“Baby, you’re going to go spend a few days with Ms. London and Dulce. They have lots of toys and I’ll bet if you asked, they’d feed you some ice cream. Okay?”
“Icth cream?” Harper’s face lit up, her smile so much like Mike’s.
She nodded. “Does that sound good?”
Harper bobbed her head.
“We’ll have lots of fun,” London promised.
“Yeah!” Harper hugged the teddy bear in her grip.
It seemed like a blink later that Xander cradled a sleeping Dulce and hustled his brother out the door. Their wife followed, carrying all of Harper’s worldly belongings on her shoulder and holding the little girl’s hand. To Sasha’s surprise, Harper didn’t cling to her mother, just hugged her.
“I’ll miss you.” Sasha held in a cry, trying not to clutch her desperately.
“Miss you, mama.” The girl planted a sweet kiss on her cheek. “Come back soon?”
Sasha certainly hoped so, but she refused to make a promise she might not be able to keep. “I’ll do my very best, sweetheart.”
“Who wants chicken nuggets for dinner?” London distracted the girl.
After one last squeeze, Harper turned back to the other woman. “With frewnch fries?”
London laughed. “Of course.”
“I love you,” Sasha called out to her baby.
“Love you.” Harper waved, more intent on London’s promise of fried food.
As her daughter disappeared around the corner, London looked her way with a silent promise that Harper would be safe.
Thank you, she mouthed.
Then they were gone.
Sasha pressed her lips together and gripped the threshold, doing her best not to fall to her knees and sob. What if she never saw her daughter again?
Suddenly, Nick wrapped strong hands around her shoulders and drew her back against his big chest, cradling her. “Harper will be all right.”
He said that like it was a fact.
“I haven’t been away from her for a second since she was fifteen months old.” When Sasha closed her eyes, tears spilled from the corners.
Mike’s funeral. She’d left her daughter with a neighbor during the graveside service because it had been scorching and cloying and pouring down rain. With every word from the minister’s lips, she’d been silently praying to God to help Mike’s soul rest easy and to keep Harper safe.
“It’s better for her,” Nick reminded her in a calm voice.
Sasha knew that. It just didn’t feel that way. “We’re leaving?”
“Now,” he confirmed as he released her.
She suddenly felt cold again. “I’m ready. I already gathered my things.”
It took less than two minutes for him to shut off all the lights, grab their bags, and lead her out into the alley.
The evening was crisp. Sasha pulled her sweater tighter around her. Nick watched everything around them as he slung his backpack and her duffel over his shoulder and guided her down the road with a hot palm at her back.
In fifteen silent minutes, they reached a parking garage. Nick sneaked his way around the security guard, ducked under a series of video surveillance cameras, then crept through the shadows and up the stairs until they reached a black SUV on the third floor, near an executive entrance door.
