Page 127 of Wicked Sin

“We’re going to rectify that. One little hidden treasure at a time. Careful here.” The sun is setting, and it’s glorious. I’m not watching where I’m stepping, but it’s okay because Luke is watching for me.

He sits on a log someone dragged down to the beach, and I sit in front of him, leaning my head against his knee.

We watch the sun set over the ocean, and as darkness sets in, the waves get rougher.

“A penny for your thoughts,” he murmurs.

I take a deep breath. “I was thinking I feel like the ocean right now. Stormy and full of churn. I’m like the ocean inside, but with the sound turned off. All the roiling around inside and I still feel numb.”

“That’s normal.”

“I know that. And yet I don’t believe it. It still feels surreal. I thought when I came out here three years ago that I’d gone through my trauma and it was all behind me. Now it’s happened all over again. I was fooling myself, Luke.”

“Or protecting yourself. Retreated to fight another day.”

“I don’t have any more fight left in me.”

“You don’t need to do that ever again.” He strokes my hair. “We can run away if you want. Go into hiding.”

“I thought about that. When I left Washington. Disappearing to an island somewhere.”

“Would you do that now?”

I shake my head, lost in thought as I stare out over the ocean. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because trouble has a way of catching up to you anyway. Might as well stand and fight. I’m just not sure I’m up for the next one.”

40

Luke

I don’t wantthere to be a next fight.

But that’s her call to make, not mine.

“I can’t keep quiet any longer,” Taylor murmurs, her gaze locked in the distance. It’s taken me a long time to realize that’s what she does when she’s thinking. Beautiful mind-ing, I call it now. She looks away from the conversation, from the here and now, and lets her brain churn.

And she sees some amazing things.

She knew I was in trouble from the way a phone conversation ended.

Her whole life, her ability to see in three dimensions has been undervalued. Not valued at all, actually.

I lean in. I could listen to her talk for hours. “About Lively?”

Good thing we have the rest of our lives to discuss anything and everything.

She nods. “And it’s going to have ripple effects. I know that. It’s ironic, actually. I tried to destroy the last administration. Not for any good reason. They were perfectly reasonable politicians, but I needed my out, and that was the path I saw in front of me. I tried to create as much damage as I could. And here, almost by accident, this administration may tumble instead. I don’t want to do that. And maybe I should have because they’re not good people at all.”

“But it’s not who you are anymore. You used to be a chaos agent because it was all you knew. And now it’s not.”

“No.” She turns back to the here, to the now. To the conversation, and me. She gives a beautiful smile. A from-the-soul smile that’s happy and gorgeous. “It’s not.”

“I see you,” I whisper as she stands up and brushes the sand off her legs. “I see how good you are.”

“You helped me realize that.”

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