SafetyInNumbers-Final Read Free Page B

and sleep with it on loop. Think it’ll work?”
    Chris just shook his head and turned to lead the way to the table. Liam looked at the scene Chris set and felt some of the weight lift from his chest. The table was set for four. Normally they held this celebration alone—just the two of them, a box of Publix fried chicken, and a six pack. It was a nod to their first night of freedom and seeing it transported him right back.
    In the twenty-three months they spent in prison, they never had a single visitor, so they had no idea who Jared was much less why he was interested in their case when everyone else seemed to have forgotten their existence. After listening to their story, Jared assured them that he would get them out, but they never expected him to follow through.
    Forty-eight hours later, he was back with a very angry Bull and Kieran, and twenty-four hours after that, the three men were back to pick them up. The journey from their cell to the halfway house had been a blur. On the way, Kieran kept stressing that they were free and that the offer to stay at the house was their way of helping them get back on their feet, no strings attached.
    All the assurances were nice, but trust was impossible. Just minutes after Jared showed them around the halfway house and Bull handed them some money, they ran right out the door. They had no place to go, no way to get there, and only the clothes on their back, so it wasn’t like they wanted to run. But they needed to know free meant free and the only way to know was to put it to the test. It was wishful thinking, but it was the only test they had.
    After hours hiding behind a dumpster in the hot sun, they were tired, hungry, and ready to grudgingly accept that the three men might be legitimate. As the days in lockup turned into months, the things they missed, the things they couldn’t wait to do when they got out, dwindled drastically. Their love of Publix fried chicken had not, however, and they’d been staring at the grocery store most of the afternoon. They brought their feast back to the halfway house and Jared thanked them as they walked through the door. It would be months before they realized he was thanking them for their trust.
    Chris thumped a hand on the table, jerking him back to the present again, and Liam rolled his eyes. “I’m trying, man, but you’ll never convince me that you’re not getting sucked in too.”
    That silence hid a lot from their friends, but Liam knew Chris was plagued with memories far worse than his. That’s why they decided not to celebrate alone this year. Billy and Owen were expected any minute and it was the first time they invited anyone to join them. The anniversary was bittersweet for them and they chose to celebrate it because becoming brothers meant that much to them. “Do you think they’ll find it stupid?”
    Chris just shrugged as if it was no skin off his back what they thought and Liam knew that was just bravado. Fact was, they both very much cared what the two men thought. “Liar.”
    His brother sighed and dropped his head back. As if shit wasn’t fucked up enough, they fell for two bastards just as fucked up as they were. “I know you’re worried about Owen. The business with Colin is growing out of their control and I’m not sure why he thinks it’s a good thing. Is he trying to prove something? And the middle of the night phone calls from the FTR? He’s looking more and more fragile every day.”
    Liam knew he wasn’t stating anything new. What he didn’t know was what Chris intended to do about it. Lately, when it came to Owen, Chris conveyed zero intent and seemed to be waiting for Owen to read him as effortlessly as Liam did. Their brother bond had been forged through blood and he was afraid Chris’s expectations of Owen were unreasonable. “Do you see his face every time he thinks he’s failed to understand you? The weight of it is crushing.”
    Instead of regret, all Liam saw was anger in Chris. It