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“I know. I won’t.”
I watched as he double- and triple-checked the locks on the main door. Then he walked to the balcony, locked the door, and stood watching for several moments.
“What do you see?”
“Nothing of interest, but I wanted to make sure.”
“You think someone could be watching us?”
“I needed to check.”
He pulled the curtains closed, then started walking around the room looking at shelves and tables and up at the ceiling.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking for cameras. I want to be sure we’re secure here. I requested the villa be swept for me by hotel security, but they could be paid off. And they don’t have Carter’s or his partner, Matteo’s, skill.”
“If we’re in danger here, we should go ahead and fly to New York.”
Worth shook his head. “No. We’re much safer here. We should wait.”
“Do you really think someone would come for us?”
“If they came for my brother, then they might.”
A knot formed in my stomach at the thought. I doubted I’d get any sleep tonight. At least I had Worth. Beck had been all alone.
23
WORTH
Iwas sure Laurie was thinking the same things I was. If we had been paying attention, if we had been in closer communication with Beck, if we hadn’t been so caught up in each other, so unwilling to wait, he might’ve told us. If he’d just come to Aruba instead of taking the internship he didn’t actually need, he wouldn’t be in the cartel’s hands—or maybe we all would be.
He wouldn’t have thought he needed the internship if he hadn’t been trying his whole life to get approval from our parents, to be someone different than the much younger third child our mother never wanted.
He pretended he had it better than me and Nicole because there weren’t any expectations on him, but I knew the fact that his existence was hardly acknowledged hurt him as much as the expectations hurt us. And now—once again—he was a pawn in something I’d gotten into, something I never should have been involved with. Had the cartel spotted him when he’d come to New York wanting to help me, trying to force me to see I needed to take a break and to find a path for myself?
Was I really a terrible person for wanting to walk that new path with Beck’s best friend?
“Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong,” Laurie said.
I frowned at him. “Isn’t that the kind of thing I’m supposed to say to you?”
“There’s no reason we can’t comfort each other. You told me Carter and Matteo were the best, right?”
I nodded.
“They’ll find him.”
I wanted to believe that. I really wanted to believe Beck was alive and safe, hiding somewhere he couldn’t contact us from, but was there really a chance of that?
“I’m so glad he noticed he was being followed. I wouldn’t have expected him to. He has even less experience with this kind of thing than I do.”
“He’s really smart, though, and he’s not a risk taker, not with that kind of risk.”
I nodded. “That’s true, but I’m not sure he’d believe the real level of danger he’s in. I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for my friends.”
“I’m so sorry.” Laurie’s voice broke on those words.
