I felt her frustration. It was the same as mine. Andshe was right! We needed to go. We needed to go fast. For Juliet’s sake.
But. There was always abut.“They’ll follow us, Frankie. They found us this time, they’ll find us again.”
“Caroline,” she hissed.
“They opened a gallery. Okay? They’re not here to killus. They wouldn’t have set up shop in our town if they had come to handle us.They’re meeting business owners and spreading their names around town. They’restockpiling witnesses and leaving all kinds of money trails. Frankie, I don’tknow why they’re here, but it’s not to kill us. At least not yet.”
Her eyes bulged. She looked like a porcelain dollstanding in the middle of the kitchen in her silk pajama shorts and tank top.She had that delicate eastern European look. Russian genes that should havegiven her a career in modeling. But her looks meant nothing to her. Her familyhistory and genetics meant even less. The only thing Frankie cared about washer freedom.
Fuck everything else and the whole goddamn world.
“If we’re going to leave, Francesca, we have to dothis right. We have to pull everything. We have to take everything. We have tostart completely over. New names. New identities. A new country. New everything.Give me a week to get it all together. Two tops.”
She glared at me. “And what about Juliet? This is abad idea, Caro.”
I waved the note in front of her face. “What would youhave me do?”
She turned away from me, chewing on her thumbnail.“Does he know?”
Realizing she was staring at the couch where mydaughter was stretched out and sleeping soundly, I had the strongest urge totake everything back. We wouldn’t wait. We would leave tonight. We would run tonight.
“No,” I whispered, but I felt the truth in my words. Ididn’t know how I knew that he didn’t know, just that I was right. I felt it inmy bones, in the depths of my soul. Sayer came to play a game with me. If hehad known about Juliet, he would have come to wage war. “Not yet.”
Frankie nodded, accepting our plan, even though I knewshe didn’t want to. Without saying another word, she disappeared into herbedroom, and I had no doubt she spent the rest of the night packing andrepacking her go bag.
As for me, I scooped Juliet into my arms and took herto my room. I tucked her under my covers and then kept my eyes on her theentire time I got ready for bed. Finally, I crawled next to her and pulled herinto me. Breathing in the sweet smell of her shampoo, I finally let myselfrelax.
Sayer didn’t know about her.
Sayer wasn’t going to find out about her.
I would dodge him for a week, get my assets together,say my secret goodbyes and then leave.
Forever.
Except when I closed my eyes I saw the words from hisnotes, the ones calling me out for my past sins, the ones throwing my necessarydecisions in my face.
I know this isgoing to be hard for you…
He had no idea how hard it was for me to leave DC fiveyears ago.
And he had no idea how hard it would be for me toleave Frisco now. And not just because I loved this sleepy little town.
Sayer Wesley was back in my life. And for better orworse, I was going to leave him all over again. Only this time I had a bad feelingI wasn’t going to survive it.
Chapter Thirteen
Tuesday morning felt like a miracle. I had not onlysurvived the weekend, but I’d survived a hell of a Monday. And not just becausemy past had come back tohaunt me.
No, Monday had been bad because Mondays were usuallybad. And because the occupants of cabin four had clogged the toilet, notbothered to call us or fix the issue, and then flooded the master bedroom. Thencabin seven had broken the picture window in their living room—shattered it.Let this be a lesson about teenage boys and canoe paddles indoors. And cabineleven had jacked up their hot tub with wild, drunk sex.
Ah, the glamorous life of a resort manager. I couldn’teven remember what wild, drunk sex was like. But I did clean up after thoseparticipating in it quite often.
As the manager, weekends were beyond obnoxious to work,but nothing was ever as bad as a Monday morning because nobody fessed up totheir mayhem until checkout.
It was the reason Mags didn’t mind me taking weekendsoff. She figured I would have to deal with all the crap come Monday morninganyway—literally.
She was so lucky she had me.
