Page 72 of Hunted Innocence

“Send me that list. I’ll pack a bag,” I say, ending the call.

Chapter Thirty-One

NADINE

“Okay,”Lucille announces as she flops down on my sofa, her eyes wild as she searches mine.

Both Lucille and Colette recently had babies, but they didn’t bring them here today. I’m sure they’re with their fathers. Sometimes, they bring them into the office, and I have to admit it has been nice to have babies around. It hasn’t made me want one less. In fact, I’ve wanted one even more.

Now that I’m in a position to actually move forward with my life and do that type of thing, the only person who I would want a baby with doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore.

“Talk,” Lucille demands.

“Snacks?” Colette calls out.

I watch as she walks over, extending her arms. She’s carrying a wooden cutting board in her hands. She’s actually made a charcuterie board. I can’t believe that she did all of that in the five minutes she’s been here.

“I made it at home and just assembled it here. Don’t look surprised,” Colette mutters as she places it down on the coffee table.

My lips twitch into a smirk. I’m not necessarily surprised, but at the same time, it’s really sweet that she put any effort into my cry for salty and sweet treats to get me through this time. This is a hopefully productive brainstorming session to get my man back.

I feel stupid even thinking that sentence,get my man back. It makes me feel desperate. But I am desperate.So desperate. I don’t want Grayson to disappear. I know that these men will, without a doubt, keep his whereabouts a secret from me if that’s what Grayson wants.

There is a very small window here where I can hopefully shift this around and bring him back. I’m not going to be able to seduce him—I’m not a sexy siren or anything—but I need to do something big.

“Now I put myself on the dark web as a hit, but I don’t think that would work for Grayson,” Lucille begins.

I almost laugh, because she did do that, and it really did work. But she’s right. It wouldn’t for Grayson because he knows that I can take myself off that list if I wanted to. So, that’s not going to work.

Colette’s situation wouldn’t work for me, either. Merrick was caught having sex with her, and there was a whole mafia vibe drama. That is not my case at all. My brother doesn’t care who I sleep with as long as I’m happy. And I’m not a blushing virgin.

Grayson is a completely different beast from Theron and Merrick. Whatever we come up with will have to be unique to him. I’m just not sure what would make him change his mind, his view on me—on us.

“Okay, so we need to figure out what will bring him not only out of hiding but also make him want to get down on his kneesand beg you to marry him or at least make a dozen babies with him,” Lucille says, reaching for a strawberry.

I think that I need something stronger than a strawberry on the sweet meter, like a chocolate cake… the whole thing. I want to drown myself in it. This feels impossible. So damn impossible.

“There’s nothing I could do that would bring him back here,” I whisper.

Colette and Lucille share a glance, but then Lucille leans forward, sliding her tongue along her bottom lip as she pops a cube of cheese into her mouth. I watch as she chews slowly, her mind no doubt working overtime as she thinks about how we’re going to do this.

I have a feeling that this is hopeless and that I’m going to have to move on.

“Could you fake a pregnancy?” Lucille asks.

My eyes widen. “Lucille,” I hiss.

She shrugs. “I mean, you could just say you think you are. It wouldn’t be a whole lie.”

“It would be a whole lie,” I say. “That’s something I don’t want to lie about, and I want him to come back, but I don’t want him to dread it, and I have a feeling that he would be dreading even looking at me if he thought that was the case.”

Colette raises her hand like we’re in a classroom setting before she lowers it and speaks. “What if you said something like you weren’t sure, but you think someone is following you?”

“There are five security savants who work in the same office as us,” I point out the obvious.

“Oh yeah,” she exhales.

This is going to be so much harder than any of us thought. In fact, I think it’s going to be impossible. Grayson is going to slip away, and I don’t think I’ll be able to stop him. He is going to start a whole new life, the one he wants, and I’ll still be here in Nights, sitting behind a desk at Theron’s office, wasting away.

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