Probably only worrying about normal things like work deadlines and weekend plans. I envy them so much it physically hurts.
“It’s complicated,” I finally say.
Katie raises an eyebrow. “Complicated how? Like ‘I’m secretly dating my professor’ complicated, or like ‘I accidentally joined the witness protection program’ complicated?”
Despite everything, I almost smile.
Katie has always been able to make me laugh even when the world is ending. “More like the second one.”
Her expression shifts from concerned to alarmed. “Gigi, you’re scaring me. What happened?”
Despite myself, I take deep breath—even though I want to cry from the pain—and try to figure out how to explain this without getting her killed.
Because I know, with absolute certainty, that if I tell her the whole truth, she’ll try to help me.
And if she tries to help me, Luca Marchetti will add her to his list of people who need to disappear.
He’s already threatened as much.
“Someone burned down my clinic,” I say carefully. “Someone who has…issues with my family.”
“What kind of issues?”
“The kind that end with people getting hurt if they interfere.” I meet her eyes, willing her to understand without making me spell it out. “Katie, I need you to promise me you’ll stay out of this. Whatever happens next, you can’t try to help me.”
She stares at me for a long moment, and I can see her mind working, putting together pieces I haven’t given her.
Katie’s not stupid.
She knows Chicago has dangerous people, and she knows my father’s gambling has been getting progressively worse since Mom died.
“Someone threatened you,” she says, not a question.
I don’t answer, which is answer enough.
“Okay,” she says finally, puffing out her cheeks and exhaling. She scrubs her face with her hands before she faces me again. “What do you need me to do?”
Oh, Katie. Always trying to be helpful. I shake my head. “Nothing. That’s what I’m trying to tell you?—”
“Bullshit.” Katie’s voice goes sharp the way it does when she’s decided something and won’t be put off by any logic or reasoning. “You don’t get to protect me by shutting me out. We’ve been friends for fifteen years, and I’m not abandoning you now just because things got scary.”
The tears I’ve been holding back all morning finally spill over. “Katie, you don’t understand,” I get out, each tremble of my voice another stabbing to my ribs. “These aren’t people who make idle threats. If they think you’re helping me?—”
“Then we’ll be smart about it,” she interrupts, handing me a tissue. “We’ll drive over into Canada and start new lives. We can finally be a Hallmark Christmas movie duo. I’ll open a bakery and you’ll start another animal clinic and we can live out our best lives in a cute little Podunk town and eventually meetaverage looking men wearing holiday sweaters and live happily ever after.”
I let out a wet laugh. “But you can’t bake.”
“And neither do the heroines in the Hallmark movies, but they still open a bakery!” She grasps my hand, uncaring that they’re dirty. “But I’m not leaving you to handle this alone.”
I wipe my eyes with the tissue, pulling it back to see the white tissue covered in black soot.
God, I must be a mess. “There might not be anything you can do to help.”
“Tell me what happened. All of it,” she demands, her eyes serious.
So I do, in carefully edited terms that leave out names and specifics but give her the basic shape of my nightmare.
I tell her about the phone call, about finding my father beaten and bloody.
