“Oh my god,” was all she said before she wrapped me up in a hug and I was holding onto her. I hadn’t seen her in almost a year. It seemed so much longer. Devastatingly longer. All the tears I’d been trying to hold back just poured out of me.
“Come on,” Milo said from behind me. “Let’s—give them a minute.”
Some part of my mind didn’t want them to go, but I needed to hold onto Lainey. The one bright, truly good spot in a world I kept trying to escape. Running away from that world didn’t mean leaving her behind. Not when she refused to let me go and followed me.
Followed me.
I pulled back to meet her wet gaze. At least I wasn’t the only one sobbing. But she cried so pretty, and I always looked like someone scrubbed my face raw. That, and I had to keep sniffling or I’d be a snotty mess.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I almost choked on the words trying to push them out.
“Looking for you,” she retorted, then fisted my hands in hers and hauled me back into—where were we? I glanced around at the room with its bed set up on a platform, desk, oversized sofa and bookshelves everywhere. “Are you okay?”
“But—how did you know to come here?” I hadn’t told her about the boys. Not really, or exactly where I was, because I didn’t want my uncle to have any reason to look in her direction.
“Well, it started with a message from your phone. Ended up with me meeting Freddie—where did you find him? He’s nuts. Cute, but nuts.” She dragged me back toward the sofa and sank down on it. I perched next to her, twisting to face her and our knees touched, just adding to the connection. “His friend, tall, blond, very literal, and gorgeous? He was there too.”
Very literal. “Rome?”
Lainey nodded. She gave me a quick sketch of her meeting them and how she insisted they bring her back because she wanted to help find me.
“Wait…” I swiped at the tears on my face. My eyes hurt and so did my throat. “How did you know about Pinetree?” Horror crept through me.
“Oh, sweetie,” Lainey said, squeezing my hand as she propped her elbow against the back of the sofa and braced her head against her fist. Sympathy flickered in her eyes. “I’ve known for a long time. I made Adam help me figure it out, but it’s been a while since he sent you there and you never seemed to really remember it—”
No, I’d remembered. A little. But I kept blocking it out. The white static hummed in the back of my mind and I shook my head. Or maybe I hadn’t remembered because that was what they’d been trying to do.
“Sometimes, you didn’t recognize Adam,” she said, almost gently. “Once it took you a real minute to even remember me.”
That crushed some of the air out of my lungs.
“Sometimes, he can be a real prick, but I was almost sure he was looking for you this time because it’s been months. But when they sent me that message and said you’d gone back…” She shook her head. “Would you leave me somewhere like that?”
“Never.” It wasn’t even a question. “Lainey, I never wanted you to know any of this.”
“It’s your uncle.” It wasn’t even a question and I flinched. “Yeah, you don’t have to answer that. If the fact Adam hates him with the fury of a thousand suns wasn’t a big enough clue, the way he watched you was another. Uncle Fuckbucket is a disgusting toad.”
“I was adopted.” The three words just broke free. “He’s not even my real uncle.” It did not make it better. Not even close. “I’m not actually related to him.”
But that last part?
“Good.” Lainey didn’t need me to explain it. She sniffed, then let go of me for a moment to wipe away her own tears. I glanced around for tissues or something.
As if she read my mind, she stood and crossed to a bathroom I hadn’t even seen hidden in the corner. How long had she been here? She seemed to be right at home. When she came back, she’d already removed the evidence of her tears and held a tissue in her hand, but she passed me the box.
“Lainey... you shouldn’t be here."
“Not happy to see me?”
“Oh shut up, you know I am. I just…”
“Keep trying to push me away to protect me?” The droll observation stabbed me with guilt. She dropped to sit next to me again. “I get it. But have I ever not come when you called?”
No. Not once. “You never asked me, either.”
“I only ever said if you needed to talk, I was there. I’m still here.”
I sighed and shifted so I could lean back against the sofa. Staring up, the lights across the ceiling reminded me of Jasper’s room. Stars, everywhere, even if the actual lamps turned on in the room gave it this cozy atmosphere.
Whose room was this?
“So much has happened,” I whispered. “I don’t even know where to begin.” Or if I wanted to try. “A part of me just wants to forget.” I’d been trying to forget forever. For a little while, here, I’d actually begun to let that ugly part of my life go and then…
“Then tell me something good,” she suggested. “Tell me about that pretty boy brother of yours.”
Pretty boy? I blinked and glanced at her. A flush touched her cheeks and I raised my eyebrows. Was this Milo’s room?
“Do I want to know?” was what I asked. Lainey didn’t talk about guys that much. Well, she talked about Adam and Ezra—oh hell, I needed to tell her about Adam. That seemed like a million years ago and at the same time, he made her crazy. He also hurt her and when he did that, it made me want to kick him in the nuts.
Considering Liam’s training, I could probably do it now.
“He’s stubborn, annoying, bossy as hell, and he adores you. So, he has at least one admirable quality.” The last was offered almost grudgingly. “To be fair, he only locked me up when I said I would go after you at Pinetree myself when they told me I wasn’t invited on their little rescue plan.”
Wait— “They locked you up?”
“It’s fine,” she said and I stared at her. “Okay, it’s not fine. But let it go, for right now? Okay?”
“Kidnapping you is not okay.” It really wasn’t.
“Is it kidnapping when I insisted on coming back with them?” The question gave me a moment of pause. “I mean, I kind of insisted, then I refused to tell them anything unless they brought me back here.”
“So, Freddie and Rome just brought you back here?”
“Yes.”
“But Milo locked you up?”
“Technically.”
Technically. When she glanced away and the flush left her cheeks pink, I frowned. “Are you okay? Really? Cause if you’re not, I’ll go kick his ass. Liam’s been showing me how.” The disconnect and distance seemed to all be collapsing at once.
Lainey was the one person who had always been there. From everything they said, Milo and the guys had been too, but I hadn’t known about them. She’d been my family, better than family, for as long as I could remember.
“I will hurt him,” I promised her. I didn’t want to. “I mean, I kind of like him and he’s pushy and overbearing and absolutely annoying when it comes to growling at everyone around me. But he cares…” That meant something.