Page 95 of Lacey's Fight

No more hiding.

For either of them.

It wasn’t going to be easy for him or Lacey, change never was, but in the end, by hiding they were hurting themselves and everyone around them.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

August 18th

11:28 A.M.

“I’ve decided I am never getting out of bed again,” Lacey declared as she snuggled deeper into her soft mattress and tucked the fluffy blanket tighter around her shoulders.

When she’d gotten back to her apartment last night memories of being tied to the bed at Mervin Matthewson’s farmhouse in New Zealand had threatened to push their way to the surface, but she’d shoved them back down.

Later.

There would be time to deal with everything that had happened later.

For now, she was going to give herself a whole twenty-four hours to just be happy that she was safe and that the man who had hurt her and her sisters had finally been caught and was currently in jail. Well, technically, he was still in the hospital recovering from the beating Ben had given him, but he was under constant police guard and once he was well enough he would be extradited back Stateside.

It was over.

Well, kind of.

Mervin’s mother Mable was still out there, and they knew she had been an active participant in pretty much every crime her son had committed. They needed to find her and arrest her too, but at least the man who haunted her darkest moments was no longer a threat to her or the people she loved.

That deserved a celebration even if it was an in bed one.

“Not even for raspberry pancakes?” Opal held a plate stacked high with her favorite breakfast and moved it about under her nose.

The smell was divine.

“And I can’t have them in bed why?” she asked, managing to snatch one and shoot her big sister a smirk as she took a bite.

“Because there are too many treats,” Ivory replied. “We’ve got muffins, cookies, ice cream, bottles of that juice you love, and fresh raspberries. We don’t eat everything now then it’s either going to go stale or rotten.”

“Wow, you guys really went all out,” she said, touched. They’d had a sleepover last night, all of them piled into her huge king-size bed like they used to do when they had first been rescued. Ivory and Pearl had even left their guys behind for the night so they could celebrate The Master’s capture just the four of them.

“Wasn’t us,” Pearl informed her.

“Huh? Oh. Did the guys stop by while I was taking a bubble bath?” Even though she’d woken at six to go take a nice, long hot bath—apparently her aversion to heat was over already—she’d gotten right back into PJs and bed straight after. “Those SEALs pretend they’re all tough and macho, but they are just a big bunch of softies.”

Opal laughed. “I’ll tell Fox and the guys that when I see them next, I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to know you think they’re big, soft marshmallows.”

“Hey, I never used the word marshmallow,” she protested. The idea of anyone calling Shark, or any of those guys really, a marshmallow made her giggle. They might love the people in their circle with a ferocity to rival any mama bear, but they didn’t want anyone to know just how much they cared. Probably thought it messed with their tough guy images, crazy alpha males.

“I paraphrased,” Opal teased with a shrug.

“It wasn’t the guys either,” Pearl told her.

“Eagle?” After checking in with her at the airfield last night, he and Olivia had flown back to New York, but she could imagine him arranging something sweet like this for her.

“Nope, not Eagle either. No one at Prey,” Pearl said.

“Then who?” Who else did she know? Her entire life revolved around the Oswald family and Prey Security. She knew a lot of people outside of Prey of course, but none of them were close enough that they would even know about her obsession with raspberries let alone go to all the trouble of sending her some. And how would any of them even know that she needed cheering up right now? “The Delta guys?” she threw out another guess, they were just as sweet as any of the Prey guys.

“No, not Ghost’s team,” Pearl said.

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