Page 23 of Restitution

I lift my eyes to his, and he drops to his haunches. “I don’t want to leave you, man. I… We’re a team, you know? There’s no me without you or you without me. How do I… How do I just go away and not fucking worry?”

I grab the back of his neck and press my forehead to his. “I need you to forget about my situation and focus on finding my sister.” I shake him. “Please find her.”

His bottom lip trembles. “Fuck, man. Fuck.”

“Maybe I’ll be standing by your side as the best man at your wedding,” I lie, talking shit to make him laugh. “Get my sister, marry her, fucking give her the life you both deserve, even if she’s a bitch to you half the time.”

I won’t be there – once I do this, there’ll be no reason for me to live.

He snorts. “More than half the time.” A tear slides down his cheek.

There’s a knock at the door, and he grabs my shoulder. Squeezes. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” he says in a low tone. “Because I sure as fuck don’t.”

I yank him into an embrace, slapping his back. “Who the fuck knew you’d be worth two hundred million though?” I laugh, and so does he. “You kept me slightly sane, Base. Thank you.”

He pulls back and wipes his eyes with his good hand. “I’mworth a lot more, just saying.”

We both stand and grab our bags as the guards knock again, heavier and impatient. We step towards the door, and I grab Base once more, hugging my best friend tighter but being careful not to hurt the wound in his chest. I hug him like it’ll be the last time.

“You die, I die,” he whispers.

I can’t say it back.

I pull away and yank the new black material up and over my mouth, concealing the scar that makes everyone flinch. The fabric covers my neck too.

“Can you see it?” I ask Base, and when he shakes his head, I sigh in relief. “Good.”

8

STACEY

What was once Nora’s holiday lodge, where she and Dad used to disappear to for some peace from the hectic combined family, is now what Barry keeps calling the “safe house”.

Technically, it’s mine. Or should be. My parents owned this long before he met Nora. But when he died, she took everything.

A perimeter has been set up around the lodge. Some of Barry’s men, who were once Kade’s, drive around the place, send out drones into the sky and patrol on foot to keep everyone out.

Although Tobias is still a heavily wanted man, still dominating headlines and social media, given all the fake sightings, he couldn’t be any calmer abouthis situation.

He’s a psychopath. An actual one – not just a madman with crazy, obsessive tendencies that people label as a psycho. He thinks differently. He’s been watching us for the past two days like he’s learning the way we greet each other in the morning and how we start conversations. He listens like he’s studying each and every one of us.

When Aria is talking to him, it’s obvious he’s taking in every word like it might be the last time he hears her voice. When she giggles, his eyes light up. He always needs to be beside her too. Always looking at her. Always keeping her the centre of his attention.

A man full of regret for his past mistakes, loving the woman he can never have.

And when she falls asleep on the couch, he stays close before carrying her to her allocated room, across from his.

For someone who doesn’t feel love the way romance novels portray it, he certainly makes her swoon and blush like a teenage crush by just smiling at her. When he laughs at something Ewan says, she beams. And when he starts to blink uncontrollably and knows to remove himself from the room to find a way to hold on to control, she sits with him, silent, just there.

He’s trying so hard to fit in with the rest of us, but all of his meds suddenly gone from his system has brought on paranoia and sleep disturbance.

The guy is about to hit his fifties, yet he works out like he’s in his twenties with insane stamina. He’s forced Ewan to go for a run with him the past two mornings while he also tracks the area, plotting potential escape routes if a situation arises and we need to run. He has muscles on muscles, and his eyes are blue, but not the same shade as his son’s.

Kade has his mother’s eyes. From being so close to him on multiple occasions that play out in my mind when the nights are dark, I remember the flecks of silver in them, iridescent shades of the ocean looking back at me as he tells me we’ll have a family together.

On screen at the auction, those same eyes were empty. He was there but wasn’t. My heart breaks for him. I need him to be okay.

The safe house is in the middle of the woods, surrounded by vast blankets of treetops and beautiful little streams. It’s raining, but everything is a bright, verdant green. When Chris brought me here, I couldn’t properly enjoy the sight, but now, I give myself a few minutes at a time to stare at the vastness of the world and breathe.