Siren Beloved

Chapter Eight

Aidan heard the sound, knew exactly what it was, and panicked. His mind immediately went to another place. He could smell the scent of gun oil and feel the street under his boots. Fallujah. Watch your step. Mines everywhere. He could feel the buildings shaking from the bombs dropping. He would hear the sound, and then the dark sky would light up briefly as the world shook. The dark of the night was punctuated with the little staccato rhythm of high-powered rifles banging through the air. He could see them going off all around him. At first they looked a little like the fireflies that lit up the night by the pond on his ranch.

God, he was so fucking scared. Why wouldn’t the dog stop barking? He was on the ground dying, and the dog just kept barking.

“What was that?” Lucas’s voice pulled Aidan out of his memory. “Are you okay?”

Aidan was sweating and shaking, and for a moment he had been back in that hellhole looking up at the sky, just knowing it was the last time. What had happened? Gunshot. He’d heard a gunshot.

“Did a car backfire?” Lucas asked, looking around. “Where’s Lexi?”

Aidan ran for the front door. That hadn’t been a car backfiring. He knew the difference. Someone was shooting, and Lexi had stubbornly walked outside. Aidan hadn’t thought a lot of it. She’d needed a bit of space because he’d pushed her, but then he’d heard that sound.

“Lexi?” Lucas shouted her name. Aidan could feel him following right behind.

She was crumpled on the ground outside of her first floor apartment. Aidan felt his heart threaten to burst. He went down on his knees and gathered her into his arms.

“It hurts like a motherfucker,” Lexi said, holding her arm. She turned her face up to Aidan. “I think someone shot me. Why do people always try to kill me? I’m a nice person. I give money to starving babies and properly tip my hairdresser. Why am I the one everyone tries to kill?”

“Where are you hit?” Lucas asked. He knelt in front of them both. Aidan could see what he was doing. He was shielding her with his own body.

“It’s just my arm. It’s nothing big, just a scratch.”

“Come on,” Aidan said, lifting her up. He needed to get them both inside where he could protect them.

The night cracked around him again, and Aidan ducked, covering Lexi and trying to pull Lucas down, too.

“Son of a bitch,” Lucas yelled, and he took off.

Aidan watched in openmouthed horror as Lucas ran towards the tree line of a nearby park.

“Lucas, get your ass back here!” Aidan moved quickly. He hoisted Lexi up and had her inside the house as quickly as his limbs would move. He settled her on the couch and handed her his phone. “Call an ambulance. And tell the cops your break-in just got worse.”

Lexi tried to get up. She winced as she moved her arm, but her eyes were wide with panic. “But Lucas is out there.”

“Yes, and I’m going to get him.” He was painfully aware that he hadn’t heard anything else. There had been no third shot, but that didn’t mean he was going to calm down. Aidan couldn’t calm down until Lucas was safe and over his fucking knee getting the living daylights spanked out of him.

Aidan wished he had a gun. During the time he was in the Army, he’d gotten used to the feel of a gun in his hand. On the ranch, he never went without one. It made him feel safer, but Julian didn’t allow them in The Club. He knew he should take stock of the situation, but Lucas was out there and having god knew what done to him. He didn’t have time if he wanted to save Lucas. He took off running toward the park. He stayed close to the building at first, but then there was no cover to be had. Aidan simply ran. The moonlight illuminated the night, and he saw a shadowy figure standing next to one of the largest of the trees at the edge of the small park.

Lucas turned his face to Aidan. He was pale in the moonlight. He pointed to the cigarette butts on the ground around him. “At least we know he smokes.”

Aidan reached out and grabbed Lucas’s arm. He started back toward the apartment building. He could hear sirens in the distance. At least the impending arrival of the police should scare off whoever had shot at Lexi.

“Hey,” Lucas protested and dug his heels in.

Aidan turned. “Don’t. Don’t you fucking try me right now, Lucas. I’ve been through enough that I’m seriously thinking about starting your punishment right now, and if you keep on pushing me, we’ll be in the middle of the spanking of a lifetime just about when the cops get here. Do you really want that?”

Lucas stared at him for a moment, but when Aidan started to walk again, he went along with it.

Two hours later, Aidan was beginning to calm down. Lexi’s left arm had been grazed. The paramedic had taken care of her, cleaning and dressing the wound and flirting outrageously with her to the point that Aidan had been forced to stare the man down. She hadn’t needed to go to the hospital, which was a damn good thing since Aidan wasn’t about to let her ride alone with the handsome paramedic.

The police had taken statements and promised all sorts of investigation, but Aidan had overheard them talking about the fact that gang violence was on the rise. Aidan wasn’t at all sure about that. First, Lexi’s apartment had been broken into and then someone had taken a shot at her. Aidan just didn’t see how it could be random.

There was only one thing to do. He paced as he thought about how to deliver this particular news to his wayward subs. They sat on the couch, Lexi slumped against Lucas’s shoulder. Lucas had fussed over her the whole time the cops were around, obviously preferring to leave the police business to Aidan. He stroked Lexi’s hair as Aidan paced, but Lucas’s eyes followed him every step he took.

“So, now that we’re calm again, would you like to explain to me why I’m being punished?” There was no real heat in Lucas’s words, merely curiosity.

Aidan felt the heat, though. Now that all the paperwork crap was over, he could finally get back to being really mad. “You ran toward the maniac with the gun, Lucas.”

His brows went up. “Well, when you put it that way, it doesn’t sound like a smart thing to do.”

“Asshole.” Lexi gently punched at him. “You scared the crap out of me. Don’t ever do that again.”

Lucas sighed. “I wasn’t trying to get shot. I was trying to catch the guy.”

“The guy with the gun.” Aidan felt like that should be pointed out. He would never forget the terror he’d felt when Lucas had taken off. “You made yourself an enormous target when you should have been in this apartment, protecting Lexi.”

Now Lucas’s face flushed, and his eyes lowered slightly in apology. “I am sorry about that. I just thought you would protect Lexi.”

“It is my job to protect both of you.”

“No, it’s not. Not anymore,” Lexi grumbled. Her pretty face was scrunched up in a stubborn pout.

“And you,” Aidan began, because she wasn’t off the hook either. “You’re due some punishment, too. Your stubbornness caused this.”

“Did not. My stubbornness doesn’t even own a gun. My stubbornness is a pacifist.”

He would have smiled, if he wasn’t still coming down from the wretched adrenaline high of almost seeing the two loves of his life get cut down by gunfire. “If you had stayed in the apartment, you wouldn’t have been a target. You would have been safe and surrounded by me and Lucas when we left.”

“Great. Then you and Lucas could have been shot.”

Finally she got it. “Yes, a much more acceptable conclusion.”

Lexi sat up, wincing a bit as she did. “That is not a good conclusion. That is a sucky conclusion.”

“Lexi, stop,” Lucas ordered, his voice going hard. Lexi sat back. “Aidan is right. We would much prefer to get shot than watch it happen to you. For the time being, you don’t go anywhere alone.”

“Says the boy who chased after the guy with the gun,” Lexi muttered under her breath.

Lucas reached out and stroked her hand with his. “Well, last year you got in trouble because of me. I can’t let that happen again.”

“You’re talking about what happened with Jeremy?” Aidan asked. He’d heard the story from Julian. A former submissive of Julian’s had tried to drug Lucas. When he’d been found out, Julian had tossed him out. Jeremy Walker had blamed both Julian and Lucas for his misfortunes, and he’d gone after their women. Only Julian’s partner, Finn, had been able to save them. Aidan had nightmares about what could have happened to Lexi. Like he needed another nightmare.

“Yeah,” Lucas said, his face falling. “He wanted to hurt me. He kidnapped Lexi and pumped a bunch of drugs through her system. He was going to kill her. I thought he had when I found her.”

Lexi’s hand curled over Lucas’s.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Aidan believed that. If anything, it had been his because he had been in Iraq getting his ass blown off. It was honorable to serve his country but not when he hadn’t made any arrangements to keep his loves safe. They had been all alone. They had been without a Dom. Now that he really understood, he felt the heavy weight of guilt. He should never have left them. He’d allowed his own need to be accepted by society in general to outweigh the love in his heart. “Lucas, you did the best you could. I’m very proud of you.”

He could see the way Lucas relaxed. Praise meant a lot to him. Lucas had so little of it growing up. Lucas wanted to please. He needed it. He needed this whole D/s thing. It completed him in a way Aidan couldn’t have imagined before he’d gotten involved in the lifestyle. Lexi needed it, too. She would fight, but she needed it.

“Lucas,” Aidan began, “we need to get your punishment out of the way. Present yourself to me. Count of twenty.”

He heard Lucas’s intake of breath. It was sharp and shocked, and yet his skin flushed with arousal. There was so much Lucas needed that he had never gotten. It was the true beauty of the power exchange. He could give Lucas what he needed.

“You don’t have to,” Lexi said.

Aidan felt every muscle in his body still. Lexi had an enormous amount of influence over Lucas. She could guilt him into just about anything. Would she? Lexi had always been so sweet. Had she changed in the years they had been apart?

A little smile curled her mouth up. “You don’t have to take any punishment from him, but I kind of think it would be hot. Not that I like Aidan. He’s still a dick and a half, but you might like it, babe. And I would love to watch you.”

Aidan’s heart swelled. She was a bitch to the end, but god, she was a loving one. His Lexi would never judge or hold another human being to some meaningless standard. She’d given Lucas permission to be who he was.

“Well, I did sign a contract.” Lucas stood, and his hands were on his pants. He pushed his leathers down to his knees. He turned and presented his ass to his Dom.

It was all Aidan could do not to drool. Lucas Cameron was masculine perfection. His cheeks were muscled. He had a tan line that spoke of his modesty. Aidan liked it because he didn’t want anyone else looking at what he considered his. Lucas was his. Lexi was his. He could handle people looking at their bodies in a club where everyone knew the rules, but the private thing had its glories, too.

“Count it out, sub.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Aidan began. His hand rained down on the cheeks of Lucas’s ass. Lucas’s voice rang out. There was no small amount of pride in his count. Aidan pulled his hand back, loving the feel of the crack on Lucas’s flesh. His ass took a pounding with grace and glory. His flesh pinkened up beautifully.

Lexi leaned forward, watching as Aidan struck Lucas’s cheeks over and over.

“Fifteen.” Lucas’s ass actually wiggled a bit as though he was trying to tempt him in.

God, Aidan would love that. He could still remember the tight clench of that gorgeous asshole on his dick. Lucas’s ass had been the hottest hole he’d ever sunk his cock into. But he had a point to make. He slapped that ass again and again until Lucas finally called out, “Twenty.”

Aidan stopped and realized his breath was choppy. His cock was at full-mast, straining against his pants.

Lexi’s eyes had glazed over. She was watching Lucas’s exposed flesh with a diligence that made Aidan’s breath catch. She was so submissive. Maybe not all the time, but she liked it when it came to sex. Why hadn’t he listened to her in the first damn place?

“Is that all, Sir?” Lucas asked with perfect politeness, as though he was asking about the weather, not as if his Dom wanted to further torture him.

Oh, Aidan wanted more. So much more. He wanted to lube up his cock and sink it into that hot hole while Lucas fucked the hell out of Lexi’s cunt. He wanted to fuck his subs until they couldn’t move anymore, and then he would sink into the bed with them and sleep with his limbs tangled in theirs. But he hadn’t earned it yet.

“That is all, Lucas. You did well. Now, get dressed. It’s a long way to Deer Run, and we have to stop by The Club to pick up my things.”

Lucas straightened up. He did his pants and then held his hand out for Lexi to take. Lexi stared up at him for a moment.

“You really want me to do this?” she asked.

Lucas’s hand tightened on hers. “I do, baby. Please. I want to try this.”

Lexi’s eyes filled with tears, and it struck Aidan that the only reason he was getting a second chance was because Lexi loved Lucas. It didn’t matter why, he told himself, though his heart ached. It only mattered that he had it. He would make it right.

Lexi allowed Lucas to draw her up. “All right then. No rehab for me. We’ll try the BDSM approach to fixing a fucked-up chick. Should be fun.” She turned to Aidan. “Not that you’ll have any fun. I know my safe word, and I intend to use it.”

She flounced away, walking to the door and standing there.

Lucas picked up the bag he’d packed for her. “She hasn’t joked like that in a very long time. Thank you, Aidan.”

Tears pricked at Aidan’s eyes. He might be the bad guy, but he felt pretty damn good in that moment.

Lexi sighed as Aidan’s truck pulled into The Club’s parking garage. She was heading to Aidan’s hometown in a few minutes, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Lucas had set a course, and she would follow it. He needed this, she told herself. It had nothing to do with the way her heart sped up when Aidan looked her way.

There was no question about it. Aidan was infinitely more dangerous now. The pretty boy was gone, and in his place was a man who knew how to take control. He’d mastered Lucas. The spanking he’d delivered had gotten her wet and twitchy in a way she’d never been before. Seeing Lucas submit did something for her. They had sat together, waiting for Aidan’s judgment, their fingers tangling like flowers growing together in the sunshine. Aidan was the sun.

She had to stop thinking that way. He would walk out on them the minute the going got tough. Lucas was the one she could count on. It was just that he’d looked so fulfilled as he took that punishment. Lucas’s joy was what had her thinking about Aidan.

It wouldn’t come to anything. Lucas had spent his whole life without discipline. His parents had utterly ignored him. He hadn’t had anyone who really cared until he’d met Jack. Lucas had a skewed view of life, and so did she. Everyone except her mother had died on Lexi. It made a person think. That was why they needed a Dom. It didn’t have to be Aidan.

“I can’t go,” she said suddenly, her mind catching on a problem. “I have to be at work tomorrow.”

It was Friday. They had an opening on Saturday. They would need her to do the grunt work that any monkey with half a brain could do. Someone needed to make a Starbucks run. Someone had to convince the gallery owner’s wife that her face didn’t look like a weird piece of plastic someone had applied blush to. That last part was the hardest part of her job because that woman had had way too much surgery. Still, it was her job, and she was paid very little money to do it.

“You’re fine, Lexi,” Lucas said with a smooth smile. He sat in the passenger’s side seat. “Everything’s been taken care of.”

“Really?” She had to ask because her boss was an asshole with a two-by-four shoved up his anus.

“Yes, Lexi. I called and quit for you,” Aidan said flatly.

“See, no problems.” Lucas slid a hand around her shoulder.

“You did what?” Lexi was well aware that her screech reverberated through the cab.

Aidan brought the truck to a stop in front of the valet station. Even at this time of the night, there was a well-dressed young man eager to help. “I quit for you.”

Lucas slipped out of the cab as the valet opened the door. He turned and held his hand out to assist her. “Don’t be upset, Lexi. You were three months in. It was only another week or so before you quit or got yourself fired. Aidan just upped the time line.”

Lexi allowed Lucas to guide her out of the truck. So what? She’d had a bunch of jobs in the last two years. She hadn’t found the right place. It didn’t give Aidan the right to quit a job she loved. Except that she kind of hated it and had been thinking about quitting. The only reason she hadn’t was the way her stepfather had groaned when she told him she needed a reference.

She could write.

The idea teased at the back of her brain. Lately, the stories had started to return, but she didn’t deserve them.

“Oh, Lexi!” A curvy blonde flung herself toward Lexi, encasing her in a bear hug. “Are you okay?”

Lexi hugged Dani Lodge-Taylor. Julian and Finn’s wife was one of her closest friends. “I’m fine. I take it Aidan called Julian.”

“Yes, he did.” Julian stepped up with Finn by his side. Julian looked her over as though assessing what damage had been done and what he needed to do about it. Finn shook Lucas’s hand and asked how things had gone with the police.

There were two other men dressed in leather pants. One had a T-shirt over his chest, while the other hadn’t bothered to button up his dress shirt, leaving a monumentally cut chest on display. Lexi finally allowed her eyes to glance up at their faces. Twins. Superhot twins. Given their leathers and the air of authority they gave off, Lexi couldn’t help but think of them as gorgeous Dom Ken dolls.

“Is this the pretty princess we’re supposed to protect?” the one in the T-shirt asked.

Lucas actually stepped in front of her, his chest puffing out. Lexi couldn’t help but grin a little. She thought he might actually do that gorilla-chest-thumping-thing. It was sweet.

Then she looked at Aidan and was pretty sure he was about to kill someone.

Julian’s hand was already out, waving off the tension. “Don’t you two start. Aidan, I called Chase and Ben. You had to know I would do it.”

Dani leaned in and whispered in Lexi’s ear. “That’s Ben and Chase Dawson. They’re private investigators. Ben used to be on Leo’s SEAL team, and Chase was on another team. Julian put them on retainer because so many of his friends end up with people trying to murder them that it just made sense to get a group discount. Part of their deal is that they get access to The Club.”

“Thank you for the play-by-play, little one,” Julian said. He gestured toward the doors to the elevator. “Could we take this upstairs? I’d like to talk to Aidan and Lucas and fill in Ben and Chase. Finn has already contacted the DA. I assure you they will take this seriously.”

Lexi held up her hand. “Uh, hello, victim here. Shouldn’t I be in on this conversation?”

Julian’s left eyebrow practically reached the ceiling. “Are you going to be reasonable?”

“Nope. I’ll be a bitch.” Lexi decided it was a night for honesty.

“Then no. Please go and retrieve Lucas’s bag from the suite you vacated without your Dom’s permission. Then perhaps you and Danielle can have a drink in the bar.”

Lexi frowned. “Yeah, I don’t think I’m allowed to do that anymore.”

A brilliant smile crossed Julian’s face as the elevator dinged open. “Then my evil plan, as my wife so lovingly put it, has worked.”

The men piled into the elevator, but Lexi held back. Dani stayed at her side.

“We’ll catch the next one,” Dani said. “And I’ll make sure all of Master A’s things are packed and ready to go.”

“Thank you, Danielle,” Aidan said with a gentle smile that turned to a slight scowl when he turned his attention to Lexi. “You behave.”

“I make no promises,” Lexi replied as the doors closed. She turned to Dani. “You are too good. I was going to shove everything he owned into a trash bag and toss it in the back of the truck.”

Dani held her hand and rushed into the next elevator that opened. “Come on. We need to hurry before Julian figures out what’s going on. I thought you might like to meet the competition. Some woman showed up in the lobby asking for Aidan, claiming to be his fiancée. The concierge called Julian, but he was all freaked out because of the shooting thing, so he told me to handle it. Want to help me handle it?”

Aidan’s fiancée? Oh, yeah, she wanted to help handle that.

Dani turned to Lexi. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry. If I had any idea of what Julian was planning, I would have called you.”

And then gotten into serious trouble with her Dom. “Don’t worry about it, Dani. Lucas is happy. He wants to try the Dom thing for a while. I would rather it wasn’t with the man who ripped my heart out of my body, stomped on it, and set it on fire, but I owe Lucas. And I owe Jack. And, quite frankly, I owe Julian.”

It was true. She was drifting, and she knew it. She hadn’t done a very good job on her own. Maybe it was time to give something else a try. If this could get her out of the funk she’d been in the last several years, it would be worth it.

The doors opened to the lobby. The lobby of The Club was an elegant showcase. Part hotel lobby, part wealthy office space, it was streamlined and modern. As Lexi exited the elevator, she could hear the high-pitched whining coming from the front desk.

“I don’t care about what your job is. I want to talk to my fiancé. I know he’s here. I’m not going anywhere until I get escorted up to his room.” The blonde standing at the front desk actually stomped her foot.

She had big, platinum blonde hair. She wore white jeans and a tight top that showed off boobs that were far too large for her small frame.

“Mrs. Lodge.” The concierge was visibly relieved. “Thank you for coming down. I’m having a bit of a problem with this lady. She doesn’t seem to understand that we are a private club.”

The blonde’s scarlet red lips pursed. “And I explained that my fiancé, Aidan O’Malley, is a member here. He’s a rancher. He owns one of the largest spreads in Central Texas.”

“His dad died?” Lexi hadn’t heard that. She’d met the man a time or two. Aidan hadn’t been terribly close to his father. He’d lost his mom at an early age, and Conner O’Malley had been a bit distant, but it had to have hurt Aidan to lose his dad.

The blonde shifted her focus, and cool blue eyes narrowed. “Do you know Aidan?”

Dani stepped forward. “I would say she does. She was engaged to him once.”

Her nose turned up as though it had just caught a whiff of something vile. “You’re that Lexi person?”

Oh, she was going to be trouble. First, Lexi didn’t honestly believe that this woman was engaged to Aidan. Aidan had been a rat bastard, but he’d never lied to her. He wouldn’t have come after her and Lucas if he had a fiancée tucked away somewhere. “Yep, that’s me.”

“What are you doing here?”

Dani stepped up. “Lexi is a member of this club. Her stepfather is the largest independent rancher in the state of Texas. And she’s here because Aidan brought her here. Aidan is upstairs with my husband. He should be down in a minute. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to see you.”

That overly painted mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. “Well, he doesn’t know I’m here. I thought I would surprise him.”

She tapped her foot, and it finally clicked. Karen Wilcox. Aidan’s high school girlfriend. Lexi hadn’t had the privilege of meeting her. She and Aidan had only gone to Deer Run a few times. From what she could remember, Karen had been married to someone significantly older than she was.

“I think he’ll be surprised,” Lexi allowed. She was pretty sure he’d be pissed. A little kernel of evil joy lit inside her. She pulled out her cell phone. “Why don’t we give him a call?”

She dialed Lucas’s number. He answered immediately, his voice low as though he didn’t want to disrupt what was going on. “Lexi? Are you all right?”

“I am more than fine, babe. I’m down in the lobby talking to Aidan’s fiancée.”

“What?” Lucas practically screamed over the phone. “We’ll be down there in a minute.”

Lexi closed the phone and felt a smile split her face. “He’ll be down in a minute.”

Dani turned back to the concierge, shaking her head. “Paul, I think we’re going to need someone from the staff to go grab Mr. O’Malley’s and Mr. Cameron’s bags. Just give them to the valet. I don’t think Lexi is going to want to miss this.”

“Not for anything.”

“He dumped you,” Karen said. Her perfectly manicured nails curled around her purse. “He called off your wedding.”

“Yep,” Lexi agreed. “Which begs the question of why he’s dragging my ass back home to Deer Run when he has such a lovely fiancé waiting for him?”

Dani leaned over. “Does she come with a superhot, somewhat submissive, bi guy?”

“What is that? Is that some city talk?” Karen huffed a bit as though that was the worst thing she could think of. “It doesn’t matter. I just want to know what you’re doing with my fiancé.”

“Well, let’s see, he’s spanked me, forced me to undress in front of an audience, shoved a plug up my ass, followed me home, and now he’s kidnapping me.”

“Drama queen,” Dani said with a little grin.

Karen actually took a step back. “Aidan would never do that. He’s a former soldier. He served his country.”

“And soldiers don’t like to spank girls?” Lexi wondered just how sheltered Karen’s life had been. She turned to Dani. “And I had to take that plug out myself. I hope he doesn’t expect to see that one again.”

The doors to the elevator slid open, and the former soldier they were talking about stalked out. “What are you doing here, Karen? How did you even find out where I was?”

Karen’s whole demeanor changed. One minute she was the queen bee bitch of the world, and the next, she’d softened. “Well, I wanted to see you. It’s been a week since you came and saw me.”

Aidan’s face bunched up in confusion. “I came out to your place because I was dropping off a check for the charity dinner. I wasn’t seeing you.”

Karen moved closer to Aidan. Her voice was all breathy and pouty. It made Lexi want to gag just a little. “Well, we can fix that. Dwight let it slip where you were, and I tracked you down. What kind of place is this? Are you okay here? This woman is making all sorts of accusations about you.”

His head shook, and Lexi could have sworn he smiled a bit. “Yes, I’m sure she did. Lucas, will you escort Lexi down to the truck? We’re done here. Ben and Chase can come out to the ranch if they need anything else. I’ll deal with this one.”

Lucas seemed perfectly satisfied to take her by the arm and start to lead her away. Lexi wasn’t happy though. “Hey, I was enjoying that.”

Lucas slipped his fingers through hers. He leaned over and kissed her firmly on the lips. “Yes, I know. Now stop causing trouble, or we’ll both get spanked again.”

“Unfair! I’m not the one who hid my identity. And that whole shooting thing was not my fault.” She was arguing, but she didn’t put any heat behind it. Despite what she said, she really did feel safer now that they were leaving town. Someone had shot at her. She was putting on a brave front, but she was scared. And she couldn’t go to her mom’s place. She wouldn’t put her sister and brother in harm’s way.

And she could find out why Aidan was back. That was the worst reason of all to want to go.

“And the drinking?”

Lexi shrugged. She had no excuse for that. She leaned into Lucas’s strength. As they walked away, it struck her that Karen smelled like she smoked.

Maybe Deer Run wouldn’t be so safe. Either way, she was going to find out.