Things We Hide From the Light

Naomi’s friends, including Lina, gather at Naomi’s house for an impromptu bachelorette party with a focus on last-minute wedding planning. Impulsively, Naomi’s mother decides they need snacks, bottles of wine, and romcoms. With Waylay in tow, Lina and the “gals” (502) head to the convenience store. Gathering snacks, Waylay points out Sunkist Fruit Gems to Lina—the thugs who kidnapped Waylay and Naomi loved those candies. In a flash, Lina puts it together: The guy buying candy in the grocery store who has been following Lina around is one of Duncan Hugo’s men. Lina calls Nash but can only leave a voicemail. Just then, the guy appears behind her. When he attempts to grab Lina by the arm, Waylay hurls a can of kidney beans at him and Lina quickly knees him in the groin. Nash’s grandmother plows into him with a grocery cart. But then, he pulls out a gun and roughly escorts Lina out of the store.

Nash slowly reads a long letter from his father as his buddies gather at the Honky Tonk for Knox’s bachelor party. The letter is heartfelt and sincere. His father, following his therapist’s advice, wants to assure Nash that his demons are his, not his sons’: “Keep being braver than me” (501), he writes.

Nash fires Tate Dilton and helps clean up the library party before heading to the rehearsal dinner. As Nash goes on about the skydiving jump, Lucian tells Nash not to trust anyone, much less a woman he has dated for a few weeks. Nash, however, wants to make a gesture suitably grand to show Lina he loves her. They head to the Spark Plug Tattoo Parlor where Nash gets angel wings tattooed on his butt. As the gang waits for the tattoo to be finished, they read the local newspaper’s coverage of the fictitious story about Nash’s memory recovery.

Finally, Nash plays Lina’s phone message, which somehow triggers a genuine memory of his shooting: There were candy wrappers everywhere. Nash now recalls that Duncan Hugo did not shoot him. Instead, none other than Tate Dilton pulled the trigger. Just then, Nash’s mother calls in a panic about Lina’s abduction from the convenience store.

Lina, in the trunk of a car, struggles to figure out where the car is going. The thug tossed her phone, so Nash would not be able to track her. She feels gravel and figures they are somewhere in the country. When the car stops, the thug pulls her out and carries her into a barn with the sign RED DOG FARM. Lina is shocked to find herself looking at Tate Dilton. Dilton’s plan is to use Lina as bait to lure Nash out to the farm and then kill both of them.

Then, Duncan Hugo enters the room. Lamenting how completely Dilton botched the first attempt on Nash’s life, Duncan hopes this plan works. Lina taunts Duncan about his betrayal of his father: “Why not build something of your own?” (521). Staying calm, she thinks how to warn Nash. Meanwhile, Duncan and Dilton settle down to play video games. As they are distracted, Lina wiggles free of her wrist ties and charges Duncan from behind.

Nash and Knox drive to Dilton’s house and demand his wife tell them where Dilton is, but she doesn’t know. Nash tells her that Dilton is the one who shot him; she needs to take the kids and head to her parents’ house.

Nash has no idea where Lina has been taken. He returns to the police station, desperate for any leads. Lucian arrives: His IT team saw that KingSchlong 85 just logged on. Now armed and ready, Nash tells Lucian to trace the IP address.

Using the headset wire, Lina chokes Duncan just enough to grab the gaming console and escape from the room just ahead of Tate Dilton. As she is being chased through a long corridor, she ducks into a stall where horses are washed down, and shoves the heavy door closed behind her. Lina hears the voice of a kid on the headset and tells this girl, Brecklin, to notify the police. Just then, Lina is stunned to hear Waylay as well: Waylay joined the game on a hunch.

Just as Duncan smashes down the stall door, Lina tries to protect Nash by not telling Waylay where she is, but Brecklin blurts out the name of the farm. As Duncan creeps toward her, Lina grabs the power hose and turns on the water full blast. Then, she hears a gunshot.

Naomi transmits Lina’s whereabouts to Knox, Nash, Nolan, and Lucian. Nash heads to the barn. He gets to the stalls where the horses are washed and sees puddles and a pitchfork stained with blood. The team follows the blood trail to an indoor riding ring, where they hear Duncan Hugo, on his knees in front of Lina, waving a gun and howling over being stabbed by a pitchfork. Nash tackles Duncan, and Dilton appears with a gun.

Dilton shoots, wounding Nolan. Nash and Lina take cover behind some stolen cars. Lina is bleeding, but she assures it is just a flesh wound. Lifting the cover of the car they are behind, Nash is surprised to find the Porsche Lina has been looking for.

Nash goes after Dilton, asking why Dilton targeted him: “You really have no fucking clue” (545), Dilton snarls. In a tense shootout, Nash dispatches Dilton with three close-range shots.

Lina drives a wounded Nolan back to Knockemout in the Porsche. Later at the hospital, Nolan quits the FBI, determined to jumpstart his marriage. Duncan Hugo is arrested but has little real information to bring down his father. Nash is reunited with Lina, who tells him to buy her a ring—she has just turned in her notice.

The wedding goes off splendidly. The entire gang gathers to celebrate. Lina, now sporting an engagement ring, chokes up and cries, as do most of the guests. To Nash’s surprise, their father shows up, sober and cleaned up, accompanied by his sponsor. Word comes from the hospital that Nolan’s ex-wife showed up and that the two are talking like friends.

Nash suggests that if Lina is staying in town, they go look at houses. Nash hustles Lina into one house and shows her his new tattoo: “This makes it official,” Lina jokes, “Your ass is mine” (562). They kiss.

Lina cannot entirely comprehend the life she has now. She and Nash have built a beautiful home on the creek. They are happily anticipating their first baby. Piper runs in the yard. Lina loves her husband “more and more every damn day” (566). When Lina goes into labor, she is rushed to the hospital, where she finds out that she and Nash are having twins. As he looks down into the eyes of the woman he loves, Nash says, “I don’t know how I got to be so damn lucky” (574).