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"Will you calm down? You have my word I won't say anything. There's actually something I want to talk to you about." He lowered his voice and smiled at his wife before stepping into us.

Clutching onto the reassurance of his words, I let myself breathe a little.

"I caught the guy," he disclosed.

"What?!" My eyes flew open and I shut my lips back together, my pulse drumming against my fucking brain.

"Look, man. What I said... it was out of anger and desperation. I wasn't thinking straight," Ethan rushed, the red veins popping up in the white of his eyes. "Please tell me you didn't."

Eric went pale and slapped his hand over his mouth. Matt paced away from the group and hesitated before coming back as if not wanting to hear anything that would make him an accomplice.

"Relax. I didn't expect this reaction, to be honest. I thought you'd be more thrilled," he tensed.

"You thought we'd be thrilled to know you killed a guy!" I whispered, wheezing on my last words.

"Are you forgetting that Mr. Insanity here nearly fucking killed Marco?" Tyler gestured to Ethan who went red all over.

"That was different," I argued, unsure if it was.

If Ethan wasn't stopped by Tyler, he'd have killed someone in a rage. I still shuddered at that. It's funny how long we can know someone and not know them at all. I wasn't innocent either; I broke into Terry's girlfriend's place. No one got hurt, though. And isn't there a difference between someone who kills for fun and someone who loses control of themselves? I mean, Tyler had no reason to go after the kidnapper after Lily was caught. He did that for him, and if he killed that man, he couldn't put that on us. He could've turned him into the police.

"Sure it is. Anyhow, the fucker is still alive. For now." He curled his lip at us in disappointment when my breath escaped me in a rush.

"Oh, thank goodness," I steadied myself. "Okay, so you're going to take him in?" I asked.

He twisted his lips in contemplation. "That depends on you. I thought you'd also like to know what else I found out."

"What's that?" Eric snapped his impatience.

Tyler's lips tilted up as if he was about to deliver irresistible information, but changed his mind. "Now, I'm thinking you don't deserve to know. And I'm beginning to wonder if telling you this will put me at risk. You don't want to mess around with me." His gaze chilled us to the bones.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't tell us," I swallowed.

"What is it?" Ethan took a breath.

Something was telling me to walk away from this conversation, slap my hands over my ears and yell 'La, la, la' like a little kid. But my feet were frozen against the hammering of my heart and the drying of my mouth.

"He let it slip that her father was involved in the whole kidnapping and blackmailing scheme," Tyler offered.

Another wave of relief poured through me. That wasn't news. We already knew that. I keep expecting the worst, maybe I just need to relax...

"And I have him as well," Tyler interrupted my thoughts with his finisher. I should've walked away.

"What are you planning on doing with them?" Ethan asked.

"Now, see. I was planning on having my own kind of fun with them, but I thought it would be selfish to leave you all out," Tyler smiled.

"No, you should've been selfish. You should've left us out. What you're doing is evil..." I said, knowing I had a moral responsibility to report this, and also knowing that I wouldn't, because I couldn't.

"You're the ones who came to me. You wanted this," he said, with the voice of the devil.

"No, you're the one who showed up here and volunteered," I countered, as if that made a difference.

"Well, you still knew what you were getting into. You accepted my offer." He shut down my argument, or attempted to.

"Because you manipulated us," I fought a losing battle.

I wasn't innocent. I knew I had entered into this agreement willingly. But, I prayed, okay? In my desperate moment, when I thought there was no hope left, when Lily's life was in the hands of fate and the outcome could've gone either way, I shut my eyes and I prayed. Now, Lily was home, safe and sound, with nothing but a concussion and a healing head wound. She was otherwise all in one piece, with her mental scarring to last a lifetime, but she had us to help her through that.

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