“What about after rehab?” Megan asked. “Our lives are over.”
“No. They’re not over. They’re… different now. But you can start again.”
“And do what?” Megan asked. “All we ever did was con men, then suck and fuck these bastards for our next hits.”
My gut twisted.
Bile rose up my throat.
But I had to stay calm, rational.
“That’s not who you are. Those are things you’ve done. But I know you guys. I know you have a lot to offer. Passions you may have pursued if we hadn’t been running the cons. Diana wanted to be a yoga instructor. You were amazing at doing everyone’s hair. And Emma is a crazy good artist. When you’re ready, I can help you turn those things into a future.”
“What have you been doing?” Diana asked. “For work and just… doing?”
“I had some money that wasn’t stashed here. I’ve been living on that. But I was… sick for a long time. Then I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and I’ve been… learning to manage that. It’s what took me so long after the initial tries to get the copsinvolved in getting these bastards out. That was when I got sick. And everything… changed.”
“Are you okay?” Emma asked.
“God, I haven’t been through anything like what you guys have. I’m fine.”
“You, the control freak extraordinaire,” Megan said with a little twitch of her lips. “It couldn’t be easy not to be in control of your body anymore.”
“It wasn’t. But I should have… come sooner.”
“How? By yourself?” Emma asked. “We love you, and you’re a badass, but you didn’t stand a chance against all of them. You would have been dragged in here with us. Then we never would have gotten out.”
There was a lot of commotion going on outside the kitchen as the guys, I imagined, moved bodies.
“He seemed nice,” Emma said.
“Who? Syn?” I asked.
“Yeah. I mean, he’s young, but he was sweet. Kept holding up his hands like we were rabid dogs.”
“Kinda felt good not to be underestimated all the time,” Megan admitted.
“They’re good men. We’ve been coming every night to the woods to try to get information about these bastards.”
“I knew I saw cameras!” Diana said, looking at the girls likeI told you so. “I thought Roach was getting suspicious that we were going to make a break for it or something.”
“That was us. We have been staying at a hotel and coming over at night. Once we had enough information, we were going to get reinforcements and come in. But then I saw Diana…”
“She flew at Wayne like a wolf pouncing on prey,” Diana told the others, a soft smile playing on her lips.
It was right then that I was sure she was going to be okay. Was it going to be a hard road? Was there going to be a fucktonof healing and therapy? Yeah. But she was going to be alright. I’d make sure of it. I’d make sure all of them would.
We talked for a few more minutes before I excused myself to ‘check in with the guys’ when what I really needed was a minute.
To think, sure.
But more so, to say something to Colter I’d been keeping to myself.
He’d been just as happy and, yes, relieved as I thought he would be, wrapping me up in his big arms and squeezing even though it hurt both of us.
“What do we do while we wait?” I asked. “Should we take the girls back to the hotel? It feels wrong to make them stay here.”
“We only have our three motorcycles,” he said.
