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Nick wandered into the pantry, scanning the shelves He grabbed a glass canister of white rice and stuffed it under one ar bowl

"I wonder why they didn’t take his phone, too," Kelly called from the freezer "I uess that he’d shatever it is, but they don’t take his phone just ’cause it’s waterlogged?"

"We’re obviously looking for someone who’s never dropped his phone in a toilet," Nick said He poured the rice out into a stainless steelbowl

"Ha Ha ha" Kelly came up to stand beside Nick at the counter and placed the phone beside the bowl "Considering you’re the one who told me to put it in the rice, you shouldn’t et water out of anything" Nick absently reached across the counter for a slass jar of toothpicks and plucked one out to put in hiseach piece into the rice separately

Kelly leaned over the counter to rest his chin on his hand Nick glanced at Kelly as he shoved the SIM card and battery deep into the rice

Kelly atching his face instead of his hands "Are you okay?" he asked, voice gone soft and intimate

Nick sed hard "I don’t know If Garrett hadn’t been up there with me, I would have taken Richard Burns’s head off"

"Whether he deserves it or not, that’s not like you"

"I know"

Kelly straightened, then pushed hie of the counter "It’ll take a while for that rice to do its thing Why don’t you tellon with you, Lucky? Maybe I can help"

Nick stared at the counter, at Kelly’s hand resting against the white tile, his eyes tracing the lines of Kelly’s long fingers Kelly tapped theainst the tile, and Nick met his eyes

"My dad," he started, but he lost his voice before he could go further He shook his head in frustration

"Because he’s sick?" Kelly guessed

Nick nodded

"What did he say to you when he called for you to coht since"

Nick didn’t answer, chewing on the toothpick as he stared at the rice

Kelly was silent for a few h the foster system, I saw a lot of kids ere there because they’d been abused This one kid, he was a few years older than ot word his mom had died of an overdose He was all torn up about it, and I just couldn’t understand why His scars were still healing So I asked hi the mother he could have had Should have had"

Nick was silent, his eyes on Kelly the entire time

Kelly patted his cheek and smiled sadly "It’s okay to mourn You do it for you, not him"

Nick nodded and forced himself to s past the knot in his throat "We’re not at the e just yet He needs a new liver He wants et tested to see if I’entle sy else entirely His eyes sparked, and the lines around his rew hard as he squared his shoulders "He wants you to donate a piece of your liver?"

Nick nodded, unable to speak

"Are you going to do it?"

"I don’t know," Nick whispered "I don’t want to I want to let hi in syive yourself Even if everyone knows he deserves it"

Nick lowered his head "I know"

Kelly grabbed at his shirt front and pulled hiht in front of hied him fiercely, and Nick buried his face in Kelly’s neck

"The decision you make, you make it for you Not him," Kelly whispered into his ear "You ripped hi hiainst his neck "You do you, boo boo," he said, his voice shaking with laughter

Nick pushed away fro back tears with a surprised snort "There’s so with you"

"That’s why you love me"

Ty couldn’t sit still He bounced his knees, he tapped his toes, he cracked his knuckles He finally picked up a pen and began twirling it around his fingers just to give his hands so else to do as he watched Zane fiddle with the laptop

"Okay, I got around the basic password protection, but there’s a little extra encryption on this thing," Zane finally told him "I would call him paranoid if he hadn’t ended up dead"

"I can’t believe he was one of Burns’s guys," Ty said, shaking his head "Was he recruited before or after Deuce and Livi started dating?"

"I don’t know, Ty," Zane said without taking his eyes off the laptop screen

"Would Dick really put a spy into Deacon’s future in-laws?"

Zane glanced at him "I don’t know, Ty"

"I mean, that see her hat brought Dick’s attention to the Stanton company, or if Milton really did plant that seed?"

"I don’t know, Ty," Zane repeated obediently "Why don’t you go ask hihed heavily, shaking his head "He won’t tell lare at me like he used to when I was little and make me feel like I’m ten You knoho should talk to him? Dad It’d be just as uncoto me?"

"No, Ty"

Ty snorted and cocked his head at Zane His broas furrowed and his curly hair was a bit awry froh it so ue stuck between his lips and probably didn’t even realize it Ty stood, stepping behind Zane toyou Carry on"

Zane rolled his neck, leaning into Ty’s hands Ty was silent, letting hi, but finally Zane sat back and put both hands in the air triuh?"

Zane nodded and clicked one more button that turned the blue screen of the laptop into the nor Dozens of files littered the screen, most of them labeled in some sort of numerical code

Ty rested his chin on Zane’s shoulder, dejected "This is going to take a while, huh?"

Zane nodded "Might want to take a seat"