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Nolan: We need to get out of the city.
Lake: It’s been awhile since we’ve been down to the beach house. A littlepura vidasounds good.
I look over at Grant and he nods. A little getaway to Lake’s family’s beach house on the west coast of Costa Rica sounds perfect. No one even knows we have access to a place down there, and it’s fairly remote.
Sawyer: Sounds great. How should we tell Liv?
Lake: Do we need to? Why stress her out?
Grant: I don’t know about you guys but I’m back in her good graces and I’m NOT fucking it up by keeping secrets.
Nolan: Yeah, her thoughts on being kept out of the loop are pretty obvious.
Nolan: NOT A FAN.
Sawyer: Then I guess we tell her when she wakes up today.
Lake: I’ll arrange to have everything ready for us tonight.
“This conversation is going to suck,” Grant says quietly.
“I know. We should only tell her that he’s in town. She doesn’t need to know the specifics of what that asshole said.” My stomach hardens as I think about what he said, how he taunted us.
“He knew exactly what he was doing. Trying to get us riled up to say something stupid and incriminating.”
“It almost worked.” He looks over at me. “I have never wanted to cause another person more pain than I do him.”
“Right. I usually feel fine leaving the killing and torturing to Nolan and Lake, but this time I want to get my hands dirty.”
“Same.” He nods. “We’re all getting a turn to make him hurt.”
A short time later, we’re back up in the apartment. Nolan lets us know that Liv’s in the shower and Lake is in his apartment packing. We have a jet getting ready for departure in two hours, so Grant and Nolan both go to their apartments to start packing.
I grab one of my suitcases and open it on the bench in my closet. Then I grab another suitcase for Liv to borrow. We don’t know how long we’re going to stay down there, so I start pulling for an extended stay.
“Oh no,” Liv says from the closet doorway. “Where are you off to now?”
I turn and smile at her. “Not me,we. We’re all going down to Lake’s family’s beach house in Costa Rica for a while.” I gesture to the suitcase by the door with my head. “That’s for you. When I had my buyer get you clothes, I included all seasons. You should have plenty.”
“Why are we leaving again all of a sudden?” Her tone is suspicious and her eyes wary.
I hesitate for a split second but decide to tell her on my own about Tripp. It might be less overwhelming to hear it with only one of us present. I doubt the guys will take issue with it.
“After the meeting with Grant’s investor, we saw Tripp. He sought us out, asking about you.” I approach her slowly as the news sinks in.
Her skin pales, and her eyes widen. She swallows nervously and looks up at me with big brown eyes. “What’d he say? He knows I’m alive?”
“I think so.” I place my hands on her shoulders and gently rub circles on them. “He didn’t outright say it, and we definitely lied to him. Said we haven’t seen or talked to you in years.”
It looks like she’s going to say something else but stops herself. I wish I knew what was going on inside her mind right now. I can tell by how stiff she is under my hands that she’s thinking a million things all at once.
“What exactly did he say?” She looks at me with a blank gaze that I’m sure she’s mastered after years of abuse.
“A lot of things not worth repeating.” I lean down, so I’m eye level with her. “We’re going to keep you safe, okay? You will always be safe with us.” She glances away, and I redirect her focus back to me with a gentle finger on her jaw. “Say it back to me.”
She blinks a few times as if she’s trying to break through some sort of emotional wall. “You guys are going to keep me safe. I’ll always be safe with you.”
Her voice has a strange mechanical quality to it, but something is better than nothing, and if I have to make her say it all day, every day, I will. I will turn it into her own personal mantra until she believes it.
