perjury for me unless they were scared of me?

  “You’re right Haze, that’s not it,” Drew confirmed from his stool. “You do what’s right. People see that, and they don’t want to see people like the Malones running this town again. They’re gonna support you, Cruz, all of you boys.”