Second Chance

I could only imagine how Jimmy was dealing with this.

We had all been separated the moment we'd arrived at the police station, sat down in separate rooms and (in my case, at least) been asked to wait for somebody to come and speak with us. Two hours had passed already, and still nobody had entered the room. I was growing more and more restless by the second; if I was having issues keeping still, Jimmy was probably bouncing off the walls.

I got up from my seat and started pacing. My legs ached in protest after having remained motionless for so long but I pushed on, needing to get the blood circulating again. I walked the perimetre of the room several times, counting my footsteps as I went. I was on my ninth circuit before the door finally swung open.

My gaze snapped over to the man that entered. Half of me had been expecting (and dreading) the officer that had been on the bus, but it was somebody completely different. He was older, more mature looking, and he wore a suit instead of the uniform I had seen all of the police officers around the place wearing. I couldn't be sure of whether or not this was a good thing. I kept my guard up all the same.

"Ms. Williams," he said in greeting. He gestured to the lone table in the room. "Please, take a seat."

I returned to the chair I had been assigned to when first arriving in the place. The man sat directly across from me, a notebook and pen placed neatly in front of him. I was glad to have the table between us. He was intimidating in a way that Matt could be when he was talking business.

"I'm Detective Stanmore," he introduced himself. "I've been assigned to your case."

"My case?"

"Yes, your case." He opened his notebook up to a fresh page and held his pen at the ready. "We're hoping to have things sorted fairly quickly. Then we can get you on a plane home, no harm done."

Home. Back to Australia, I assumed that was what he meant. But that wasn't my home anymore, no matter how hard I tried to think of it as such. Home had become wherever the guys were. Home is where the heart is - that was what people always said. It had just taken me until now to figure out what it meant.

"Where're the guys?" I asked immediately. "Zacky and the others?"

"Around," Stanmore said vaguely. "Why don't you tell me about them? When did you meet them? How?"

"A few months ago," I replied. "Back in May, when they were on tour in Australia. I..."

I thought back to the very first moment that Zacky had entered my life. It had only been four months since that night, but it seemed like a lifetime ago that he had stepped in and come to my aid. I still felt the relief his interference had brought me. I knew very well that if he hadn't been there, there was very little chance that I would have survived the night.

"I was in the city, running...from my father." Absently, I brushed my hair back behind my ear and stared at the table top. I felt so small under Stanmore's gaze. "He caught up to me in an alley and started beating me."

With every word that I spoke, I could see that he was taking notes.

"That's when I met Zacky. He and his friends were hanging out at a club close by. He'd gone out for a smoke or something and saw what was going on; he came to my rescue."

"He attacked your father."

"He was defending me." I felt the need to reinfoce the fact, to defend Zacky's actions. "He did what he had to do. He only hit him in the face a couple of times, as far as I can remember."

"It may interest you to know that he suffered a broken nose and a fractured eye socket."

Satisfaction shot through me, but I forced myself to keep my expression neutral. It was about time that the bastard had been forced to suffer through even a fraction of what he had put me through.

"He's fine now," Stanmore went on. "He's been worried about you."

At this, I actually snorted.

"He's been worried about me? Yeah. Right." I rolled my eyes. "The man beat the hell outta me on a regular basis. I highly doubt he even cares whether I'm dead or alive."

"He filed a police report the second he realised you were missing. He's been searching for you ever since."

I looked up, meeting his gaze.

"How did you find me?"

I couldn't stop the question from slipping out, and I couldn't prevent it from sounding like an accusation. Stanmore raised an eyebrow; I quickly looked down again, focusing intently on my hands. Perhaps it was better if I didn't speak at all.

"Anonymous tip. Somebody found pictures of you online, with those men, and alerted authorities."

Anonymous tip. Of all things that could have brought our journey to an end, it had been an anonymous tip. It was almost enough to make me want to scream.

"How did they get you out of the country without raising alarm?"

"They didn't kidnap me," I growled. "Matt asked if I'd mind tagging along with them for a while; I told him I was fine with it, and I went willingly. They've never forced me to do anything I don't want to, they've never made me stay. If I wanted to go back to Australia, all I'd have to do is ask. They'd take me back."

"You're sixteen, is that correct?"

"Yes."

"By law, you're still a child." Stanmore set his pen down and gave me his full attention. "They took you away from your home, without permission. They took you out of the country. They can be charged for that. And if things get too serious, they may end up doing time."

"Doing time?" I repeated. "Like...like actually going to jail?"

"Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. Yep."

That was enough to make my blood run cold. It was the last possible thing that I had expected to happen and now it was possible that it was staring the guys in the face.

"But they haven't done anything wrong!"

"Good luck proving that." Stanmore made a few more notes in his book. "If your father was as bad as you say he is, he'd have a criminal record. As it is, he doesn't. Mr. Baker, however, is facing assault charges on top of anything else that comes up."

"I want to see him. All of them."

"I'm afraid I can't permit that." I opened my mouth to argue this point, but he held up a hand to silence me. "Until things get sorted out, you're going to have to keep your distance from them. And with the way that things are going right now, it's likely that you won't be seeing them again."