I get into the back of the black SUV and buckle my seatbelt before sighing. The sunglass-clad driver looks at me in the rearview mirror. “Miss Parker.”
I recognize the voice immediately. “Ivan?”
He doesn’t say anything, but I notice the slightest hint of a smile in the corners of his mouth.
A dumb grin spreads on my face. “You’re still here!”
“Where would I go?”
I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but I actually missed his thick Russian accent.
“Sorry,” I say, trying to stop smiling. He must think I’m crazy. “I’m sorry. I just… it’s nice to see a familiar face.”
“I don’t think anyone has ever been happy to see me before,” he says, and I actually laugh.
The massage is everything I could ever want it to be and more. Ninety minutes of medium pressure bliss from a therapist who doesn’t say so much as two words to me. It’s lovely. I nearly fall asleep on the table.
Afterwards, I walk out feeling fresh and warm and loose, kind of the way I feel after leaving Ransome’s bed, but this time I smell like lavender oil, and not… him.
As expected, the black SUV is waiting for me, parked in the fire zone. I sigh before reaching for the door handle. Not even being chauffeured around like a piece of property can get me bent out of shape right now, not after that therapist just spent over an hour massaging me back into shape.
But just before I step inside, a voice stops me.
“Amara?!”
That voice tugs something loose in me. It’s a voice I know. One I’ve missed for nearly every day since I left New York.
And yet, I can’t believe I’m hearing it.
I whip around. “Electra?!”
“Oh my God!”
Next thing I know, she’s wrapping her arms around me. “I haven’t heard from you in forever! Not since you moved away and had to change your identity and?—”
“Shh!” I say, but there’s a giggle in there too. “Classified information, babe.”
“Oh my God,” she repeats, nearly in tears as she pulls away. “I just… Oh. My. God.”
Her eyes lock on my belly.
Electra doesn’t know much. After everything that happened, I told her Gianni got in trouble with some bad guys, guys that threatened us all, and we had to skip town. I cried myself to sleep for weeks over having to shut her out, but I told her it was to keep my siblings safe.
She was upset, but said she understood. She didn’t make it hard on me at all. All she did was make me promise to get a hold of her when we were safe again.
I never did. I couldn’t.
Now, six months later, it’s obvious I have some explaining to do.
23
AMARA
“That driver of yours sure was persistent,” Electra says as we sit down at a cafe down the block. Ivan parked out front and is sitting at a table on the other side of the restaurant, pretending to read a newspaper. “Does he always follow you around like this?” she asks.
“Ransome insists,” I tell her.
It’s the understatement of the year. Ransome would have his ass if he knew Ivan was allowing me to have lunch with Electra. One, he was very insistent that Ivan take me to the massage parlor and back home and nowhere else. But also, Ransome has never been a fan of Electra, and has never been subtle about it.
