Page 76 of Cup of Lies

Me: What does Penelope say?

LuLu: Penelope says whatever she thinks I want her to say. I told Mom therapy is a waste of money. We’re not getting anywhere.

Me: At least your therapist isn’t like mine was. She made me feel crazy and pushed prescriptions on me.

Now that I know what lengths Gideon went through to make me forget about the sexual abuse by my own mother, I can’t help but feel like my therapist was a cohort in keeping me in the dark.

LuLu: We talked about Caius a little bit.

This piques my interest.

Me: Oh yeah?

LuLu: I told her I did something behind his back and even though I knew he was mad at me, he still stood up for me. And that it meant a lot to me.

That’s a gross understatement of what truly happened, but Penelope doesn’t need to know LuLu tried to kill her sex trafficker abuser and almost got herself killed in the process. The only reason I was there, directly disobeying Caius’s order to remain at the motel, was that she was going with or without me. I did what I had to do to keep an eye on her.

Me: Caius cares for you.

LuLu: Because he still thinks of me as Calista.

Me: No. He cares for you, LuLu. Like a real little sister. You know that.

LuLu: I do. That’s why I want to come live with you guys. My parents said no.

Me: Want me to talk to them? Maybe you all can come stay for a bit. Koyn and Hadley don’t seem to mind extra guests.

As much as I want to move on with my life with Caius and Kaitlyn, we’re not finished. People are still out there hurting the innocent and only we have the means and knowledge to stop them. We even have a greasy, tattooed, insane army ofmotorcycle men helping us. It’s now or never, no matter how exhausted I am by it all.

I hear Eva calling my name and turn to see her jogging across the field from the clubhouse where she’s staying with us. The concern on her face has me sitting up straight, immediately worried. She’s out of breath when she reaches me.

“What’s wrong?” I demand. “Has Dad found you?”

She shakes her head. “No, I’m pretty sure whatever Koyn did to my phone means it’s untraceable.”

“Grandma, watch this!” Kaitlyn jumps into the pool nearest to us, splashing us both. I’m not mad about it because it cools me off.

“Great job, honey,” Eva says, giving her a pleased grin. “I’ll come swim in a bit as soon as I finish laundry.” She then turns her attention back to me. “It’s Vivienne. She texted me.”

Vivienne only stayed at Stormy and Copper’s for a few days before she vanished. Caius thinks it’s for the best. Understandably, he doesn’t want her near us.

“Let me see,” I mutter as I take her phone to read the text.

Vivienne: I talked her into meeting me. We’re going to a hotel near the airport. Tell the biker dudes they’re going to have to dispose of her body when I finish.

I respond back to her.

Eva: This is Romy. Which hotel? Are you still in Oklahoma?

Theo chooses this moment to exit Koyn’s house. When several of them went on a recon mission, including Caius, he was made to stay back. Halo is his shadow, never letting him far out of sight.

“You have to take me to the airport,” I bark out to Theo. “Hurry. She’s planning to kill Ava. If she does this and bringsattention on us, we may never have our chance to end this. We have to go.”

I rise to my feet and am rewarded with a sharp pain in my back that radiates around my side. Not only am I hot, but I’ve been dealing with these intermittent aches as well. Grimacing, I rub at my stomach and try to ease the pain.

“Let me and Halo handle this, babe,” Theo says, eyebrows scrunching. “You’re about to burst. You need to be resting.”

Ignoring him, I tell Kaitlyn goodbye and make sure Eva’s good with watching her while I’m gone. Then I walk—or maybe it’s more like limp waddle—to the back door. Inside, the air conditioning is heavenly, but I can’t bask in it for long.

---