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I followed her a minute later, after glancing around to make sure there was nothing Judah could get into.
“Thanks,” she said over the lip of her mug. “I don’t think I realized how much I needed some solid sleep until I got some.”
“It’s peaceful here,” I agreed.
“Are there no neighbors?” she asked. “It was too dark to tell last night.”
“We’re backed up to protected woodlands, and there aren’t any houses for about a five-minute drive. This way, whoever is staying here would be able to tell if someone who is approaching, doesn’t belong here.”
“That makes sense. And there’s no one around to realize that no one is ever in the house.”
“Exactly. The only people who ever come here are the lawn service guys. And they would just assume the residents are at work.”
“The quiet is nice, but I actually like your place better. There’s a certain… security about having neighbors.”
“Yeah, this is nice for a vacation, but I wouldn’t be into country living in my everyday life. I like being close to stores. And family.”
“I met Sofia,” she told me. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you that. She came over with groceries. I really like her.”
“She really liked you too. She was texting me when I was at my meeting.”
“She didn’t love that you called her Smush, though,” she said, her brows raising.
“Yeah, I should have mentioned that,” I admitted. “She fucking hates that nickname. But we’re all just so used to calling her it. Didn’t start really being a problem to her until she was like twelve or so.”
“Does she know?” Claire asked.
“Know what?”
“About me? About… this?” she asked, waving around the safe house.
“She knows something is going down,” I said. “Especially now, since she’s moved to a safe house, too, with Elisa and our mom.”
“Because of me?” she asked, sounding choked.
“Because of Warren,” I corrected. “Everything is his fault, not yours.”
“How is the man? Your guard outside?” she asked, eyes going round and haunted. “He was… he wasn’t moving. I couldn’t help him…”
“He’s… alive,” I told her, torn between whether to give her the whole truth, or if I should sugarcoat it. “He’s not out of the woods yet, but he made it through the night,” I added. Because, at the end of the day, if this was going to go how I wanted it to with Claire—the way that meant she and Judah moved back into my house after this and… never left—then I needed to be honest with her.
The life of a mafia wife wasn’t easy. It involved sometimes being frustratingly in the dark. And, other times, being privy to uncomfortable or upsetting details.
Like men who were shot.
Like ones who might not make it.
Once I set up my phone while Judah ate his breakfast, I got an update straight from Lettie, telling me that while things were still touch-and-go, that she was hopeful, that my man was a fighter.
I said a prayer for him. And his ma, since he had one who really fucking loved him. Then checked in with Luca, who assured me that my family was safe, and that he was doing everything he could to track down Warren.
Who was on the lam ever since the attack at my house, something that likely had everyone on edge.
I should have been more anxious than I was about it as well. But my concern was trying to keep things calm and comfortable at the safe house.
I wasn’t too worried about Judah. He really was an easy-going kid. But his mom, well, I knew she was struggling more than she let on. Or if she wasn’t yet, that she would be eventually. Once she settled in.
There was no way all this trauma wasn’t going to catch up to her eventually. Days, weeks, months. Eventually, it would start to bleed in.
