Page 134 of The Complete Truth Duet
After Penn had ordered an army’s worth of Chinese food, we’d all gathered around the island, forks in hand, and devoured it—sans plates.
I’d received countless hugs from Savannah and Isabel, while River had mainly kept to herself, that is if you didn’t count the way she never tore her suspicious gaze off Penn. At first, I’d thought she was just shocked to see him again, but the longer I watched her watching him, I got the feeling that she was living by the “keep your enemies close” theory. I couldn’t blame her. My implicit trust in him had vanished too, but for her sake, I’d smiled as we’d all piled onto the couches with full bellies.
Not long after, the girls had one by one wandered down the hall to Savannah’s room and shut the door. They were still awake—hence the whisper-yells. But the “what to do with Thomas Lyons” conversation was in full effect.
Drew wanted to kill him.
Catalina wanted to send him to jail for the rest of his life.
Penn had been quiet, but he’d been clenching his teeth to the point that I’d wanted to Google nearby emergency dentists just in case.
And I… Well, I sat there in my new constant state of being: confusion.
“Under your sun?” Catalina snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. “Who died and left you the universe?”
“My sister,” he snarled.
Catalina’s eyes narrowed on him. “Then you know that death is too good for a vile, self-absorbed piece of shit like that. I want him to rot in a cell, with fear terrorizing him the way he made sure it terrorized me. I want him to wake up every morning wondering if it’s his last. I want him to pause, his palms sweating and his heart racing, before he walks around a corner. Every time a person passes him, I want his stomach to spasm while waiting for the blow to land in his gut. And God willing, I want there to be a man who teaches him the same way that he taught me that no doesn’t ever mean no. Too many nights, I lay in bed until the sun rose, my mind tormenting me with every possible scenario of what would happen when he found me. Sometimes I’d even manage to fall asleep only to wake up screaming at the top of my lungs when the fear followed me into slumber. I want all of that for him, because for fourteen fucking years—fourteen years, Drew—I’ve lived like that. It’s his turn now.”
He cracked his neck and shoved off the wall. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he’s good and scared before I slit his throat.”
We were all coming at this from a dark and desperate place. Our personal pain and anguish were guiding our path.
Catalina had lived in fear—so she wanted Thomas to do the same.
Drew had lost his sister—so he wanted Thomas to lose his life.
And while Penn hadn’t directly stated it yet, I assumed that his reign of terror against his molars each time Catalina would speak meant he disagreed with her. He’d watched his wife be murdered—so he wanted to torture Thomas in the same way.
But I was in an interesting situation. Short of Manuel Guerrero, I hated Thomas Lyons more than anyone left on the Earth. He’d abused my best friend, killed a kind and good woman, and most recently had me arrested and put my daughter into a group home. Whether he ended up in jail or six feet under, it was all fine by me. However, I wasn’t driven by unspeakable loss or blinded by hatred. From where I was sitting, all I could see were three innocent people I cared about allowing their emotions to cloud reality.
I’d done that too many times while trying to escape the Guerreros over the years. I’d gotten so pissed or scared that I’d jumped out of the plane without checking to see if I had a parachute. The truth was taking Thomas down wasn’t going to be as easy as Catalina storming back in and going to the police anymore. He’d proven that when he’d somehow shown up at Catalina’s door, a gun aimed at Drew’s face, two of his lowlife pals pulling up the rear.
Nor was it as easy as Drew and Penn putting him in a grave. Thomas hadn’t gotten to where he was by being outsmarted. Penn had used the element of surprise with Marcos and Dante, but if what Thomas had said earlier about Drew losing his sister was in fact the threat I thought it was, they were already in his crosshairs too.
Tapping my fingers to my palm, I stood up. “Can we have a timeout for a minute?”
All of their scowls softened when they landed on me.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but after tonight, I think we need to figure out plan C. Thomas knows you’re back, Cat. I’d be willing to bet my life that, right now, that man is already working on a preemptive strike against you. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he already had a laundry list of charges and a smear campaign ready for the moment you reemerge.” I turned to look at Drew. “And you. He knows who you are and he’s put two and two together with Lisa.” I turned to Penn. “Which means he’s probably already on to you as well. He’s not going to go down without a fight, and while Thomas is the law, he has never once followed it. It’s going to get bad. He knows the buttons of every person in this room and I have not one doubt he’s going to press all of them in the next few days. So, if we can’t even stop fighting amongst ourselves, we’re hopeless against him.”
