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“I guess,” she whispered.
“I don’t want you doing this anymore,” Liam told her calmly.
It wasn’t like she wanted to do it. She hated that she had to do this.
“The bruises?” he asked.
“I just . . . I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I couldn’t go to my cousin’s wedding,” she blurted out. “I really wanted to, but I couldn’t bear the idea of leaving the grounds, let alone traveling to Texas. I let him down.”
“Lottie,” Nico said on a pained groan.
“Did he tell you that?” Liam asked.
“Of course not. West would never tell me that.”
“Did anyone make you feel like you’d let him down?” Liam queried.
“No, but I feel like that. A failure.”
“You’re not a failure, Lottie. You’re just dealing with shit the only way you know how. In a way that, I’m guessing, gives you a temporary reprieve, am I right?” Liam asked.
“Yes. It doesn’t last. It’s a short-term fix.”
“And you know what the long-term fix is,” Liam prodded.
Of course, she did. But sometimes it was hard to see that far ahead. All she could see was what was right in front of her.
“It’s not something you have to do on your own,” Nico told her.
“What we can’t do is let this continue on,” Liam agreed.
“I don’t understand why. Why do you care?” She felt like she’d said it so many times and they weren’t answering her. “Why are you reacting like this? I’m no one to you.”
Liam gave her an intense look. “I disagree.”
7
Liam knew this wasn’t the time to tell her this.
It was probably the worst time. When she was already upset and completely overwhelmed. Nico was staring at him wide-eyed, obviously thinking the same thing. But the words had burst out of him without real thought.
He had to tell her that she was theirs.
Guilt swirled in his gut. He’d live with this guilt for the rest of his life. The knowledge that her pain was so deep that she harmed herself to get it out. That she bled because of it.
His informant had either kept this information from him or her family had covered it up so well that he hadn’t known.
How could they do that?
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Fuck. He stared at Nico, begging for his help. Yep, he’d dug the hole. And normally, Liam was the problem solver. Only, he tended to solve problems with his fists.
Obviously, this wasn’t that sort of situation.
