“No. Jessica and Alexis are helping. And Hop and that weird Geoff guy.”

“What the hell is their plan?” Mack couldn’t help the tone of his voice. He was worried and feeling super protective about the woman he loved. So sue him.

“Same plan as before, I guess. Except instead of leaking the audio tape, she and Alexis managed to get seven women from the list to agree to come forward. Each woman wrote an essay or something about what happened to them, and Liv had this crazy idea about getting Riya and Geoff to switch out the press kits for all the reporters at the last minute to include those essays.” Thea threw her hands in the air again. “I don’t know all the details! I just know it’s nuts, and I blame you guys!”

Warring emotions made his hands shake. Pride, because holy shit, she’d done it. She’d gotten women to come forward. But panic, because holy shit, she couldn’t go in there without him. Without the backup of the guys and, fuck, Noah.

Noah. Mack spun around and grabbed his phone, willing it to life. Noah answered on the second ring. “Wow. You’re alive.”

“Where’s the audio? Is it in any shape or form to be leaked?”

Noah paused. “The audio of Royce? Why? What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking we need to get our asses over there and do what we said we were going to do.”

Mack heard a rustling noise, as if Noah were standing and searching for something. “How much time do we have?” Noah asked.

Mack put Noah on speakerphone and looked at Thea. “How much time do we have?”

She shook her head. “Not much. The event starts in an hour. I couldn’t get away until now.”

“I can do it,” Noah said. “I can get it ready in the van, but we need to move now if we’re going to do this.”

One by one, the guys shared a look, a smile, and then a nod.

Del walked over and clapped Mack on the back. “Is it grand gesture time?”

His heart pounded with hope and fear. “It’s grand gesture time.”

It was time to get back the woman he loved.

Liv wasn’t going to have any fingernails left after today. The plan was simple, but the risks were high. By the end of the day, either Royce Preston would have been exposed for the predator he was, or . . .

Or all the women who’d agreed to come forward were going to face his wrath all over again, and Riya would be out of a job, and—

Liv stopped pacing in the driveway outside the garage and dragged her hands down her face.

“Stop worrying,” Alexis said, jogging down the stairs from Liv’s apartment.

“So much could go wrong.”

“And so much could go right.”

“What if Riya can’t get us in? What if Geoff can’t make the switch? What if—”

Alexis palmed Liv’s cheeks. “What if two hours from now the entire world knows what Royce did to us? Think about that and only that. I know I am.”

Jessica came down the stairs next, her arms heavy with the folders that would be handed out to reporters. Riya had managed to steal one for them so they could match it exactly. Just before the doors opened, Geoff would make the switch.

That was the plan, at least.

Liv grabbed half of the folders, and they carried the load to Hop’s car. He was driving, but he’d yet to appear from the house. Every second that ticked by sent her anxiety into another level of hell.

Liv bit another nail. “What is taking him so long?”

“That,” Jessica said, pointing.

Liv turned around. There, standing just outside the back door, Hop and Rosie were wrapped in a passionate embrace and a swoony kiss for the ages. Joy for them managed to push through her sorrow over Mack just enough for Liv to smile and enjoy the sight. At least someone got their happy ever after.

“Wow,” Jessica sighed. “It’s cool that even old people fall in love.”

Liv must have made a face that revealed the direction of her thoughts because Alexis once again came to her side. “Are you sure you don’t want to call Mack?”

Liv squeezed her eyes shut. Mack. She couldn’t think about him right now. She needed to stay focused. “I’m sure.”

“It’s not too late.”

Alexis’s words could have had two meanings—that it wasn’t too late for Mack to help today or it wasn’t too late for them. But Liv didn’t ask which one she meant before sliding into the front seat. She had to do this first. And then she would go to him and tell him what a fool she’d been. To tell him she was sorry—so damn sorry—for not being brave enough to hear his side of the story, to accept it, to trust him.

To tell him she loved him.

Him.

Braden Mack or Braden McRae. Whatever his name was, she loved him. She didn’t know how it was possible, but it had happened, and she wouldn’t survive if she’d destroyed it with her stupid insecurities.

Hop climbed into the driver’s seat. “Last chance to back out,” he said brusquely.

Alexis and Jessica slid into the back seat and buckled their seat-belts. “Let’s do it,” Alexis said.

“I’m ready,” Jessica added. “He can’t get away with this anymore.”

Liv reached into the back seat. Alexis and Jessica placed their hands on top of hers.

“I love you two,” she said, her voice heavy with an emotion she hadn’t expected. “I’m sorry I made such a mess of things at first—”

“Stop apologizing,” Alexis said.

“I know I pushed too hard.”

Jessica shook her head. “None of this would be happening without you.”

Liv felt their support and forgiveness all the way to the tender parts of her soul. She laughed through a sheen of tears.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.”

“Okay,” Mack said, snapping his seatbelt. “Let’s go.”

Mack drove the van with Malcolm in the front seat. The Russian was crammed into the back next to Noah, who worked feverishly to get the tape of Royce ready. Thea, Gavin, and Del followed in Thea’s car because they actually had a stupid game tonight after this. Mack would’ve laughed about it if his heart weren’t lodged in his throat.

Mack’s phone buzzed just as the small caravan pulled onto the freeway. His heart sputtered with hope that it would be Liv, but it was Gavin. “What?” he barked.

“She just texted Thea. They’re almost there. We need to go fast.”

Mack hit the accelerator, but the fucking van was a million years old and barely broke sixty-five.

Mack pulled the phone away and relayed the message to Noah. Then he returned to the call. “Thea is sure we shouldn’t tell her we’re coming?”

“She’s sure. Liv needs to—”

“Do it her way,” Mack finished. “I know.”

He ended the call and tried again to nudge the van up to something close to the speed limit. Cars passed on the left and right. When this was over, he was buying Noah a new fucking van.

Actually, there were a lot of things he was going to do when this was over, and almost all of them involved doing whatever it took to get Liv back.

The skyline appeared after several tense moments.

“Mack, we got a problem,” Noah said from the back just as he took the exit.

Not the words Mack wanted to hear. “What kind of problem?”

“I can’t edit it down.”

“What does that mean?”

“The part about you. I can’t cut it out in time. If we hack into their audio, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to turn it off before—”

Mack squeezed the steering wheel.

Before all of Nashville’s elite learned the truth about him.

What would that feel like? To be free of the shame? To wake up every morning without the crushing weight of his past? What would life be like if he could finally free himself of the suffocating illusion that was Braden-Fucking-Mack?

Here was his chance.

And he was taking it. “I don’t care.”

“You’re sure?” Malcolm asked quietly.

“I’m sure,” he said, certainty adding an edge to his voice. “I’m done being undercover in my own fucking life.”

He just prayed he wasn’t too late.

They were going to be late.

An entire block around Savoy was blocked off for the event, because of course it was. If Royce had to shut down the whole city to bask in his undeserved glory, he’d do it. Traffic slowed to a stop three blocks from the parking garage where they planned to meet Geoff. Hop let out a string of curse words that made Jessica’s mouth drop open; apparently she didn’t know that even old people could swear too.

“Text him and let him know,” Alexis said.

Liv hammered out a message to Geoff and bit her lip waiting for a response. It wasn’t good.

If I’m not inside in fifteen minutes, we’re toast.

Liv turned around in her seat. “Hand me the folders.”

“What?” Alexis said. “Why?”

“I’m getting out here. You guys park and meet me there.”

Alexis shook her head as Hop cursed again. This time at her. “No way,” Alexis said. “We do this together.”

“We are doing it together, but Geoff needs these now.”

Hop must’ve realized there was no other way, so he braked hard. “Go fast.”

Alexis shoved the folders through the opening between the front seats. Liv gathered them up and threw open her door. Dodging traffic, she jogged to the sidewalk, which was teeming with tourists.

Liv clutched the folders to her chest and started to run.

Three blocks. She just had to make it three blocks. And then she could prove this was all worth it.

“You didn’t check the fucking traffic?”

Mack jerked his eyes from the road to Malcolm, who almost never swore. “I’ve been a little busy,” Mack snapped.

Traffic around Savoy was a nightmare of stop-and-go, but mostly stop.