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“Thanks, buddy. Have you talked to Levi and Ash?”
“They’ll be here in the morning.”
He made himself scarce as Hannah rounded the corner, her eyes red and puffy from crying.
I held my arms out to her. “Hey.”
She came toward me, then stopped. “Why are you out of the chair?”
I pulled her to my chest. “Don’t we have bigger things to worry about?”
Lauren came in, looking exhausted as she unwrapped her scarf. “Where’s Gabe?”
“He’s in the office, on the phone with his lawyer.”
“Okay.” Lauren’s gaze briefly met mine, then she looked pointedly at Hannah. “Hannah, you should get some rest—this has been a terrible shock. Have you heard from Fiona again?”
“No.” Hannah’s voice came out muffled against my chest. “Just that last text.”
“What did she say?” I asked.
“She wanted to tell us about Jim.” Hannah shook her head against me. “I can’t believe this is happening again. I can’t believe Li Na killed Fiona’s husband.”
I wrapped my arms around her. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Nothing’s okay!” Hannah started crying. “They were married for fifteen years! They have two little girls!”
Lauren’s face twisted with worry as she watched her sister. “Can I help?”
Hannah abruptly stopped crying and pulled back from me. She wiped her face roughly as she turned to her sister. “You just need to stay safe. We should all get some sleep, not just me—tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”
“Levi and Ash will be here first thing in the morning,” I told them. “We’ll get everyone together and have a debrief.”
“That’s good,” Lauren said. “We’re going to need to send a team to Protocol, and another team to watch Fiona and her girls.”
Hannah shivered. “The poor things.”
Lauren hugged her briefly, giving me another worried look as they embraced. She didn’t have to say anything—I understood. She was concerned about Hannah, that this was too much for her little sister to bear.
Hannah pulled back from the embrace, but she still gripped Lauren’s shoulders. “We’re going to make her go away this time. She can’t keep doing this.”
Lauren blinked. She looked as though there were a million things she wanted to say, but she bit back the words.
Hannah turned to me. “I’m going to take a quick shower and go to bed. Are you coming?” Her gaze flicked briefly to the abandoned wheelchair.
“In a minute.”
She opened her mouth and then closed it—probably about the chair—and then headed to our room.
Lauren started talking as soon as Hannah was out of earshot. “This is too much for her. Fiona is her friend, and we just saw her and talked to her. I don’t know what this is going to do to her. We just got her back from those animals, and she’s still so raw. I know she’s trying to hold it all together—”
“She is holding it all together. She’s tough. Maybe she’s too tough.”
Lauren went instantly on alert. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I think she’s dealing with all of this too well. I think she’s holding stuff inside, and I don’t know what to do to help her.”
“Has she said anything?”
