Page 61 of Everything We Found

He only saw one option if they were ever to live without the threat of death, and even that wasn’t a guarantee. But it was better than running for the rest of their lives.

“Can you get the papers?” he asked Cammy.

“You sure you’re ready? There’s no turning back.”

He gave her a tight nod.

“Yeah, I can get the papers. I can even get you set up at a new location. Just tell me when and where.”

Nadia looked between them. “What papers?”

“New IDs, social security numbers,” Cammy clarified.

“What is she talking about, Tom?”

“You haven’t told her yet?” Cammy asked, accusatory.

“I was about to when you called us in.”

“Told me what? Tom, what’s going on?”

This time, Cammy didn’t wait for him to explain. “You’re going into witness protection.”

19

THOMAS

“We’re what?” Nadia looked accusingly from Cammy to Thomas. He’d been planning behind her back. She wouldn’t have gone along with his idea if he’d proposed it to her on his own. He needed Cammy’s support, her connections. And, he figured, Nadia needed to hear it directly from her, the expert.

He stood motionless as Cammy outlined their next steps, her voice fading into background noise, his attention entirely fixed on Nadia. She barely blinked, her complexion drained of color since the moment Cammy announced his plan. He catalogued every shift in her expression, every detail of her face a record of the damage he was about to cause. And he couldn’t look away from her, even as she stood rigid, her body stiff like a page of fresh ink caught in the rain, suspended between absorption and ruin.

Nadia, he observed, wasn’t easily digesting Cammy’s words either about new identities, relocation protocols, and the permanent nature of their situation—how they’d never be able to contact anyone from their old lives. How they’d need to become entirely different people, almost like what James had gone through. Though Thomas didn’t know which was worse. He andNadia would remember their past lives. They’d be all too aware of what they’d lost and couldn’t keep. Who they’d left behind.

But what struck him most painfully was the subtle quiver of her jaw, the contracting and loosening of her fingers at her sides. She was desperately grasping for control when neither of them really had any.

He’d done this to her. And this wasn’t the first time.

The weight of that realization pressed down on him with crushing force. His entire relationship with her had been built on a series of disruptions he’d caused in her life. He’d manipulated his way into her family’s financial situation so her mother wouldn’t lose their home. He forced her to carry unbearable secrets about Phil’s true parentage, and then about James, knowing full well her friendship with Aimee would strain under the weight of her deception. And now this—the ultimate disruption. He was asking her to abandon everything.

He was the wrecking ball that demolished whatever stability she’d established in her life.

The cruel irony of their situation wasn’t lost on him. What he’d done when they were teens had been to protect her, to keep her safe. To ensure she had opportunities and security. Yet here they were. Her life was in danger precisely because of him. What terrified him most wasn’t the Hidalgos or the prospect of disappearing forever. It was the growing certainty that this time he’d pushed her too far. Because she was looking at him with the vacant stare of someone whose life was unraveling before them.

He’d burn the world down before he’d lose her, but that was the problem. He already had.

As his gaze held hers captive, he registered that Cammy was still speaking. She outlined the steps they’d need to take, the documents they’d receive, the training they’d undergo to assume new identities. “… and while it’ll be an adjustment, the best favor you can do for yourself is to accept that this will be permanent.The sooner the better. The cartel’s reach is long, their memory longer. Even after Ruiz is back in custody or, if we’re lucky, dead, his sons will likely carry on with his vendetta. The feds are fooling themselves thinking they can wipe them off the face of this planet. Cartels like them are two-headed snakes. Chop one off and another grows. They never go away. Do you understand? You won’t ever be truly safe again. You have to disappear.”

He saw the exact moment something in Nadia broke. Her eyes refocused and the color rushed back to her face. Not in relief. She was furious. She took a step backward, then another, her head shaking in short, jerky movements. “No.” The word was quiet and definitive.

“No,” she repeated louder with a tremble of emotion. “I don’t agree to this. Any of this.” She spoke at Cammy but glared at him, eyes blazing. Her rage bored into him, her hatred suffocating him like a plastic bag cutting off his air supply before she spun on her heel and stormed outside, the screen door slamming behind her.

He watched her run down the porch and abruptly stop. Bent over, hugging herself, she screamed. Then she ran.

“You should have told her,” Cammy said in the suddenly silent house.

His head pivoted abruptly to the woman who’d cared for him more than his own mother. “It had to come from you. She wouldn’t have listened to me.” But she was right. He should have tried talking to Nadia sooner.

“Go after her then. This is going to be a hard adjustment on you both. But she needs you right now. Talk her through this.”