Page 87 of Three Stepbrothers Save Christmas

“We don’t know. I don’t know if I’m right, but I’m unwilling to take the chance.”

“Henry and Mum are making their way back from Hawaii. They will be here tomorrow evening. By then, we will have taken Verity and gone into hiding,” Ryan says beside me.

“So, what? We are going to leave the country with her?” I ask, looking between the two of them before it clicks. “That’s why you were asking about her passport. So, we can run.”

Travis nods before letting out a deep sigh.

“Like you heard, she hasn’t got one. We can’t find any of her documentation, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it weren’t to ensure that she didn’t run away. Henry has covered all possible scenarios except one.”

“Which is?” I ask.

“Verity falling in love with one or all of you,” Christian answers as he passes Travis a glass of what I’m guessing is bourbon. “When he realised what was happening, he realised that he needed to speed things up and make sure that you didn’t ruin all his best-laid plans,” he adds.

“If we can’t leave the country, what’s the plan?” I ask.

“You go into hiding. We make sure there is no way for him to track you,” Jason says, passing me a drink. “It will be tough, especially as I have no doubt he will get the police involved, but it’s the only way to do it for now.”

“So what? We hide in one of our houses until he decides he’s not going to marry his daughter off?”

“No, our are the first places they will check. The last thing anyone would expect is the O’Reilly’s to help us. As far as everyone is concerned, we still hate each other. So, Christian has offered us a car and one of their safe houses.” Travis looks at me as he leans on his thighs, his hands wrapped around his glass.

“We need to go completely underground. We send messages to clients saying we are unavailable until further notice; we leave our laptops, phones, cars, and anything that could be traced at our houses. Verity won’t be taking part in the last of the performances. I emailed the school saying a family emergency has come up, and she isn’t available until the new year. We are going completely off the grid. There is no phone line, internet connection, or anything at this address. We stay there until we can find out who Henry’s trying to sell our girl to and what we can do to prevent it from happening.”

I stare at Travis for a moment, realising how much we are all willing to give up without a second thought for our girl. If there was ever any doubt about how dedicated we are to her, this will put her mind at ease.

“So why are we here now?” I ask before looking up at Christian. “No offence.”

“None taken,” he shrugs before sitting forward in his own seat.

“To ensure you are properly protected and hidden, some work is being done to the safe house. I’m having one of the companies I use to install CCTV and signal blockers. No one will be able to use any mobile devices in the area. They are also sorting out CCTV and sensor traps surrounding the premises to ensure no one can get near the place without you knowing in advance.”

“You trust this company?” Travis asks. Christian turns and nods.

“If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t trust anyone else with Jasmine’s life.”

“One of the owners used to be my personal guard and has saved my life more than a few times. He and his mates are all ex-US SEALs and know their shit better than anyone,” Jason adds as Christian nods in agreement.

Travis looks at him for a moment before nodding.

“If you trust him, then I will.”

“So, what now?” I ask as Ryan sighs next to me.

“Travis has asked me to see if any of my contacts know of anyone getting married soon. I will contact my guy when I hear something, who will let Travis know. Then we start working out how to get Verity out of it safely,” Christian explains.

“For now, Ryan is going to stay here. You and I return to the house and pack up all our stuff as quickly as possible before running a few errands. There, we will stay until we come to get Verity in the middle of the night,” Travis answers, downing his drink.

“We let Verity have one more night of peace before we rip her world apart tomorrow and take her to the safe house. Then we can do nothing but wait until we work out who is trying to marry our girl.”

I don’t like the sound of any of this. We are relying too much on other people doing things that we should be. But is there any other way? I guess only with time will we see who we can trust and who we can’t.

“Excuse me,” Christian announces as his office phone starts ringing. He walks over to it and picks it up before it can stop.

“O’Reilly.” His head snaps up to look at Travis, whose back straightens. “I’m putting you on loudspeaker; others in the room need to hear this.” He presses a button and places the receiver back on the stand. “Are you still there, McIntire?” he asks.

“I am and have the information you were looking for.” A strong, deep voice fills the room, and I close my eyes, realising one of the most powerful men in the country is speaking to us.

“You know who is looking to marry?”

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