Page 129 of Lost to Thievery
“About that. Why haven’t I met your parents yet?” I turned back to Grayson. “Why did you never introduce me to Liam? Or Raina? You told me I was family but kept me away from everyone. Grayson, your parents grew up in the town next to mine. You have a vacation home there! Why did you never mention that? If I was really a part of your family, why did you keep me in the dark about your lives?” Tears were streaming down my face.
“The plan was to introduce you to Hunt’s parents after Anderson, then take it from there.”
I sighed heavily. But that plan had changed.
“If it makes you feel any better, it took Grayson a whole year before he trusted me enough to introduce me to Hunt.” Gemma tried to console me again.
It didn’t make me feel better.
“Can we maybe schedule this family dispute for another time?” Liam cut in. “We’re sitting ducks out here.”
Grayson stood and held his hand out to me. His eyes were wary, unsure, wondering if I was going to take his hand. “Just so you know, you already met them. You already met everyone important to us. Except Liam’s family.”
I’ve met Hunt’s parents?
“That does not include Raina, to be clear. We never liked her. Just tolerated her.” Gemma pulled her face.
I snorted and placed my hand in Grayson’s, letting him pull me up. I didn’t miss the triumphant glow in his eyes. “Ilike her. And you’re all going to make sure she gets out of that hell hole.”It was because of me that she was still stuck there. I couldn’t make things better with Owen. Or the team. But I could helpher.
Grayson was the one pulling a face now. “The plan is already set. She dies tomorrow.”
I glared at him, feeling the urge to tackle him to the ground and punch him in his pretty face.
His mouth turned up in a crooked smile and I swallowed hard. “Okay.” He swiped a thumb over my cheek and pressed his lips to my forehead. “Whatever my princess wants,” he whispered.
I pressed myself against him, inhaling his familiar scent, mixed with the salty smell of the ocean. And as he circled his arms tightly around me, I sighed out the breath that had burned in my chest from the moment he was gone. I was still angry and hurt, but with him so close, for the first time in months, the world felt right again.
We walked farther up the beach, carrying our scuba gear until we reached a little beach shack painted in bright colours with a sign that read,Beach Bums Surf and Scuba School. On the door was another sign:Closed for the winter.
A strong whiff of chemicals came flooding out at us as Gemma threw the doors open. Inside was a reception desk and behind it, neatly stored on shelves, were surfboards, wet suits and scuba gear.
“We borrowed their equipment while they are closed. No one will suspect a thing when they get back,” Grayson explained with a wink.
He carefully dropped our scuba masks into a large tub of liquid in the middle of the floor—the origin of the chemical smell.
“So this is how you get rid of all the forensic evidence, hmm?” I turned to Liam. “And you knew all this while patiently swabbing every nook and cranny of all those buildings.”
Liam laughed. “It was a pain in the ass. This stuff eats any biological matter. Not even rat shit can survive it. So don’t touch it.”
Hunter, with a plastic suit that covered him from head to toe, sprayed a fine mist of the chemical over every surface in the shack before we locked it up and made our way up the sandy dunes to one of the beach houses. We didn’t go inside, instead going around to where three cars waited.
Liam dusted the sand from his shoes. “Well, it was nice being part of y’all’s gang and dying and all, but I’m going home to my family now. Don’t call me. I don’t want to see your faces forat leastsix months.”
Gemma chuckled and kissed Liam on the cheek. “Give your girls a hug from me.”
Hunter pulled Liam into a hug, clapping him on the back. “See you around, bud.”
Liam stopped before Grayson and me and shook his head, smiling amusedly.
Grayson held his hand out to Liam. “Thank you, Liam. For protecting her. I owe you.”
It was simple words, but I could feel the gravity of them settle between us. There was nothing Grayson wouldn’t do for Liam now.
Liam smiled, looking at me, then back at Grayson. “I was only returning the favour.” He sighed then, pulling me into a hug. “Don’t beat yourself up too much, okay? Beck will be fine. In time. I’ll keep an eye on him.”
I nodded, swallowing down the damn lump that kept choking me up. “Thanks for saving my life in the park.” How many other times had he saved me that I didn’t know about?
He pulled my hair, his grin not quite reaching his eyes. “Ditto.”
