Emergency Contact
Evie
The phone call came after midnight.
I lay curled on my side, scrolling through old photos of her when the screen lit up with an unknown number from the Tarrant County Jail.
I answered on the second ring, heart in my throat.
“Evangeline Mills?” a tired voice asked. “This is Deputy Ramirez. We have a Kade Moore in custody. You’re listed as his emergency contact.”
I sat up so fast the room tilted.
“K-Kade? What happened?” My mind spun with countless possibilities. Murder? Arson?
Kade, what the fuck have you done now?
“Bar fight, ma’am. He’s charged with assault. He’s sober enough for processing, but refused to call anyone else. Bail’s set at two thousand. You can pay it at the downtown facility. He’ll be released tonight if someone comes to pick him up.”
I was already dragging my jeans up my thighs and over my sleep shorts, phone balanced in the crook of my neck and shoulder.
“I’m on my way.”
I rushed out of my dorm and pulled into the parking lot twenty-three minutes later. The lot stood half-empty under sodium lights that turned everything a sickly orange. Ducking my head, I rushed inside.
The desk sergeant barely looked up as I approached and muttered Kade’s name. He extended a hand, took the debit card I offered, and ran it through the machine with a detached boredom I could relate to. I couldn’t imagine much happened at the front desk past one in the morning.
“He’ll be out in fifteen minutes. Go wait in the lobby.”
I took the receipt he handed me from the thermal printer and strode into the lobby, the scent of bleach and old coffee hitting me in the face. A TV bolted high on the wall played muted news as I sat, crossing my legs.
I bit my lip, dragging the edge of my teeth along the fleshy bottom, staring at my hands while I waited, mentally rehearsing what I’d say to the brother I hadn’t seen in almost two years.
The last time I saw him…I’d never forget the flat, cold look in his eyes as he gazed at me across a hospital waiting room similar to the one I sat in now.
Kade strode out looking like hell dragged him over—but still so fucking beautiful it ached to look at him. He was all high cheekbones, almond-shaped eyes narrowed to angry hazel-green slits—one slightly swollen and yellow at the edges—and rich golden-brown skin. Blood crusted the split in his full lower lip, and a fresh cut above his left eyebrow was taped shut with a butterfly bandage. He wore a hoodie torn at the sleeve and jeans ripped at the knees.
He walked toward the desk with a slight limp like he’d taken a boot to the ribs.
He said nothing as he signed the release form and took his property bag, and for several moments, I wondered if he saw me at all.
Then he turned, our eyes locking, and his flared.
He froze before crossing the lobby in four quick strides, like I’d disappear if he took too long.
“You came,” he rasped.
I nodded, rising from my seat. “They called me.”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I didn’t think…”
I glanced away. “We’re still family.” The words sounded hollow and tasted like ash on my tongue. Wordlessly, I brushed past him, and he followed.
We didn’t speak on the drive back to the house. He stared out the window while I stared straight ahead at the road.
When I killed the engine in the driveway, he broke the silence.
“You didn’t have to come.”
I sighed. “Who else would?” My nail scraped at the steering wheel. “Dad still in Europe?”
Kade snorted. “Yup. Fucking his way through a midlife crisis, no doubt. How’s school?”
I didn’t answer right away. The banality and…pretense at normal stabbed at my skin in a way I didn’t have words for.
“Kade—”
“I’m sorry,” he said, and I looked at him, my brows climbing my forehead. “For everything. You didn’t have to bail me out, but you did, and I…fucked up.” The corners of his mouth lifted into a wry grin. “In more ways than one.”
I froze when he leaned over, fingers grasping my chin and his thumb stroking my bottom lip. “I missed you, Evie.” His eyes darkened. “You left me.”
I let out a shuddering breath. “You shut me out.”
He shook his head, something like a sneer twisting his lips. “You were supposed to fight harder—”
I shoved him away, ripping my face out of his hand. “That’s not how it works! You don’t get to—”
He grabbed my face again and crashed his mouth into mine, his tongue slipping past my lips and staking a claim.
I didn’t want to…but I melted against him, letting him lay siege to my mouth like I pissed him off, his fingers digging into my neck, applying pressure to my windpipe.
He nipped my bottom lip, his hazel-green eyes sparkling with a fire I hadn’t seen in months. “No, Evie, you don’t get to do that—pretend you weren’t mine first.” He panted against my mouth. “Before the accident…we were good, weren’t we?” His eyes searched my face, and I nodded after swallowing past a dry throat.
“We can be good again.” He stared at my mouth. “You’ll stay? Just for a little while? I’m…I’m struggling, Eves. Don’t leave me just yet, okay?”
Words danced on my tongue, but looking into his eyes, seeing a pain I recognized, I couldn’t say no.
When our mom died—foster mom—we both lost someone.
And I let him push me away.
He’s right.
I didn’t fight.
But I was eighteen, barely knew a thing about life, and had been in the system so long I couldn’t remember my own parents’ faces.
Losing Meredith was the first time I lost someone I truly cared about, someone I thought would be permanent and around forever.
A child’s dream.
We all think our parents will outlive us because how can we imagine a world without them in it?
“Okay, Kade,” I whispered, closing my eyes. Staying wouldn’t bring her back, but leaving…might break the only family I had left.
