Sophia laughs. “You think I believe that bullshit? You really think that I believe that the fuckingSandmanwas just dropping by for a friendly visit?”
“Well…” I hesitate. “Yeah, that’s what I was fucking doing!”
“That he has a kid and settled down? I saw you years ago, and you sure as fuck didn’t have a kid.”
“I got busy since then!”
“Funny.”
“What’s really funny is that you think you have any say in any part of this. Really, you think I want you dead, but you think I’d choose to play with you like this? If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”
She grits her teeth. “Just… fuck. Please don’t kill my son and husband. Please. I know that I’m not going to win against you. Please don’t kill them.”
The front door opens, and we quickly draw back as everyone comes in and looks around the slightly disheveled room—the busted drawer that is open and angled oddly from me shooting it, the broken plate, and everything else that’s slightly amiss.
Oh, and the bead of blood running down her neck.
“What…” Nathan looks confused. “What happened?”
Sophia beams at him. “Did you show them what you plan to do with the car?” She’s moving to be in front of her family, but it’s also putting her close to my family, so I stalk toward them as well.
“Yeah, I did! You really need to see his car,” Nathan enthuses, absolutely oblivious while Jackson and Waylon are on edge.
“We actually need to get going,” I say. “But before we do, Sophia, youreaaalllyneed to give me the recipe for those cookies.”
“Ah. Of. Course,” she replies, sounding like a robot as she does an odd shuffle thing to make sure I’m moving with her and not separating her from her family. We step into the kitchen where I slide in before she can get too far.
“If you fucking touch my family, I will tear you apart,” I hiss. “You will regret ever even looking at any of them. Do you understand? You’ve seen what I can do. You know who I am. If harm comes to them, it is the very last thing you will ever do. If you want to keep your family safe, you stay the fuck away from mine.” Because even though I know I wouldn’t kill her son andher husband, she doesn’t know that. And there’s nothing that will get her to agree more than the threat of their lives.
Sophia stares at me, and I think she’s finally realizing for the first time that I wasn’t sent here to off her. The whole thing is just some strange coincidence… but what is going to be the result of this? Will she stay away from my life if I stay away from hers? I know Waylon really enjoys Cam’s company; he finally has some normalcy and a friend who loves what he does, and I’m about to take it all away from him.
“If you stay away from my family, I’ll stay away from yours,” she says through gritted teeth.
I give her a curt nod and then rush from the room. I set a hand on Waylon’s back and quickly push him out of the room with Jackson. I hurry them to the car where they’ll hopefully be safe. And while I know she’d never be so sloppy as to shoot us in the back on the way to the car in broad daylight while smack-dab in the middle of the suburbs, the anxiety over the possibility of my family getting hurt has me on edge. A part of me wants to get rid of her. To silence her. To keep someone like her from knowing where I live, knowing where Waylon goes to school, and knowing Jackson’s name.
Jackson starts to drive before looking over at me. “You going to tell me what that was all about? Waylon came rushing up to me to tell me something was wrong.”
“Nothing good. I’ve run into her a few times in the past… Lucas interacted with the family who ran the organization that she belonged to a few times. She was a contract killer.”
Waylon’s head pops between the front two seats. “What the fuck? Cam’s mom is a contract killer? Are you sure?”
“I’m very sure.”
“But that was… years ago, right? I mean… she has a family and stuff now, so she’s probably left that life,” Jackson says.
“She does… is her husband Cam’s father?” I glance back at Waylon, who shrugs.
“I… I don’t know. I guess? He calls him ‘dad,’ but I guess that doesn’t mean anything.”
“She would have still been doing jobs when he was five or so. I remember seeing her again when I was… fuck if I know. Early twenties, maybe? She was seducing a politician that I was busy trying to kill. I think she was trying to extract information out of him, but I killed him before she could. She was pissed and came after me, but she knew better than to fuck with me. She told me the family would punish her for it and that she’d make me pay for doing such a thing. Then today, she thought I’d come to kill her.”
“Well… she must have gotten out of that life then, right?” Jackson asks as he drives.
“You don’t leave the Barlow family. You either die with them or they kill you.”
I pull out my phone and send everything on “Sophia” to Cassel along with her real name of Victoria.
Jackson glances over at me. “What do you want to do?”
