“How do I look?” Juliet asked from her bedroomdoorway. She was wearing black and white polka dot leggings beneath a purplepaisley skirt and a bright pink sweater. Her ringlet curls clung to her facethanks to the static of her sweater and she had a red rain boot in each hand,ready to slip on.
“Beautiful,” I told her, absolutely meaning it. “Areyou ready?”
“Yep!”
“K, kiddo, grab your jacket and your backpack and meetme by the door.”
She obeyed and I turned around to pour my coffee intoa thermos. “Ask around at work, Frankie. See what you can come up with. In themeantime, let’s keep an extra low profile. I am confident he doesn’t know aboutJuliet yet and I plan to keep it that way.” Only I wasn’t confident. I justdidn’t have any other options. I put my hope in Sayer’s silence. He hadn’tmentioned Juliet yet. He hadn’t tried to see her yet. I had to believe thatmeant he didn’t know about her. He’d changed a lot over the years, but I knewhim well enough to expect absolute hell if he ever found out that I’d beenkeeping his daughter a secret from him for five years.
Frankie sighed, pulling her knees to her chest. “I’llhave to cancel all my weekend plans. That will disappoint so many of myfriends. Oh, wait. You’re my only friend and I didn’t have any weekend plans.So, keeping an extra low profile shouldn’t be a problem.”
Her tone made me pause. Turning around to my mopingbest friend I set my coffee down and gave her my full attention. “Do you regretleaving?”
She took a deep breath and stared at her toes. “Iregret who my uncles are. I regret that my mother died. I regret that my fatherhad to die for her. I regret that I have to live in fear and that I won’t everhave a normal life and that I can’t ever just be… free of that world. But Idon’t regret leaving. Not when it meant washing my hands of the bloodshed andthe trafficking and the drugs. I just couldn’t… I didn’t want to be a part ofany of that.”
“If we had stayed though… do you think we could haveturned things around?”
She laughed, but it was dark and slightly hysterical.“And what? Turned them into a charity? No, Caro. My cousins would never havelet that happen. If we would have stayed, I would have lost my soul to thebratvaand youwould still be paying off your dad’s debts. And just imagine—” She tossed herhead to the side, indicating Juliet. “Imagine her life. Imagine how much theywould have demanded from her. We did the right thing. It’s okay to be a goodperson. It’s okay to fight to stay a good person. Don’t let Sayer make you feelbad for leaving. You did the best thing for your family.”
I grabbed her hand and squeezed. “And you did the bestthing for you.” She lifted her eyes, gratitude shining through. “We have eachother. That’s the only kind of normal we need.”
She nodded, but didn’t add anything else. And I gother silence. I got her mood. It was hard to live remembering everything we’dleft behind.
It hadn’t all been bad. We had a life in DC. We hadfamily. And protection and danger and excitement. We’d been respected. We’dbeen taken care of.
We’d also been sheltered from the worst of thesyndicate. We were thieves. We were con artists. We didn’t have to deal in thehardcore drugs and the trafficking of women and young girls and the killing.When conflict broke out with other families or with gangs, we went into hiding.When the news reported overdoses and underage girls in strip clubs and murders,we pretended like they had nothing to do with us.
We took the money and gifts given to us by the family andlived for each new adventure. It was crazy to think about where we would be nowif I hadn’t gotten pregnant. Juliet was the wake-up call we needed to get out.
We had been out for a long time… and we were nevergoing back.
I left Frankie to take Juliet to her preschool. It wasonly a seven-minute drive, not too far from Main Street. We held hands as wewalked inside and talked about worms and bugs and all the little things on thesidewalk that fascinated four year olds. I checked her in with her amazingteachers, Miss Beth and Miss Harmony, and headed to work.
This used to be my favorite drive. I loved leavingtown and heading up the mountain, winding around the twisting roads. But now itfelt like a march to my funeral. Someone honked behind me and I realized I wasgoing painfully slow—even for mountain roads.
By the time I got to work, I was already a tangle ofnerves and trepidation. What was Sayer going to do now? Would he tell Maggieall my secrets? Or worse? Were Roman,AleksanderandDymetrusgoing to be waiting for me?
I had to figure this out. I had to devise a freakinggame plan.
Maggie was in her usual spot in the office when Iarrived, thumbing through a book. She didn’t even look up when I walked in.Seeing her leaned over the counter, glasses perched on her nose was so familiarthat my heart hurt. This woman had somehow become such a big part of my life eventhough I’d made a concerted effort to keep her out of it.
I was supposed to be hard. And callous. And totallywilling to give up every comfort to keep Juliet safe. And I was… kind of. Butthe thought of leaving Maggie or having her find out my dirty secrets killedme. I felt the same about Jesse.
Yes, I had bigger things to worry about than theirgood opinions, but the thought of them thinking badly of me still stung.
I wasn’t the criminal to them. They didn’t use me formy skills or my connections or what I could get them. They genuinely liked me.
I didn’t want to lose that.
Or them.
“Must be a good one,” I said to Maggie when she stillhadn’t looked up at me. “Let me guess, the duchess is destitute so she agreesto marry the wealthy duke that doesn’t want to settle down, but needs a wife togive him a legitimate heir?”
She still didn’t look up. “That was last week’s. Thisduke is enamored with the idiot. He’s totally in love with her and she has noidea.”
“Well, then he’s not doing a very good job of showinghis affection.”
“Pride,” Maggie murmured. “He’s an arrogant asshole.”
