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“You’ve got a great way of showing it,” she said. “Telling everyone what is going on but me until the last minute.”
“I’m sorry, Grace. I handled this wrong.”
“Yep,” she said. “You did. And now you’ve got to go to work and so do I.”
“That’s it?” he said. “That’s all you’ve got to say?”
“Oh,” she said, “I’ve got a lot to say, but if I do I’ll regret it. For now, I need you to just leave.”
She watched as Lincoln stood up and walked out of her house and she burst into tears like a sissy.
It didn’t seem like there was anything else she could do so she sat down and sobbed over the fact that he felt he could trust everyone but her with this knowledge.
That she didn’t even know the man she loved.
38
MOVE ON
“Can I do the talking?” Lincoln asked Hunter and Hailey when he shut the helicopter off. They’d just landed at his parents’ house and he was going to take his mother’s car to see Lara. She knew he was coming. He’d reached out and asked if they could meet.
“I’d prefer to do it all,” Hailey said.
“I know. The fact you’re with me and Hunter, she thinks she’s getting something out of this.”
“Why would she think that?” Hunter asked, frowning. “I know what it’s like for someone to try to blackmail my family.”
Lincoln remembered when Kayla’s mother attempted to cause problems years ago too. He supposed this was just one more thing that Grace’s family had to go through.
“I know,” he said. “But it’s the only way I could get her to see me. Was to allude to the fact we were willing to negotiate.”
“She’s not getting a dime,” Hailey said. “She’s lucky I don’t show up with the police. And you know damn well I’ll be recording this.”
He sighed. “Yeah. You told me the plan.”
Griffin had put recording devices on Hailey’s purse and another on Lincoln’s sunglasses. He was never without them. He hated that the family would know what was being said, but there was no other way to end this in his eyes.
All he wanted to do was move on with his life. It seemed as if the past was always running on his heels though.
His mother came walking over to him and gave him a big hug. “Here are my keys,” his mother said. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Mom, Dad, this is Hunter Bond and his sister, Hailey Bond Knight. They are Grace’s cousins. Hunter is also Grace’s boss.”
“Her cousin,” Hunter said, shaking his parents’ hands. “The boss is a formality.”
“I’m so sorry to have caused any trouble,” his mother said.
“You didn’t cause any trouble,” his father said. “All we’ve done is mind our own business. The same as Lincoln. Things like this happen in life and there isn’t much we can do about it.”
“No,” Lincoln said. “I wish there was. I’m hoping to end it now.”
“If there are more problems after we leave,” Hailey said, handing them a card, “I want you to call me directly. We’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”
Lincoln shouldn’t have been surprised by that offer, but was. His mother nodded her head and he kissed her on the cheek.
“We’ll be back soon,” he said.
He took the keys to his mother’s SUV and then drove them the twenty minutes into town and to Lara’s parents’ house.
