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Just a shame my heart was anything but quiet as it raced and thumped, desperate for Lucian to walk back through the door.
I guess that’s why I did the unthinkable and dialed Tristan’s number at 5 p.m. I knew it by heart, like a mantra. He’d been my best friend since I’d met him in his own world of abuse when I ran away from home in my teens, and that kind of bond gets etched into your heart forever… along with their telephone number, it seems. I was justifying it to myself as I heard his line ringing.
“Hello?”
His voice was such a relief I had to let out a breath.
“Tristan!”
“Elaine?! Just… my God! Elaine!”
Hearing the relief in his voice matching my own was absolutely divine. I felt like a kid again as he kept on gushing.
“Oh my fucking God, Elaine! I thought you were dead! Where are you?! Just what the fuck are you doing?!”
And that’s when I told him.
That’s when I began a whole fresh round of pacing, gave a massive sigh and told him everything, friend to friend.
I told him about how the Power Brothers had been coming for me, and I was counting down the days until they wiped me out. I told him how crazy things had been with Lucian Morelli and how I’d hoped he’d wipe me out before the Power Brothers did, since he hated me so damn much.
Only he hadn’t hated me. He couldn’t. Just as I couldn’t hate him.
I told Tristan how I was in the process of ending my own life when Lucian turned up at my apartment and blackmailed me into going along with him, only it hadn’t turned out like that. It had turned out anything but blackmail to get me to stay in Kington Peak.
Tristan listened as I told him the whole crazy story.
I finally poked him for a response when I was done with the bulk of it, needing to hear his voice again.
“Well, does that make sense? Do you get it?”
It was his turn to let out a massive sigh.
“Seriously, Lainey, I’m just so fucking glad you’re still alive that I couldn’t give a fuck who you’re with anymore.”
“You mean that?” I asked him. “You really don’t give a fuck that I’m on the run with Lucian Morelli?”
“No,” he said. “Just stay the fuck alive, will you? Things are insane over here. People asking questions. People looking for you. People wanting to know why the fuck Lucian Morelli was hunting you across NYC.” He paused. “They are saying he did it now, you know? They think he kidnapped and killed you and went on the run for it.”
I couldn’t hold back a smile.
“Yeah, well, he didn’t.”
He sighed again. “Yeah, and I can hear just how gooey you are about the piece of shit. I damn well knew you’d fall for him. From the very moment you told me about him grabbing you at Tinsley’s ball, I knew you’d go crazy over the sonofabitch.”
He wasn’t wrong on that score.
I nearly leapt out of my skin when my cell phone bleeped with a call waiting to come in. My fingers were shaking in an instant as I knew it was him. Lucian. It couldn’t be anyone else.
“Got to go,” I said to Tristan. “I’ll be in touch though.”
“Just don’t come back here!” he told me. “The Constantines and the Morellis are about to start a war, and they’ll take you out. Both families will take you out. I’ve had people from both sides asking me questions.”
I blustered out a fresh chunk of goodbyes and picked up the call from Lucian with a gasp.
“All good,” he said. “On my way back. Pack our things ready to go. Quickly.”
“Ready to go?” I asked. “Ready to go where?!”
“Wait and see,” he replied, and his voice had a dark tease about it.
It gave me shivers of a whole other kind than fear.
With that, he hung up, leaving me hanging.
Hearing he was on his way back was enough of a relief that I dropped down onto the bed, still staring at the screen in shock. I let myself have a minute to collect myself.
All good.
He was alive. Alive and well. Alive and safe.
Thank holy fuck for that.
Pack our things ready to go. Quickly.
A simple enough instruction.
I jumped to attention, scouting around the room to pile everything back into the suitcases. Toiletries, a few crappy clothes that needed washing… barely anything worth keeping. I looked around for his things at the same time, but his suitcases were already organized a damn sight better than mine were. He was a whole lot neater by nature.
He walked in the door twenty minutes later and I nearly bowled him over, I launched myself so hard at him.
It was another wail from me, an exclamation that boomed around the room.
