Page 53 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

It was done outside the law because our practices didn’t always fall into the abiding.

“What news do we have on Alicia and Lucy’s situation?” River asked, his pitch-black eyes darting to Cash for intel.

Cash scrubbed a meaty palm over his face.

Cash appeared more country than the rest of us, dude wearing worn jeans and a white tee and a cap on his head, brown hair curling out around his ears, though he was covered in just as much ink.

“Motherfucker is definitely digging deep,” he said. “Searching for ways that someone might make themselves disappear.”

A heavy sigh pilfered from River. “You think he knows they’re trying to escape him?”

Otto let go of a disgusted huff. “Of course, that piece of shit knows she split. The things he did to her…”

Venom flashed through Kane’s expression, and he sat back in his chair. Dude looked every bit the beast, tattoos twitching as they crawled across his skin. “Nah, man. Twisted fuck is such a narcissist, no doubt he thinks he’s in the right and he’s gonna have to teach her a lesson when he catches up to her.”

“He’s not gonna fuckin’ catch up to her.” I spat it as I shot forward, a slick of aggression gritting through my teeth. “Won’t let him get anywhere near her.”

Cash shook his head. “He’s got nothing, so I don’t think we have much to worry about. Same as all the rest. He’s gonna dig and the only thing he’s going to come up against are dead ends.”

I inhaled a steadying breath. He was right, but fuck, I couldn’t handle the idea of that prick finding out where Alicia and Lucy were.

“But?” River pressed. Clearly, he knew Cash well.

“Think just as a precaution, we keep Alicia and Lucy at The Sanctuary for another month before we move them.”

They’d start their new lives in Florida. Their identities had already been changed. It wasn’t like we could go around calling them by their real names.

Their appearances had been altered as much as possible. Alicia’s long, light brown hair had been hacked to her shoulders and dyed as dark as possible.

Same as Lucy’s.

Colored contacts for them both.

Dr. Reynolds, our doctor on the inside who took care of the ones under our protection—who was, in fact, not my uncle—had injected a shit ton of filler into Alicia’s face to give it a different shape.

It sucked, but it was the way it had to be.

Everyone nodded, though River said, “Then let’s put it to a vote.”

A round of “Ayes” went up. It wasn’t like any of us would vote against it.

Then River’s attention slanted my way. “This brings us to our next order of business.”

I rocked back in the hard, wooden chair and tried to act as casual as could be when every-fucking-thing about Piper Whittman made me shake.

“Unit B,” he said, making sure we were all on the same page.

“Yup.” I let it go with a lift of my chin.

“You’re proposing that someone outside of Sanctum’s protection stay in one of our units?” he clarified.

Thickness tightened my throat. “Yeah.”

Cash released a harsh breath. “You know the rules, man.”

“And not one of you wouldn’t break this one if you were in my shoes. Doesn’t hurt anything for them to stay there if it’s just sitting vacant.”

Otto’s blue eyes appraised, searching me from across the table.