Page 5 of Dancing With Guilt

“I’ll make you some too. Sorry, I was distracted this morning, and slicing stuff up was about all I could manage.” June took the sting out of the words with a smile. “I’d have preferred pancakes too.”

Lincoln watched his sister prepare the mix for the pancakes but kept looking over at Roxie and Kai. Roxie kept touching him, as if afraid he’d disappear, while Kai watched with a critical gaze. He wanted to be sure Lincoln was alright, to see if he needed medical care, but he’d never ask Lincoln that. Kai cared, and that was all Lincoln needed to know for now. He was home, the only place he wanted to be.

3

Roxie

Roxie prepared for bed with shaky fingers. He was home, thank fuck he was home. Her eyes closed as reality hit her for the millionth time. This wasn’t a dream about to turn into a nightmare, it was real life, and he was home. She glanced at her image in the mirror, noting that the purple streaks in her hair had faded, but she didn’t care.

Her blue eyes sparkled in the light from an overhead lamp, her skin gleaming from the moisturizer she’d applied. It had been days since she’d bothered with that, but now he was back, and they could get back to regular life. She was worried he was so calm, but maybe reality hadn’t sunk in yet? Would he have problems from his time in captivity? Would he have nightmares?

She walked out of the bathroom, determined to give him whatever he needed. Space, time, someone to talk to, anything he needed, she’d give it to him. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw him on the bed, flipping through a menu screen of movies on Netflix.

“There’s never anything worth watching once the new stuff has been watched,” Lincoln said, obviously annoyed. He hit the power button and put the remote down. “I don’t really want to watch anything anyway.”

“I don’t mind if you do.” She smiled as she got into bed with him, sliding over close but not too close. “Whatever you want, Lincoln.”

“I just want to sit here with you and talk about nothing.” He grinned at her, his brown eyes full of mirth. “That’s all I want to do.”

She frowned for a second but wiped it away to smile instead. She’d promised herself she’d tell him all of her secrets, but now wasn’t the time. It could wait, he just needed some peace for the moment. The things she had to tell him might just stress him out too much.

“I can do that.” Roxie shrugged, but another thought made her frown again. “What makes you so sure this is over?”

“This.” Lincoln reached for his phone and showed her the text Kai had sent earlier. “Nathan’s already in police custody, charged with a mile of misdemeanors.”

“What happened?” Roxie asked, her brows furrowed together.

Lincoln explained about the truck and went into further detail. “We have this protocol in place, Kai and the rest of us. Kai’s parents started it when Kai was kidnapped when he was a teenager. Well, his parents put it in place, we’ve expanded on it since we all met when we were at university.”

“Kai was kidnapped? How old was he exactly?” Roxie’s brows couldn’t get any closer together, but they tried. “I didn’t know about that at all.”

“It was when he was a teenager. His parents kept it quiet, out of the papers, paid off the kidnappers, and did the same thing we did today. They set up the kidnappers after they got their son back. Since then, we’ve all had a tracking chip put in here.” Lincoln paused to show her the inside of his left arm, but she didn’t see anything.

“A tracking device? But then, why didn’t Kai use that with you?” Roxie was furious now and pulled away from Lincoln to sit up to glare at him.

“Um, he knew I wouldn’t want that?” Lincoln looked as if he realized he’d made a mistake. He had. “Look, maybe Kai should have told you all that he knew where I was but…”

“But nothing. Motherfucker!” Roxie got out of the bed but turned back to glare at him. “He knew that whole time and didn’t tell us? Fuck!”

“Roxie, I’m sorry. Please, don’t be mad. I’m sure Kai had his reasons for not telling you.”

“Fuck you,” Roxie said and immediately cringed. “Sorry, that was too far.”

“No, I probably deserved it.” He put his hand out for her, but she didn’t take it. She was still upset, but it was fading away.

She sat back down on the bed, her back to him. “I was so scared for you.”

“I know you must have been, Rox, please, let’s not fight. Not tonight.” He pulled her towards him, turning to draw her in between his legs. She leaned back into him with a sigh, and let it go.

“I’m sorry,” she sighed, and meant it. “I shouldn’t be angry about things that happened before me.”

“It’s fine. I’d be mad too if I found out you were taken and could be found sooner, but nobody had done that.” He paused for a second, then went on. “Well, that sounded complicated, but I mean, I know why you’re angry. It’s understandable.”

“Well, at least I know if one of you is taken again, we can find you.” She took in a deep breath and moved to face him. “So, really, tell me about what happened to Kai.”

“It was back in China when he was sixteen. Some people knew he was from a rich family and they took him for ransom. If they hadn’t paid, he’d have probably ended up sold off to a family without a child.” Lincoln frowned but continued. “Since then, we’ve all watched out for each other.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t know about that.” Roxie tilted her head and put her hand out to touch Lincoln’s jaw. He’d shaved and his skin was smooth, just the way she liked it. “Did June know?”