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“Look, I could bullshit you and tell you I’m under the weather and then have Thom call in to say he’ll be working from home, but it isn’t true.”
The other woman laughed. “Do tell! I’m so glad the two of you finally figured out you’re perfect for each other.”
“Geez, who knew everyone was pulling for us? You might have let me know,” groaned Avery.
“Well, it was just us girls and Noah. And Noah only knew because Thom had told him. So, you guys want to take a few days?”
“Yes… if that’s all right.”
“Sure. Now that Baez and Junior are back, we should be fine.”
“Thanks, Mandy.”
“Anytime I can help in the course of true love, I’m ready, willing, and able.”
Feeling more than just a twinge of guilt for putting Mandy unwittingly in the middle of things, Avery hung up. Next up, she had to call Finn. That would be harder. Tap dancing around Finn’s sixth sense wouldn’t be easy or even possible. Avery picked up the phone. No, she was going to have to be honest with her, especially if she was going to win the other woman’s help in getting Zara to join them, not to mention getting Croft to bring in the boys once Avery had time to get to Thom.
“Croft!” came the answer when Avery had dialed Finn.
“Hey, Croft, it’s Avery. Do you always answer Finn’s phone?”
“If she’s got her hands in bread dough, I sure do. What’s up, blondie?”
“Tell her she and Willa need to quit making the rest of us look bad in the Suzy Homemaker contest,” Avery tried to inflect laughter in her voice. “I talked to Zara and Ghazil about colors for the wedding and need her input.”
Just as with Noah, Croft wanted little to nothing to do with the actual planning of the wedding. Both had retreated to simply agreeing to whatever made their intended brides happy. Avery could hear Croft getting Finn.
“Avery, let me step outside.” She heard her do so. “What’s wrong? Zara texted me you said something to Noah about wedding colors when those were decided months ago and now you mentioned Ghazil to Croft. I know he’s handling some of the moving parts of the wedding and is planning to run the show during both our weddings so none of us have to, but she figured you were trying to get a message to us.”
“You know about Thom and me and can probably guess that there is an element of power exchange involved,” Avery said, letting the fear creep into her voice.
“All right,” Finn said after a brief pause. “Now you’re starting to scare me. I thought you were happy about it.”
If Noah was the one that Thom preferred to confide in, it was Croft’s fiancée, Finn, who Avery always went to. “We did—do—I mean, are. Yeah, we finally figured out what apparently a lot of you already had. Finn, this isn’t going to be easy.”
“Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it. If Zara and I need to knock Croft’s and Noah’s heads together to back Thom off, we will.”
“It’s not that. I almost wish it were.” What she had to say was about to hit her friend hard, but Avery could think of no way to soften it. Despite what Finn had said about disowningher brother, Avery knew Christian’s actions still left his sister emotionally reeling. “Finn, I saw Christian today.”
“What? Where? Why hasn’t Thom called the guys together?”
“Because when I saw him, he was with a guy who had a gun pointed at Thom’s head.”
“Holy shit! Is Thom all right… are you?”
“I’m fine and I think Thom is relatively safe for now. But they have him—Fariq and Christian. They kidnapped Thom from my place and have him. They need him for some kind of computer programming. I was tied up and tranq’d, but…”
“Oh, my God, Avery! Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. Most of the grogginess has worn off and doesn’t seem to have had any lasting effects. They arranged for Thom to talk to me so that he knew they didn’t harm me.”
“That makes sense. They need you to leverage Thom. But why are you talking to me and not Noah or Croft?”
“I don’t think sending the team in with guns a-blazing is the best idea. I think a quieter, more surgical strike makes more sense.”
“The old scalpel versus a chainsaw argument?”
“That’s the one,” answered Avery.
