Her pulse spiked again, but this time from elation. Holy shit. They had them. She had him! He couldn’t possibly explain that away. He was all but admitting it!

“Yes, I suppose you do,” she breathed, trying to school her features. “I think I can agree to your terms.”

He winked. It made her blood turn to ice. “Good girl. You always were smart.”

“Thanks, I think.” She tried to back away from him, but he held firm. Her pulse skyrocketed.

“I’ve always liked you, Olivia. I’m glad we’ve come to an agreement.”

“Me too.” Liv tried again to pull away, but his fingers dug into her lower back. She couldn’t get away without causing a scene.

Royce smiled in a way that suggested she’d just walked into a trap. A burst of adrenaline filled her veins, and the image of a radioactive syringe came to mind. She realized with a sickening dread that she couldn’t even motion to Derek for help. She was facing the wrong way and was hidden in the crowd of other dancers. She could only pray that Noah and Mack were talking to him.

“You know what?” Royce said, his tone way too casual. “In honor of our new truce, I think I’m going to give you some free advice.”

“Let me go,” she whispered.

“I’m concerned about your choice of companionship lately.”

Liv tried to keep a neutral expression, but ice ran through her veins. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Braden Mack, of course.”

Rage made her tremble, her vision blur. “Braden Mack is a thousand times the man you are and always will be. You don’t get to say his name. You don’t even get to think his name.”

“You know what’s funny about that?” Once again, Royce’s face became calm. Frighteningly so. As if she’d just given him the perfect segue. “His name is exactly the problem.”

Mack could hear voices, but they were muted and murky beneath the roaring of blood in his ears. The van was suddenly too small, too hot, too fucking far away from her.

“Dude, are you listening to this?” It might have been Noah who said it, but Mack was too focused on getting through to Liv before it was too late.

“Liv,” he said into the microphone. “Liv, listen to me. Get away from him. Now.”

Her voice through the earpiece was suddenly timid as she spoke to Royce. “Wh-what are you talking about?”

“Liv, please.” Shit. Please, God, she couldn’t find out like this. She couldn’t find out from him. “You have to listen to me.”

Noah leaned into his mic. “Derek, what’s going on in there? Can you see them?”

If Derek answered, Mack didn’t hear. He could only hear Liv. And Royce. And the sound of his entire life crashing down.

Royce’s voice filled the van. “See, that’s what I was afraid of, Olivia. That he didn’t tell you the truth. You should be thanking me for saving you from that . . . that murderer’s son.”

Hop grabbed Mack’s arm. “What the hell is he talking about, Mack?”

Mack shook Hop off and once again tried to plead with Liv. “Babe, please. Listen to me.”

“You’re a fucking liar,” Liv hissed. But the tremble in her voice betrayed her through the microphone.

“Mack is the liar, Olivia.”

Mack’s stomach lurched. He was going to be sick. It couldn’t come out like this. I hate liars. Why hadn’t he told her the truth when he’d had the chance?

“Or should I say McRae? That’s his real name. Braden McRae.”

“Liv, please.” Mack dragged his hands over his hair. Noah was yelling at Derek. Hop was yelling at Mack.

Mack heard none of it as Royce continued. “Son of Josh McRae. Murderer. Wife beater. Serving a life sentence at the Iowa State Penitentiary.”

Liv sounded small when she spoke. “You’re lying. His father is dead.”

“Liv,” Mack tried again. His voice was broken.

“Let me go,” Liv pleaded.

There was a rustling sound and then Royce’s sinister voice. “I always win, Olivia. Always.”

Another rustling sound and then panting. As if she were running.

Mack swallowed hard. “Liv, listen to me.”

“Shit!” That was from Derek.

“What’s going on?” Mack demanded, sweat dripping down his face.

Hop grabbed his arm again. “You sonuvabitch. What fucking lies have you been telling her?”

Mack yelled into the microphone. “Derek, what is happening?”

“She’s leaving. I’m trying to follow.”

Mack crawled to the back doors of the van—

Noah grabbed his arm. “Mack, what are you doing?”

Mack threw open the doors and leaped from the van. “Mack, wait!” Noah yelled. “If he sees you, you’ll blow this entire thing!”

Footsteps pounded behind him as he ran toward the back of the building. Noah grabbed him and swung him around and—what the fuck?—tossed him effortlessly against the wall. Where the hell had that strength come from?

Mack shoved at him. “Get the fuck off me. I have to find Liv.”

Noah grabbed his shoulders and held him against the wall. “She’s gone, man. She left.”

Mack threw Noah’s arms off. “What do you mean she’s gone?”

“Derek said she took off. He doesn’t see her. And you can’t go running in there.”

“I have to talk to her,” Mack said, sinking against the cold brick. “I have to . . . I have to tell her. I have to tell her why.”

Noah bent at the waist, panting. When he stood, he wiped his forearm across his brow. “Get back in the van. That’s all we can do right now.”

No. That wasn’t all he could do. He had to find her. Before he lost her forever.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

It was nearly eleven o’clock when the Uber pulled into Thea’s driveway. The only light in the house was from the master bedroom, which probably meant Thea was still awake and reading. Or having phone sex with Gavin. Either way, Liv regretted having to interrupt.

After ditching the gala, she had driven aimlessly, phone off, heart bleeding. She’d run out of gas just outside of downtown and had called for a car to bring her here. Liv thanked the driver and got out. She glanced up at the house just in time to see the bedroom curtain peel back. At least she wouldn’t have to knock. Her shoes wobbled on the uneven brick sidewalk that led to the front porch. The porch light flickered on when she reached the steps, and then the door swung open.

Thea walked out in a sweatshirt and flannel pajama pants. “Oh my God, where have you been? Everyone is going crazy—oh my God, what’s wrong?”

And then, for the first time in a long while, Liv threw herself into her sister’s arms and burst into tears.

Twenty minutes later, Thea rose from the couch and started to pace. “There has to be a reason he lied.”

“Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters! He didn’t just lie to you. He lied to everyone. There has to be a reason. Don’t you want to give him a chance to tell you why?”

Liv shook her head. “I can’t think right now. I don’t know what I want.” She choked on her own emotion. “I knew better than to fall for him.”

“Yet you did anyway. That should tell you something.”

Yeah. That she was a fucking fool.

Thea sank down next to her on the couch and took her hands. “I know you have a hard time trusting people, but—”

“This isn’t about trust! It’s about how I never seem to be worth the truth!”

Liv shook as the words exploded from her mouth, shocked that she’d actually said it out loud. Thea sank against the couch cushions. “What does that even mean?”

“You’re not worth all this trouble.” Liv whispered. “That’s what he said.”

“Who?”

“Dad.”

Thea shook her head. “When? When did he say that to you?”

“That day when I took the bus to see him.”

Thea’s shoulders slumped with the weight of the memory. The horrible memory of the day Liv ran away at thirteen, hopped on a bus, and showed up at their father’s house for the summer visit he’d promised.

“All those years, he’d been lying to us, telling us that he just didn’t have time or space for us, and instead . . .” She shrugged. “It was a lie. He had a massive house. He just didn’t want to fight with his new wife.” Who’d wanted nothing to do with them. Who’d refused to let them live there or visit.

Thea took Liv’s hands again. “I don’t understand. When did he say—”

“That I’m not worth the trouble? Before he put me back on a bus and sent me home.”

Thea paled. “You said you came home on your own. That he wasn’t even there when you showed up. That she was the only one there.”

“I didn’t want you to know.” Irony brought a sad laugh from her burning chest. “I lied.”

Thea’s face crumpled. “Oh, Liv. I’m so sorry.” And then suddenly rage replaced Thea’s sorrow. “God, I am so sick of us paying the price for our parents’ bullshit.” Thea dropped to her knees in front of Liv. “Listen to me. I almost lost Gavin because of the baggage that they saddled us with. Don’t lose Mack over it too.”

“This is different.”

“How?”

“I—it just is.”

Thea’s eyes managed to convey both pity and disappointment in a single glance. Liv hated both. She looked away. She couldn’t explain something to Thea that she barely understood herself.

Thea’s phone trilled softly with an incoming call. She pulled it from her pocket and looked at the screen. Her eyes immediately flew to Liv’s. “It’s him again.”

Liv’s stomach dropped. “Don’t answer it.”