“She just never stopped talking about you. Like you were the daughter she always wanted. I couldn’t let her have that. Daddy is the one who truly loves me. He protects me. He cares about me. He doesn’t look at me and wish I was you. He always putmefirst.”
Lucky nodded. “Yes. He did. And left me to fend for myself against a monster. It must have made you really happy that he abandoned me.”
She smacked both hands flat on her thighs. “I was enough for him. He didn’t need you. And I don’t need you either. Krystal will be fine without you.”
“You mean, without you.” Lucky stared down her sister. “As of today, since I’m her closest living relative, I’ll be taking custody of her, because like you, your dad isn’t going to be around.”
“What? You can’t do that.”
“I can. And I will. Until Neil is able to have a judge who isn’t being blackmailed by you hear his case for custody of her, I will take care of her.”
“You can’t do that. You have no proof I did anything.”
Lucky stood. “You just confessed to everything! You even threw your dad under the bus as someone who was there the night you murdered my family. He convinced you not to kill me.”
“You can’t prove it.”
“I don’t have to. I have witnesses.”
“Neil is an ex-con with an agenda to get his daughter from me. And Hawk is your lover. Hardly credible, since he’s in love with you and would lie for you.”
“Don’t forget the FBI agent and his wife sitting behind you. Oh, and Neil’s probation officer sitting by the open window. They heard everything.”
Mason stood just as Desiree jumped up and turned to him.
“No!” She shook her head. “This is entrapment. You tricked me.”
Lucky shook her head. “You knew Mason and Lyric were in the room. You had no reason to think our conversation was private. You didn’t ask them to leave.”
“You set me up.” Desiree’s gaze bounced around the room and landed on the big man coming through the back door, tattoos peeking out of the collar of his shirt and wrapping around his forearms.
The parole officer’s gaze went from Desiree to Neil. “Now I know why you asked me to meet you here for our check-in.” He turned to Desiree. “You may have some powerful people under your thumb, but I’m not one of them.” He focused on Neil again. “I’m sorry I believed her when she came to me with stories of you harassing her, backing that up with the judge’s ruling that you were unfit for even supervised visitation. I’ll report what I heard here today and let the new powers that be know that you’ve done everything I’ve asked of you, and you should be reevaluated for custody of your daughter.”
“No!” Desiree shrieked. “She’s mine. No one is taking her from me.”
Mason moved in behind her.
Hawk stepped passed Lucky and glowered down at Desiree. “You’ve hurt Lucky for the last time. You’re going away and soon, she won’t think of you at all, because she’ll be so happy with me, her real friends, and her niece that she won’t even spare you a thought. You’ll be all alone in a cell, locked away where you belong, so you can’t hurt anyone ever again.”
“That’s not happening. My father won’t let it. I know people.”
Mason took her by the arm. “They’re all going down with you. Your father aided and abetted the murders of Lucky’s family. And if I find the real reports on your mother’s so-called accidental death, he’ll go down for that, too, because covering for you only helped hurt others. Maybe he loves you, or maybe he was just too afraid of what you’d do to him if you turned on him.”
A mischievous smile made her look even more deranged. “I have dirt on everyone. No one can touch me.” She turned to Lucky. “Not even you, little sister.” Desiree yanked her arm free from Mason’s hold, grabbed the silver candle holder on the coffee table, and swung it at Lucky’s head.
Hawk swept his arm out to move Lucky out of harm’s way and grabbed Desiree’s wrist with his other hand, pulling it up behind Desiree’s back.
Desiree screamed. “You’re going to break my fucking arm.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
“Huh,” Lyric chimed in. “I didn’t have death by candlestick in the living room on my Clue card.” She grinned up at her husband. “Slap the cuffs on her, baby, and get her out of here. She’s had enough attention. It’s time she rots in a cell and thinks about all she threw away by being petty.”
“You don’t know anything, bitch!”
Lucky got in Desiree’s face, covering her mouth with a punishing grip on her jaw. “Shut up. You don’t get to talk to her like that. The only thing that should come out of your mouth right now is aplease, begging me to take care of your daughter, andthank youbecause you know I’ll make sure she’s happy and well and grows up to be a better woman than her mother could ever hope to be.”
“Fuck you!” Desiree winced when Mason secured the cuffs on her wrists.
