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“Well, you’re an amazing cook. This is so good. It’s the first thing I’ve eaten since….well, since everything…that hasn’t turned my stomach. It’s a taste of home,” I admitted. “I guess I needed that.” I smiled at him gratefully before I ate the next overly full forkful.
“I guess that means you’re going to be cooking every night for the foreseeable,” Kailan added with a grin, but Nick just shrugged.
“I’m good with that, if it helps,” he said and I thought I saw the hint of a smile cross his face, but it disappeared so fast I couldn’t be sure.
“Aleks looked into the security at your brother’s office earlier,” Harris spoke up after several moments of us all silently stuffing our faces.
“You did?” I asked hopefully as I looked to Aleks.
“It’s not good news, Evie. Their security is shit. If we call them there, I can’t guarantee it would be safe,” he explained regretfully.
“Then we can’t call them?” I knew I had deflated before them, but I had been clinging to hope all day, only for it to be crushed.
“Not that way. I think the safest way is to mail a burner phone to them, along with a number of another burner we’ll have here. We’ll include a note telling them not to use it anywhere that could be bugged.”
“You think Soloman could have bugged their office? What about their homes?” I gasped as I looked from him to the others.
“The office maybe,” Harris replied. “It’s unlikely he could get into your brothers’ homes. I’m sure they have pretty high-end security.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “No one could get into Livy and the guys’ place, and I think Xander has good security too.” That settled me somewhat. I knew my family were all pretty paranoid about security after everything they went through when Livy was taken not once, but twice. They didn’t take any risks when it came to those they cared about.
“I’ll pick up some burner phones tomorrow and we’ll get things moving. It might take a few days, but we’ll find a way, Evie,” Aleks assured me.
“Thank you. I feel like a terrible person knowing what they’ll be going through right now, all while I’m perfectly safe,” I admitted.
“They’ll understand, sweetheart. Most of all they’ll just be relieved to know you’re safe. That’s all they’ll care about.” Harris smiled, then nodded to my plate, urging me to eat.
I picked up my fork and ate a little more of the delicious chicken enchilada, until I was so full I felt I might burst. It was a feeling that felt strangely alien to me.
“Evie, if you’re feeling up to it I’d like to sit down with you and ask some questions sometime soon,” Nick spoke up just as we were all finished eating. I looked to him with alarm.
“Nick,” Harris growled.
“I’m not going to make anything official,” Nick hurried to add. “I understand why you’re concerned right now and I’m going to do all I can to make sure no one knows you’re here, but I can’t just sit on my hands. I need to start looking into this guy, see if we can identify him. He took new victims last night. That’s faster than he took the others. He’s escalating. He has three girls right now, as we speak,” Nick explained.
“Nick! Fuck man! Cool it!” Kailan barked, but Nick had been right to tell me. I didn’t know Soloman had taken his next three girls, but I needed to know.
All of the blood rushed from my face as I realized that was on me. My fault. I had been too scared to go to the cops with what I knew and now he had killed two girls and kidnapped three more. I knew what they would be suffering at that moment. I knew how he would be torturing them, screaming at them to just say it – to beg for him to end them. All of the pain they were surviving was on me and my cowardice! My selfishness!
I leapt to my feet so fast the chair smashed to the ground behind me. I tripped over the legs as I tried to flee, stumbling, and only just remaining upright as I fled to the front door. The guys were all calling behind me, but I couldn’t stop. I just got the front door open and stepped outside before I threw up violently, everything I had just eaten coming up, as dread and anxiety gripped me.
Harris came out first, followed by Aleks. Kailan, and Nick hovered in the doorway, all of them watching me as I leant my hands against the wall and fought to breathe.
“Fuck!” Harris cursed as he got to my side just as the second round of vomiting kicked off. “Rush, wet a cloth and get some water.”
“Easy honey. You’re okay,” Aleks soothed as he appeared at my side, and I felt his hand rubbing up and down my back as he held my hair back with the other.
By the time the retching stopped my stomach was empty again and all that was coming up was bile. My face was frozen where the icy cold wind whipped at it, cooling the tears that had run down my cheeks, and I was gasping for breath.
Kailan appeared with a warm, wet washcloth which Harris used to wipe my face as Aleks held my back against his front as though he worried I’d collapse alone. Maybe I would. I was shaking again and so cold.
“Let’s get her inside. Nick, light the fire. She’s frozen,” Aleks suggested as he wrapped his arms around me and lifted me up. He carried me inside and settled me on the sofa as Nick worked to light the already laid fire in the fireplace.
Kailan reappeared with a thick, fluffy blanket which he draped over me. Harris sat at my side and grabbed my hand rubbing it between his own warmer ones.
“Deep breaths now, sweetheart. We’ve got you. You’re safe here,” he soothed.
Aleks was seated at my other side, his arm still around me and the heat of his body pressed into my shivering side. Kailan and Nick sat on the coffee table before me, all of them watching me with worry as I just spiraled deeper and deeper right back into the darkness I had spent the last twenty-four hours clawing my way out of.
