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“I know. After I’m done here, I’m crashing for the night. Amity is due back in an hour, and she’s off tomorrow, so don’t expect to see either of us before lunch.”

“You perhaps. But Amity runs in the morning before the rest of us have even got out of bed. Good luck convincing her to skip it.”

“Luckily for me, she likes my dick more than she does running. And if she skips a workout, well, let’s just say our workout becomes a whole lot more rigorous.”

I chuckle as I take the seat beside him, watching as he sets the laptop on the table and opens it up.

His fingers fly across the keys as he types something, and then the screen lights up. “I found footage of Lil’s attack. It wasn’t easy, what with her getting taken in as a Jane Doe.”

“Safer than carrying ID and having them call my next of kin—something I wasn’t sure I could change without it being flagged, thanks to the friends he has in his pocket.”

We both turn at the sound of Lil’s voice.

She stands in my T-shirt, her legs and feet bare, with her hand on top of Lucy’s head, who sits beside her.

“I woke up, and you were gone,” she says to me.

I walk over and wrap my arms around her, kissing the top of her head before pulling back. “You okay?”

“I honestly don’t know anymore,” she answers before her eyes drift over my shoulder. She bites her lip. “Hi, G,” she whispers.

She tenses when G approaches, but she doesn’t pull away. It isn’t until he’s standing beside me that I loosen my hold, and he pulls her into his arms. I fist my hands, not liking her touching anyone but me. I could just about handle it when she wasn’t mine, but not now.

“You scared the shit out of us. Don’t you ever do that again. You have a problem, come to us. We’re your goddammed family.”

“I didn’t think you’d want me if you knew the truth.”

“Then you seriously underestimated us, Lil. Wait…do you still want to be called Lil?”

Her lips twitch, like she’s finding something funny, but whatever it is goes right over my head.

“Lil’s fine.”

“Okay, good.”

He gives her another hug, which is one too many. I pull her from his arms and lock my arm around her, glaring at him.

“Like that, is it?”

“Yeah, it’s like that.”

G holds up his hands in capitulation. “Alright then. I wish you both the best of luck. None of this shit is going to be easy.”

“Nothing has ever been easy for me, G.” Lil sighs. “I’m not sure I’d know what to do if my life wasn’t always in chaos.”

“I hope one day you get to find out the answer to that.”

“She will,” I tell him emphatically.

“Good. Now, I’ve found the footage of your attack. I don’t know if you’re up for watching, but I can always bring it back when you feel better. It would be good to know if you recognize your attacker.”

“I’m okay. If it gets to be too much, I’ll tell you,” Lil assures him. He looks to me anyway. I give him a small nod to let him know I’ve got her.

We all move back over to the island, only this time I pull out my chair for Lil to sit on. She climbs on and tugs her T-shirt down a little as G leans over and starts playing the video.

“Did some digging once I knew what hospital you were in and your injuries, matched them up to a police report, which gave me a place and an estimated timeline. Here.”

We watch as Lil walks out of a shop with a bag of what looks like groceries. Her head is aimed down, and before she turns her back on the camera, she glances around, likely out of habit, before she starts walking away. She’s gone maybe eight feet when someone slips out from a gap between two buildings, wraps their arm around her neck, and drags her into the gap. She drops the bags, the contents scattering across the ground.