Miranda gave me a nasty smile. “Better go. Don’t want to go to jail, do you?”
I shifted my attention to my mom. She backed away from me and my heart wanted to break. “Mom, please listen to me. I’m telling you, even if you don’t believe me about anything else, don’t give Miranda any more money. Don’t you get it? I didn’t do anything. She’s conning you, just like she did the place we worked. She’s trying to blame me. Set me up.”
Miranda shook her head. “This is so sad. Lying to your mom, and are you really screwing this short little gargoyle?” She flicked a shiny nail toward Jake. “Talk about a downgrade.”
Jake tensed in my arms, but I stepped back and held him tight. Declan joined me, resting his arms around both of us.
“You shouldn’t have come here, sweetheart,” Declan said, but he didn’t sound upset quite the way he had in the car. His face was red, and he seemed just as pissed off as Jake, but now that he had Jake in his arms, he was calmer, and in a way I was, too.
Mom frowned. “I was appalled when I heard about how you’d been acting. But you never even lied as a child, beyond a few usual things.” She stared uncertainly at Jake and Declan. “Are you….”
“Bi, Mom. Yeah.”
She frowned. “I feel like I barely know you these days.”
“Seriously? You’re going to use this against me?” My body was shaking and I couldn’t stop it, but thankfully Jake and Declan just squeezed me between them. “When was I supposed to talk to you about it? You took a stranger’s word over mine.”
Miranda came closer. “I’m done with you.”
“Yeah,” Connie said and shook her phone at me. “Get out of here, dirtbag. You’re not hurting her again!”
Declan hugged us tighter. “It’s not a bad idea,” he whispered, just for us. “Let’s go.”
Titus stepped closer to us, and Declan shook his head at him. He stopped. “I think maybe… Mom’s right. We should hear Logan out.” He stared at Mom, and she rested a hand on her face as if she didn’t know what to do. I wanted to yell at her that I was her son.
Connie gasped and spun toward Titus. “What? You know what he did!”
Miranda narrowed her eyes on him. “I told you how he treated me, stole from me, came here to the apartment and broke in, and you want to give him a chance to talk?”
“Yes!” Titus caught my eye, and Jake actually smiled back at him, in spite of the fact they’d been about three seconds from a brawl when we arrived.
Connie came out into the hallway and glared at him.
Mom took Miranda’s hand. “You’ve been like family to me, dear. Is there anything you want to tell me?”
“Mom! Stop talking to her!”
Declan shushed me and pressed a kiss to my temple.
“I’m sorry, but I need to hear her out,” Mom said in exasperation, and another wave of hurt dug into me.
Declan kissed my cheek and then Jake’s. “Let’s go before—”
The door at the end of the hallway banged open and I groaned. Ward stomped in, followed by Bob and another cop I didn’t know, and all three of them looked pleased as hell, which gave me the creeps.
“Oh good, I was hoping you’d still be here,” Ward said as he came to a stop near us and shoved his hands into his pockets. His gray hair was windblown and his cheeks were red from the cold. “We’re all going to the station. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this.”
“Why?” Miranda snapped. She used both hands to pull her blonde hair up at the back of her head, and then let it fall. It was one of her few nervous gestures, and I was kind of happy to see it. “This has been traumatic for me. I can give a statement about how I was harassed just fine from here.”
Ward smiled. “Because, Ms. Germanotta, I have a warrant for your arrest.” Two men in suits came through the doorway at the end of the hall and nodded at the cops as they approached. Ward came over and slapped a hand to Declan’s shoulder as if he’d known him his whole life, then hooked a thumb at the newcomers. “And these fine gentlemen from the FBI would like to talk to you as well. They say you’ve been known by the name Scarlett Stone, Carol Ann Washaw, and Pixie Marie Ways.”
“Don’t forget Deborah Miles,” one of the men in suits added helpfully.
“Oh, isn’t that fun?” Ward nodded around at everyone. “Yessiree, just a lot of fun, there.”
“You’re kidding,” I whispered toward him, and he beamed from ear to ear.
“Not a bit.”
