Page 86 of Love and the Laws of Motion
Livie’s skin prickled with apprehension.“What do you mean?”
“These guys, they were, I guess you’d classify them as terrorists?It depends on which government you ask.Anyway, they approached me to do some work, some highlyillegalwork, which I refused.But they thought they could convince me it was in my own best interest to do their job.”
“How were they going to do that?”
“By kidnapping me.”
Livie stopped moving, her feet frozen as she stared at Nick.He paused and turned back to face her.
Her heart was pounding with horror.“What did they do to you?”She was terrified that whatever he told her next would be indelibly seared on her brain for life.She needed to know and she never wanted to know.
“Not me,” he answered.His eyes were dead and his voice had gone flat.“Christopher.We look a lot alike, and we were both living at home.He went out for a run one morning and he didn’t come back.For two days, we didn’t know what had happened to him.These guys figured out pretty quick that they had the wrong DeSantis brother, so they changed the rules.A couple of days later, they contacted me with their demands.I did the job or they’d kill him.Slowly.”
Livie covered her mouth with her hand.Her eyes stung and her throat ached.“What happened?Did they hurt him?”
Nick scoffed as he turned to the front and started walking again.Livie had no choice but to walk with him, although her body was still frozen with dread.
“These fucking idiots.They tried to extort me because I’m one of the few people on the planet who could do what they wanted.I’m good enough to bring down a fucking government but it never occurred to them I was also good enough to track them down?”
“You found them?”
“I found them in anhour.”He rolled his eyes, disgusted with their incompetence.“My government friends took care of the rest.They got Chris back for me and arrested a tidy little bundle of Interpol’s most wanted as a bonus.”
Livie exhaled for the first time in many minutes.“Chris was okay.”
“Chris was okay,” he echoed, but there was a bitterness to those words that hadn’t been there before, and Livie could begin to guess at what had gone wrong between Nick and his family.
“Your parents must have been terrified,” she said cautiously.
His cheek twitched as he ground his teeth together, his jaw going tight with anger.“Terrified until we knew he was safe.Then they were enraged.It was all my fault, of course.”The words came faster now that he’d finally let them out, tumbling out of him in an angry rush.“My mother couldn’t say enough.I was so reckless, so irresponsible, so selfish.I couldn’t leave well enough alone.I had to push and push, and look what happened as a result.I got myself kicked out of college, I got myself arrested.I nearly got my brother killed.”
“I’m sure she was upset—”
“She said she was sorry they’d failed, that they hadn’t gotten me like they’d planned.”
The words hit her heart like a fist.“Oh, Nick, I’m sure she didn’t mean it—”
“Oh, she meant it—” But he stopped, the anger suddenly draining out of him.“I don’t know.Maybe she didn’t.But at the time, it really felt like she did.So I left.”
“You what?”
“As soon as we got word that the cops had Chris, I packed up my computer and I left.I walked out, threw away my phone, and I disappeared.That was the last time I saw or spoke to any of them.Until tonight.”
“Your mother must have been a wreck.”She remembered Laura DeSantis’s face when she’d mentioned Nick’s name.It was like he’d just come back from the dead.Because for Laura DeSantis, he had.
“Yeah, I get that now.”He shook his head.“She was a mess tonight.Eight years.”He sighed.“She’s been killing herself over this for eight years.I don’t think I was wrong to be pissed, but maybe I shouldn’t have disappeared like that.I should have at least let them know where I was.But honestly, I didn’t think they’d want to know.I didn’t think they’d care.”
“You know they do.”
He looked down at his feet.“Yeah, they do.Chris got married and had a kid.Can you believe that?All this shit happened while I’ve been out there hiding from them.”
“I’m sure they don’t blame you.”They’d reached her house by now, but she paused on the front stoop.Nick didn’t seem in any hurry to go inside and end this conversation.She wondered if he’d ever told anyone what had happened.The way it rushed out of him once he started, she was guessing not.
“No, they don’t blame me for disappearing, they blame themselves.How the hell does that feel even worse?My mother is so fucking grateful that I didn’t spit on her.I mean, what the hell is that?I shouldn’t have been such a dick about it.”
Earlier, she’d told him it wasn’t her place to insert herself into his family, but it seemed like he might be looking forsomeoneto, for someone to tell him it was okay to forgive them.“It’s not too late to fix it, Nick.”
“No, it’s not.I’m...”He paused, drew a deep breath, continued.“I’m going to their place for Thanksgiving tomorrow.”
