The woman who never quite fit in had found a space where she slotted in so comfortably, it snuck up on her how perfect it felt to be here.
She liked it. She liked it a lot.
Sabrina smiled to herself as she opened the fridge again to take out an egg for the meat mixture. She was so far into her thoughts, it startled her when a knock sounded at the front door. Thinking it was one of the Knights coming to check on Cam, she darted forward to answer it before they knocked again and woke him up.
She would forever regret not checking the peephole first.
Raquel stood on the covered porch. She lowered her sunglasses to peer over the frames at her daughter. “Hi, Sabrina. It’s been a while.”
Shock coursed through Sabrina’s body. Not the good kind like when Cam kissed her or said he loved her. They still hadn’t talked about that yet, as he’d been in a hazy drug stupor since she brought him home Saturday night. No, this jolt made her heart jump into overtime fight-or-flight instinct. This was Cam’s place, and it was now hers too. Sabrina had never been one to run from a conflict, so fight it was.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Invite me in and I’ll tell you.”
It was on the tip of Sabrina’s tongue to tell the woman to fuck off and leave, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She didn’t fool herself into thinking Raquel showed up from any maternal drive. Was it money, like always, or something else? Curiosity won, and Sabrina stepped back to allow entrance.
The click from Raquel’s heels echoed in the open space as she walked across the wood floor. Her jeans were tight across her small butt and rode low on nonexistent hips. The leather jacket was new but had no patches to say if she still belonged to a biker group.
Time had left its mark on the older woman, but she was still stunning in appearance. Black, blonde, and red streaks highlighted her hair, and she’d carefully applied her heavy makeup to hide her age. She lifted the sunglasses onto her head in a practiced motion. “So, how’ve you been?”
Really?“Do you mean recently, or since the last time I saw you, when I was eighteen?” Sabrina packed the meat into a loaf pan and slipped it into the oven. No way was she planning to invite the woman for dinner. “How did you know I was here?”
Raquel ignored the dig and sat down on the sofa, crossing her legs as if settling in for a long visit. “I got sources. Word is, Rodrigo went off about you at some party. Said you were in Pennsylvania dealing with a dying father. I put two and two together and came up with Pittsburgh.” She scanned the room with her deep blue eyes and smirked as she leaned back against the cushions. “Seems you’ve landed on your feet.” She examined the coffin-shaped nails on one hand. Their ruby color reminded Sabrina of blood. “Then again, you always did. Got yourself a man with some money. Good for you.”
“Again, why are you here, Raquel?” Sabrina couldn’t bring herself to call the womanmother.
Raquel raised a sculpted eyebrow. “To make sure you get your fair share of your father’s estate.”
“Ernie died without leaving a will. Rodrigo is his official son. Case closed.” Sabrina wiped her hands as she turned her back and walked over to the lizard condo. Her knees locked as she pulled a bag of freeze-dried crickets from the shelf under the reptile cage complex. “Rodrigo already called me about it, and I told him to fuck off. I don’t have the time to deal with that right now.”
Raquel sneered and flipped a handful of multicolored hair over her shoulder. “That kid was always a little shit. Ernie adopted him just before he married me. Rosa put that idea in his head. She and Julia, Roddie’s mom, were best friends, and when Julia died, Rosa convinced Ernie to take him in, then practically took over raising him herself. You’d have thoughtshewas his mom with the way she doted on him, always coming over to spend time with him. That bitch never did like me and didn’t want me anywhere near him.”
Surprise, surprise!“I’m aware. Aunt Rosa doesn’t like anyone but Rodrigo.”
Raquel gave a short laugh. “When you came along, Ernie was thrilled to have a bio-baby, even with the different eyes and coloring. I never said anything to him to make him think differently. It was Rosa who poisoned him with her shit about Rodrigo being his ‘true son.’” She tossed her head back. “It doesn’t matter, ’cause either way, you’re sitting real pretty right now. There’s a pile of money just waiting for you if you play your cards right.”
“Did you miss the part where I said Ernie died without a will? I have no plans to put myself in between Rodrigo and whatever estate my dad left behind.” Sabrina sprinkled a handful of the insects into the cage. Reptar and Rugrat scrambled down the tree branches to grab them.
Raquel huffed and rolled her eyes under the thick fake lashes. “You don’t get it, do you? I’m not talking about just Ernie.”
Cold dread hit her gut and spread out to rest in her bones. Raquel was up to something. She wouldn’t be here otherwise. The familiar helpless feeling Sabrina remembered as a child came back and sat on her like a heavy wet blanket. “Which father are you talking about?”
“Truthfully, I’m not sure. It could be Ernie, but there’s a good chance it’s Scrap.”
Sabrina’s stomach flipped and twisted so hard, she had to grab the cage’s frame to stay upright. She imagined the stains left behind by the flying blood and gore from her exploded head. She was losing patience. “I wish you would just spit it out and quit messing around.”
“You’re not stupid.” Raquel’s purr sounded almost as reptilian as the beardies. “As Walter’s only child, you getallof his money. That stingy rat bastard has assets no one knows about. Not just the titty bar, but even that is gold. You’d be one rich cookie. All’s we have to do is get the DNA results and you’ll be set.”
Sabrina hardly believed her ears, and yet she wasn’t surprised by her mother’s vulturelike attitude. “Scrap ain’t dead. How do you know all this?”
“Like I said, I got sources. Ones that told me he’s in bad shape and it’s only a matter of time. That man has one leg and half the other in the grave. There’s no way he’ll do dialysis or anything like that. Unless, by some chance, he gets a kidney, I don’t expect he’ll be around for another year.”
Sabrina whirled around from the cage to face the woman who gave birth to her and little else. “What if we’re a match? What if I decide to give him one of mine?”
The older woman’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. How ’bout being a decent human being?”
