“Mm-hmmm.”
I dropped my pen and lifted my wide-eyed gaze. “In other,more exciting news, Jesse asked me out again!”
Her lips twitched with another repressed smile. Thiswoman never smiled unless she absolutely had to. It was maddening. “I’massuming you turned him down again.”
A surprise laugh bubbled out of me. “Well… Juliet. Ofcourse I turned him down.”
“Atta girl. It’s better to play hard to get with acatch like Jesse Hasting. That way when you finally say yes, he’ll already behalfway in love with you.”
“That’s not what I’m doing!” I called to her backsince she’d already headed out the door to do the devil only knew what.
“I believe you!” she called back, sounding not at alllike she believed me.
I huffed at the paperwork in front of me. Thethreatening note still burned in my pocket.FoundYou. But who had found me?
And why?
Chapter Five
Fifteen Years Ago
I speed walked to Frankie’s side as soon as we steppedinto the warehouse. Men moved around stacks and stacks of cardboard boxes. Abig shipment of something had come in. I didn’t know what. They didn’t give methose details.
But my dad had been called in. This was apparently anall hands on deck situation. It was almost midnight on a school night. I shouldhave been home sleeping, but Dad said he couldn’t risk leaving me behindtonight.
I didn’t like the sound of that. I lived with theknowledge that Dad’s job was typically dangerous. But this was something worsethan usual.
Frankie was here too, which meant Roman,DymetrusandAleksanderweresomewhere presiding over the entire operation. I caught sight of a table filledwith guns. Big guns. Small guns. Scary guns.
Frankie sat on the ground, with her back proppedagainst the wall, her knees pulled to her chest. Her hair was at her nape wrappedin a bun, hidden beneath her usual baseball hat. She was wearing a sweat suittop and bottom that matched. I would bet a hundred bucks the pants had Juicywritten across the butt.
“Your old man dragged you out of bed too?” she askedwith sleepy eyes.
I took a seat next to her on the cold ground. “What’sgoing on?”
“We’re at war over this shipment,” she explainedlistlessly.
“What do you mean, we’re at war?”
“With the Irish. These are their guns.”
She sounded so bored that it was hard to take herseriously. “Frankie, be real.”
Stretching out her legs, she yawned first and thenfilled me in. “Roman wants more territory. The Irish were unwilling tonegotiate. In fact, everyone has been unwilling to negotiate. Anyway, to provea point, Roman intercepted this shipment of guns. The Irish understandably wantthem back, but my uncles refuse. So now we’ll kill them with their own weapons,my uncles will expand their territory and the other families will cooperatemoving forward.”
“Holy shit.”
Frankie looked at me for the first time, painamplified in her big black eyes. She hated her uncles. She hated that her momhad died and left her to their care. She hated that she didn’t have a dadbecause of them. She hated what they stood for and the lives they took in thename of power and expansion and just plain arrogance.
I didn’t blame her. I couldn’t understand this life.It didn’t matter that I had been raised in this world or that it was all Iknew. It was obvious to anyone with a soul that what our families did waswrong. I knew that killing people for greed and influence was not right.
Sometimes when Frankie and I were alone, we talkedabout what it would be like to run away. We dreamed of distant places untouchedby mafia and career criminals. We whispered about the Bahamas or somewhere inremote Africa. Or just anywhere that wasn’t here.
But those were daydreams that meant nothing in reallife. Neither of us could escape this life. At least not now. And Frankie hadit worse than me. She was stuck here forever. There was nothing her uncleswouldn’t do to find her, to keep her with them. She was theVolkovprincess. I at least had a chance at a better life once I graduated highschool.
There were things I didn’t say to Frankie because Iknew the words would hurt her feelings. But I planned on college somewhere faraway. I wouldn’t even need Leon’s permission. I had money I’d been saving sincethe first time he ever paid me for a job. All I had to do was keep makingmoney. And then I’d find a college on the other side of the country and justnever come home.
Dad could come visit me if he wanted to or not. Buteither way, I was never coming back to DC again.
