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“He scared her,” Ed told them.
“Hey, I didn’t say that,” Georgina countered. She straightened her shoulders and glared up at him. Why was she so angry? It was fine to admit that she’d been frightened.
Obviously, she didn’t see it that way.
“He scared you? Oh no, he’ll feel terrible about that,” Isa said. “I’ll go check on him tomorrow.”
Georgina looked over at her. “If he doesn’t want to feel terrible then maybe he shouldn’t manhandle women. Same as Gary.”
“You’ve got to understand,” Kiesha said, squeezing Georgina’s hands. “Loki, he was a marine. He came back a changed person. His last tour, he saw a lot of action, had a lot of friends die. When he returned, he was skinny, and he had PTSD. He was spiraling, out of control. We didn’t know what to do to help him.”
“That’s terrible,” Georgina said, her face softening.
“We tried getting him to talk to a therapist, we tried everything we could think of,” Kiesha told her. “In the end, his friends took him camping. They didn’t come back for three months. And when they did, he was a changed man. He does these crazy things, not because he is crazy. But it’s just his way of dealing with things. Him pretending you were a prize, it’s something he does every so often. We all know about his crazy antics. But you didn’t. I’m sorry you were scared. And he really will feel terrible. It’s almost like a joke gone bad, I guess.”
Georgina frowned.
“What if you were to talk to Loki when he’s not Loki,” Isa asked her gently.
“What? What do you mean?” Georgina asked.
“His name is really Lachlan,” Ed told her.
“I know you’ll think I’m just blowing smoke up your ass, but he really is a good guy,” Isa told her. “But he won’t deal well with the idea that he scared you.”
They all waited for her decision. “All right. I guess I could meet him. And I won’t press charges. A warning is fine. If it was just meant to be a joke . . . but he’s got to promise not to do that anymore. Not even to locals. It’s not something people will understand.”
Isa nodded. “He’ll stop. I promise.”
“Now that’s over, let’s get you all home,” Ed said.
“About time,” Cleo grumbled, standing up. “Ed, these chairs are ridiculously uncomfortable. You need to think about investing in a sofa or something.”
“Strange as it may sound, I don’t really want to encourage people to sleep in my office.” Although at the rate he was going, he’d soon be sleeping here.
Cleo shrugged. “Come on, all of you get in the car.”
“Yeah, there’s no way you’re driving,” Ed told her.
“Why not? I haven’t been drinking!” Cleo gave him an offended look.
“Not saying you have, but you’ve spent the last fifteen minutes snoring so there’s no way you’re driving when you’re that tired.”
“I do not snore! And I was just resting my eyes. I’m fine to drive.”
“Try to drive, and I’ll call O’Ryan.”
She gave an exaggerated gasp. “That’s a low blow. I have a photo of you when you had pimples. You best be nice to me.”
These women. He swore they’d be the death of him.
7
Fear.
He was watching her.
I’m coming for you, Daisy. Then we can be together forever.
