Page 82 of No More Secrets

She blinks, uncomprehending how Sophie can be here. Why she’s here. Lucas said she was back at Ivy’s. “What are you doing here?”

Commotion behind her draws her attention. She glances around. Police block the end of each aisle. A couple march up the center aisle. Several more toward stage right, toward Lucas.

Her heart pounds in her ears. She rises on shaking legs.

Sophie isn’t here for her.

She spins back to her. “You called the cops on him.”

“I had no choice. Your mom’s been looking for you. She filed a missing person report. The police, your friends, they’ve all been looking for you. They started a hashtag-find-Shiloh campaign. Your mom was on the local news pleading for your safe return.”

That doesn’t make sense. When she ran, her mom was barely coherent enough to know the difference between day and night.

Shiloh glares accusatorily at her. “Ellis sent you, didn’t he?”

Sophie shakes her head, but Shiloh barely notices. Four officers have surrounded Lucas.

“He’ll be fine. They only want to talk with him. They’re just asking him to go with them to the station.”

They aren’t asking. One officer has his cuffs out. Another has his hand on his holstered pistol. Lucas won’t go easily. He hates cops.

An officer grabs at Lucas’s wrist, and Lucas jerks his arm out of reach. He also hates to be touched. He looks wild and scared. He starts yelling at the cops.

Panic consumes Shiloh. “Lucas,” she shouts and runs toward him. “Leave him alone,” she screams at the cops at the same time Sophie grabs her arm, drawing her back. She turns on Sophie. “What are you doing? Let me go. They’re going to hurt him.”

“He’ll be fine. This’ll be over before you know it.”

But the scene has already caught the audience’s attention. People in the middle and back rows stand to see what’s happening. The press swivel their cameras from the stage to Lucas. Jenna notices the commotion and halts Felix’s questioning. He turns to look behind him, asking into the microphone, “What’s going on over there?” If anyone wasn’t looking or yet aware of the police activity below stage right, they are now.

A cop hollers for Lucas to get on his knees. Olivia yells over the noise for them to leave him alone. Jenna gets up from her seat and strides across the stage.

“Let me go.” Shiloh tugs her wrist, but Sophie’s grasp is steadfast. “They’re going to hurt him. He doesn’t like people touching him.”

Sophie’s gaze shoots to Lucas as if she’s just now seeing how this will unfold. Her grasp loosens enough for Shiloh to slip free. Shiloh shoots over to Lucas, calling out to him. They can’t take him away. He’s the only person who can help with her mom. He’s the only one who’ll ensure her safety. The only man she can trust. The first one who’s come close to being anything like a father to her.

Two officers grab his arms and hold him in place. The officer with his hand on his holstered pistol stands before Lucas, ready to aim it at him if Lucas makes a move that would endanger the audience or himself.

“Don’t hurt him. Don’t hurt him,” Shiloh shrieks.

Lucas’s head jerks toward her. Their gazes meet, and his face falls. Tension bleeds out of him. “I’m sorry,” he says, and drops to his knees, giving up the fight. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

36

They come at Lucas from all sides. He should have seen them, but he’d been spellbound watching Lily onstage. He should have anticipated they’d catch up to him, but he didn’t want to break his promise to Shiloh, not when he’s broken so many promises.

The officer in front of him informs him that he’s under arrest for the kidnapping, trafficking, and unlawful harboring of a minor.

“What?” he balks, his stomach dropping to his feet. Where in the universe did they get the idea he was selling Shiloh? Disgust coats his tongue. His heart pounds violently in his chest. He can feel it against his ribs. “That’s bullshit,” he bellows.

“You have the right to remain—”

Lucas doesn’t hear him over the clamor in his head. He barely registers the officer behind him ordering him to put his hands behind his back. When he doesn’t, an officer to his side makes a grab for his wrist. He jerks his arm from him.

“Don’t touch me.” Instinct has him backing away. He bumps into an officer and is pushed forward. He feels their hands on him, and his vision darkens along the edges. He’s not at the Grove. He’s back in the juvenile-detention mess hall. These aren’t the police ordering him to surrender. They’re Morris and his gang. Lucas starts to rage.

“Lucas!”

Somewhere in his brain he picks up Shiloh’s voice. His head jerks in her direction.

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