Page 68 of Secret Triplets for Christmas

I studied her, wondering the right course of action. “If we give this to the person texting us, all these kids could be scammed. I don’t know about you, but I can’t do that. These kids are going to have a hard enough time when they leave foster care at eighteen. They don’t need fucked up credit to make it impossible for them to survive.”

She nodded, and I was glad to see that she was okay with not handing the papers over. Giving them the person harassing us would make life easier for us, but she didn’t want that. Not at the expense of these kids’ futures. If I hadn’t loved her already, I would have fallen for her then and there.

“So, do we give it to Riker? Maybe he can use it to find out who killed Liam.”

There was a part of me that wanted to do just that. I wanted someone to pay for taking my brother. But another part of me, the part that felt guilty for failing Liam, wanted to make a different choice. “I think we should give it to Agent Marsden.”

“You want to finish what Liam started?”

I nodded. “I owe that to him. Plus, if she can use it to stop the scam, maybe it will lead to his killer.”

“Okay. Let’s give it to Agent Marsden.” She still looked a little keyed up.

“I need a drink. How about you?”

She nodded. “I’m a little shaky.”

“Come sit. I’ll get us a drink.” I led her to the couch and then went to the mini-bar. I grabbed several bottles of whatever was there and two glasses, returning to the couch.

“I’ve got vodka, bourbon, tequila… more vodka.”

“I want the bourbon.”

I opened the little bottle and poured it into a glass. I poured vodka in mine.

I held my glass up, wanting to make a toast, but I wasn’t sure what to say.

She clicked her glass against mine. “Cheers to beers and to Liam. God… how brave he was. I wonder if he was afraid.”

I wasn’t a stranger to guilt, but in this moment, it was different from the usual feeling like I'd betrayed and failed my brother. I’d become so focused on wanting Lindsay, I hadn’t considered what Liam was going through in his last days. I’d thought his erratic and emotional behavior was related to his anger at me for pushing him to leave the crew. But now I had to consider it was fear. He'd put his life on the line, and I had no idea.

“Why didn’t he tell me?” I looked into my vodka, shame filling me.

“I don’t know.”

I felt completely gutted. He didn’t trust me? He didn’t think I’d help him?

The crook of her finger hooked under my chin. “His not telling you isn’t a reflection on you.”

“Isn’t it? If he trusted me, knew that I had his back, he’d have told me.”

“He knew you had his back. Of course, he did. You sacrificed everything for him. If I were to guess, I think he knew he'd disappointed you and he wanted to make it right, prove to you that he could live his potential like you wanted him to.”

“Fucking hell…” I downed my drink.

“What?”

“I shouldn’t have ever been disappointed. What sort of fucked up person am I that—”

“Oliver. Liam made choices that got him in trouble. Nothing you did or didn’t do led to this. He knew that. I know he did. You can’t keep punishing yourself over this. You said you want to move on. You won’t if you don’t forgive Liam and yourself.”

She was right. I brushed my fingers over her cheek. “I want to move on. I want to move on with you. Is that even a possibility?”

Her blue eyes blinked and then looked down. My heart dropped, thinking her answer was no.

“It is, but there are things we need to talk about.”

All I heard was, “It is.” That was all that was important to me. I pulled her to me, kissing her.

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