My hands fall to my side. Regret punches me in the stomach. I never wanted any of this to affect us. It was naïve of me think she wouldn’t blame me for her father and brother going to prison—but missing? Who would want to kidnap the princess of the Marino crime family? It’s one sure way to end up in an early grave. My worry subsides the smallest amount knowing Mason is still looking for her. Which means Roamyn, Cass and Elias are too.
Lindsey frowns, her lips pursing. “That’s kind of weird, isn’t it?”
I shrug my shoulders. “Yeah. At first, I didn’t expect to hear from her anyway because I knew she was mad at me. But after a while, I started to worry. Honestly, Linds, she can’t be missing like the police say she is. This has Marino written all over it. It’s them we’re talking about. I’ve lost count of the number of times they’ve shipped her off for a week here and a weekend away there because things were, ‘too dangerous.’ It wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve done the same thing now.”
“Yeah, maybe. I’m kind of glad she’s not around anyway. I always liked Adriana but now, God, if they get close to us or get hold of you—”
I cut Lindsey off and reassure her with same crap I keep trying to convince myself with. I don’t believe it. I’m scared to death every single day. But Lindsey and Oliver are my protection. Physically and mentally. Rehab also taught me a lot. Including not letting the past rule my life.
“They won’t. It’s been months. You heard the police. If they were going to try something, I’m sure they would have already. I’m not saying I don’t worry about it all the time because I do, but there has to come a point where we stop letting it rule our lives, right? Now, no more talk about things we can’t fix. We need to talk about you, because even though I know you’re happy to see me and have me home, you still look really sad.”
Lindsey tenses up her shoulders, acting dumb about her moping around after her relationship with Mason ended around the same time our crazy ex-stepfather, Jeremy yet another horrible man from our childhood, came back for revenge on Lindsey because we helped send him to prison a long time ago. He shot Lindsey and Charlotte, Mason’s daughter. I don’t really know what happened from there, all I know is Mason and Lindsey aren’t together now. “What? I’m fine.”
I roll my eyes at her and fold my arms across myself, popping a hip out at the same time. “You’re miserable, Lindsey. Maybe not so much on the outside, but you are on the inside. I can tell. Call it sister intuition. All you do is sit and read freakin’ books all night and watch sappy movies.”
She put my hand up in front of me pointing my forefinger to the roof. “Hey, hold up. One, those stories are for work. And two, you haven’t been here for months. How do you even know what I do at night?”
She screws her face up and I tilt my head. The answer could not be more obvious. I might have been in rehab but not in another world. I’d called Olly and made him promise to keep checking in on her after her and Mason broke up. “Take a guess?”
It takes all but a second for her to realize, and at the same time, we both say, “Oliver.”
She narrows her stare at me and I groan.
“Come on, sis, it’s Saturday night. We need to forget about the men in our lives and have some girly fun. What do you say?” I shuffle through the stuff on my bed for my phone. Feeling it, I grab it up. “I’ll call Cassidy.”
“Ali, your idea of fun and mine are drastically different.” Lindsey grimaces. Had this been five months ago I would have agreed with her.
“Oh, come on. Things are different now. I’ll call Cass. She can come join us and we’ll watch Magic Mike. We’re stocked up on chocolate and tea so we’re good to go.” I beam at her, eyebrows raised high, hands clasping my phone to my chest in a praying position as I give Linds big, round puppy eyes I know she can’t resist. She needs this. I need this. We both do. It beats the hell out of sitting here thinking about the men we love but