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Four months into this relationship thing, and she still made him feel weird glowing shit in his chest whenever she walked into a room.
Riley Thorn was everything he hadn’t known he wanted. Everything he hadn’t thought he deserved.
The first rule of getting abducted was Don’t let yourself be taken to a second location.
“Anyway, as I was saying, my real name is Beth.”
“I swear to God, Thorn. If you decide to lure one more stalker away, I’m going to lock you in the smelly closet.”
“I’m not letting you go for at least another hour,” Nick decided. “After that, the lecture begins, and for the next week, you can’t be more than ten feet from me at all times.”
“Into every life there comes a special person
whose presence is missed…uhhh…”
“Is this the Beth whose disappearance caused a rift that involved headbutting between Nick and Detective Weber and who was presumed dead until Elanora informed you that she is indeed alive?”
“So, Beth, where the hell have you been for the last six years?”
“So I had amnesia. I woke up with no memory of Harrisburg or Beth Weber or, well, anything. The people I was with insisted that they were my family and that I’d suffered a head injury.”
“Who were the people you were with? Were they the ones who abducted you?” Sesame beamed at him. “I’m so glad you asked, Nicky. The people I was with were the Hemsworths. I thought they were my in-laws.” “Why would you think that?” “Because their son told me we were married.”
“He took me home and introduced me to three boys who called me Mom. There were pictures of us on the walls. I never suspected he was lying.”
“Why did this guy abduct you in the first place?” Josie asked, getting back to the topic at hand.
“Well, it’s all a little fuzzy. But I think it had something to do with me hiring a carpenter here in Harrisburg to do something and then not paying him right away. I must have bumped my head when we were arguing about his invoice. The next thing I knew, I was Sesame Hemsworth and the carpenter was my husband.
“I thought they were mine,” she said. Then she began to wail. “But they weren’t. It was all a lie, and when I finally remembered who I really was, they all packed up and fled to Colombiaaaaaaaa.”
It wasn’t her. It couldn’t be. Not when she’d just shown up of her own free will and announced herself with a confetti cannon.
“I know Nicky’s happy she’s alive, but that woman just paraphrased the plot of Overboard as an explanation for why she’s been missing for six years.”
“You looked for Beth, and I found her,” Riley argued.
Sesame was lying, and Nick wanted to know who she was protecting: herself, her brother, or her abductors.
“I know what I want out of life. I’m not going to apologize for it or wait
around on someone else to support me. I’m going to work for it. And someday, when it pays off, it’ll all be worth it.” “So what do you want?” Riley asked. “Simple. I want to be rich and famous and loved by everyone.”
“There’s no such thing. You dress to suit your mood and personality. If your outfit is better than everyone else’s, then that’s their problem, not yours.”
“So six years pretend-married to a stranger. What was that
like? Was it horrible? Did you throw all his shit out on the lawn when you found out what he’d done? Did you drive his car through the garage door?”
“Just once for me. I thought he loved me. But when the chips were down and he had to choose, he chose his family over me.” “I’m sorry to hear that,” Riley said.
“No, Thorn. I didn’t fuck up and get Beth abducted or ‘disappeared’ or murdered. Her leaving had nothing to do with me. She met a guy who burned down a warehouse.
“I didn’t miss any signs. I didn’t misread a threat. I didn’t put her in harm’s way. I didn’t fuck up.”
“I lost everything when I divorced Griffin. My job. My home. My car. Everything. And then I fell in love with you, and everything was great while there were murders to solve, but the second you found out Beth wasn’t dead, you put it all on hold.”
But I went all in on you. I work for you. I bought a house with you. We’re sharing a life, and you put that life at risk without so much as discussing it with me. Now all I can think about is that I jumped in too fast, and
“Don’t think for one second that I don’t know how fucking lucky I am to have you, Riley,”
Nick was snoring softly, curled around her in a hot, hard, naked ball of sexiness.
“I believe in you, Riley Thorn. We will get through this together.”
“Riley. Ry-Ry. Rye Bread. You’re a good girl. A goody-two-shoes. Josie and I are the kind of girls who spent our teenage years crafting elaborate schemes to get away with all kinds of shit. You know I love you, but you wouldn’t know a good revenge plan if…”
“Did you guys know you’re under surveillance?” “Seriously?” Nick snapped. “There’s an unmarked car parked next door with a pair of heads with binoculars,” Josie explained.
“Where the hell have you been? I’ve been worried sick in the ten seconds since I woke up and Brian said you guys didn’t come home last night.”
I did find a list of corporate officers. Lurlene and Royce Lionworth and Sesame and Tommy Hemsworth.”
“Did we kiss? Did we kiss?” Jasmine repeated. “I gave you the best kiss of your sad life to piss off your mother, and you ask if we kissed.” “I was drunk! What vials? What fire?”
“I’m going to ask one more time about the vials and the fire, and if someone doesn’t answer me, I’m going to start arresting people,” Weber announced.
“There isn’t enough ibuprofen in the world to make me feel better about my life right now,” Weber lamented.
I swear, I should have divorced your dumb ass years ago.” The man sneered. “Well, good news for you because my cousin Otis never got ordained, so we ain’t never been married.”
“None for me,” Josie said. Her expression was unreadable, but Riley got a little nudge from the beyond. The smirk on Brian’s face confirmed it. “No!” Riley said, then clamped her hand over her mouth. “No, what?” Nick asked. Josie shrugged, pretending to be blasé. “Yeah. Looks like I won’t be drinking for a while.” “Why? You on some weird diet?” Nick asked.
“If eating for two is some weird diet, then yes,” Brian said.
