Page 50 of Everything We Found

“You’re in the thick of whatever this is right now, that’s why. Listen, Nadia. There’s a reason you learned how to shoot. A reason why you own a gun. You’re a single woman living alone who didn’t want to be caught defenseless, and you weren’t. You saved yourself, and you saved Thomas, too.” She made a noise like she’d swallowed something sour.

A watery laugh gurgled in Nadia’s throat. “Was that hard for you to admit?”

“So hard. You know how I feel about him. But nobody deserves to be shot at or knifed ormurdered. Thomas included. I’ve been watching the news. They’re reporting he has been relocated to an undisclosed location.”

“His contact at the DEA was the only one who knew where we were.”

There was a long pause, then an equally longooohhhhon Aimee’s end. “Was he the one who— God, Nadia. He told them where you were?” She practically shrieked.

“I know, I know. It just keeps getting worse. Tom isn’t taking it well either. Has there been anything on the news about his mom? Claire’s missing.”

“I didn’t know that. No, nothing. Nothing on James either.”

“I’ll take that as a good sign,” she said, relieved for Thomas. “He’s been trying to reach him.”

“No luck?”

“He’s home, last we heard, but he isn’t taking Thomas’s calls.”

“Want me to try? He might answer my call. Given what’s going on, Iwantto call. Make sure he’s all right.”

“Yeah, that would be great,” Nadia said.

“I’m scared for you,” Aimee said after a moment.

She rubbed her forehead. “Me too.”

“I assume you’re not at the safe house anymore since it was compromised.”

“No, we got out. We’re…” Nadia glanced around the rustic bedroom. It was cozy and quiet, especially now that the water had stopped running in the bathroom. Outside, a horse neighed and another answered. “We’re safe,” she whispered. For now.

“I wish you were home, or here with me.”

“Me, too. But I can’t risk leading these guys to you. I’d never forgive myself.”

“I know you wouldn’t. And as much as I hate to admit it, Thomas is keeping you alive. You’re keeping each other alive. Just go somewhere safe and lie low as long as you need to. Ian and I will be here for you when this is all over.”

Nadia squeezed her eyes shut, knowing that wouldn’t be the case if Aimee discovered exactly how involved she’d been since day one. Though she did take comfort in the fact that the one thing the Hidalgos didn’t have was her phone. It was lying on a hillside somewhere, the screen shattered. They wouldn’t be able to hack into her phone, look at her logs and see who her important people were. As long as she kept her distance from Aimee and her mom, so would the Hidalgos. They wouldn’t know who to go after to get to her, and, in turn, through her toget to Thomas. Because the way it was looking, the cartel was picking off the Donatos one by one. She despised the woman, but prayed Claire would come out of this alive, that she’d be found.

Nadia ended the call when she heard the door into Cammy’s office shut. Thomas had finished using the bathroom. Before she got sucked into a dark head space, she pushed up from the floor and tapped lightly on the bathroom door, cracking it open when there wasn’t an answer. Thomas had left the bathroom steamy. She opened the window partway and wiped down the mirror to peer at her face. Her cheek was still swollen and bruised, the wound crusting over. She gently prodded at the edges before turning on the tub faucet. She showered, dressed in a new pair of jeans and an oversized hoodie over a fitted graphic tee, and when she noticed Thomas wasn’t in his room, she returned to the kitchen in search of something more substantial than shortbread biscuits to munch on.

Their mugs were still on the table, which Nadia took to the sink, her gaze drifting out the window as she washed. An older chestnut mare with a graying muzzle trotted around the paddock, trailing a man jogging the gate’s perimeter, his gait familiar. She leaned closer to the window, realizing it was Thomas. He’d changed out of his black long sleeve into a white undershirt that stretched across his broad shoulders. Whatever he’d been wearing over it was discarded on the fence in the late morning sun. He stopped running and turned back to the horse, who trotted up to him, butting her muzzle against his chest. He laughed and ran a brush over the mare’s gleaming mane. She nickered softly, leaning into his touch.

“That right there is a love affair.”

Nadia startled at having been caught spying on him.

Cammy came up to stand beside her at the window. A ghost of a smile touched her parched lips. “Paciente just adores him. We call her Paci.”

“Looks mutual to me,” she said. Thomas started jogging again, Paci trotting close behind. When he laughed, she felt herself smiling. He was goading the mare, getting her to run after him for a brushing.

“You know, that is a side of Thomas most people don’t get to see. He rarely puts himself first, even when he’s weathering some terrible ordeal. Rare to see him unguarded, especially now with everything going on.”

Nadia glanced at the woman beside her before turning back to watch Thomas again. A longing unlike she’d felt before to learn that side of him Cammy spoke of crept inside her. Jealousy followed the desire. She envied Cammy. She was glad Thomas had someone he could be his whole self with, but she could now admit she wished she was that person.Hisperson.

What had changed her perspective? And why now? He’d been her friend for decades. But hadn’t she always wanted something more with him?

Yes, she had. The wanting had been there all along, buried under layers of guilt, secrecy, and self-preservation. But after two days of running, of sleeping mere walls apart, and watching him carry the weight of their survival on his shoulders, something had unraveled inside her. And she couldn’t pack it back down.