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Still, even a bit manic, sleep-deprived, and wearing simple baggy jeans and one of King's tees, she was the most fucking beautiful sight I had ever seen.
"Ty poluchil yeshche kofe?"
Ah.
Okay then.
She was planning their eventual move to Russia.
"You know it's cold in Russia this time of year," I said, feeling a smile tug at my lips when her head shot up, eyes going huge, lips parting slightly. It took all my self-control to not go over there and claim those as mine again. In case she forgot. "Actually, it's cold in Russia pretty much all fucking year."
Her mouth opened and closed twice before she shook her head to clear it. When she spoke, it was clear she was going for unaffected and disinterested. She failed at both. "What are you doing here?"
"So, funny thing," I started, leaning back against the dresser when everything in me was begging me to go over to that bed and pull her into my arms. She didn't need that right now. She needed me to be rational to the point where she was seeming like the irrational one. It was the only way I was going to get past her shield. "I was about five fucking minutes away from putting up missing persons posters all around goddamn Navesink Bank when I caught sight of a familiar face outside Chaz's."
"Damnit," she hissed. "He's supposed to be laying low."
"Yeah, baby, that was never going to happen," I said with a chuckle. "And, as I'm sure he has called you and King to tell you, he hasn't found a single reason for you to be hiding out in the first place. They aren't looking for you, Scotti."
"But they could have been, Mark." She reached up and pulled out the earbud, tossing it onto her pile of paperwork. "That's the real problem. We will never feel free here. There will always be that worry about someone finding a lead, someone connecting the dots, someone hunting us down."
"I think you are giving the police a little too much credit here. This is over. The insurance paid out. The cops aren't wasting their precious time tracking down robbers who have never hurt anyone and only stole a couple grand each time. They have rapists and kingpins and murderers to track down. They aren't wasting their manpower on your family, Scotti. That's just not going to happen. The fact that you can't move on from it has nothing to do with facing up the consequences of your actions."
"I don't want to end up behind..."
"And you won't," I cut her off. "You're not going to jail. Neither are your brothers. Not for this. So as long as you keep your noses clean from now on, you won't have a problem. This is just you, your mindset, the way you obviously view yourself and your brothers."
"This isn't an objective thing, Mark. We are all thieves. That is what we..."
"Did," I cut her off. "That was what you did. For a decade. It isn't who you are. It doesn't have to be what you identify with in the future either. You have every chance to start over if you can just change that fucked-up way you see yourself. And don't bother trying to tell me I don't know what I am talking about. Because I live this life, Scotti. No one knows better than I do what it is like to worry about the law, to wonder if an enforcer is all anyone sees when they look at me."
"You're a lot more than that," she said, shaking her head. "You're a son and brother and uncle and a businessman and..."
"And you can be a sister, a wife, an aunt, a businesswoman. You can have all these things if you would get your head out of your ass and see that there is nothing wrong with you wanting and working toward them." I pushed away from the dresser and moved toward the bed, towering over her so that she had to angle her head up to look at me. When she did, I could see a deep sort of vulnerability in her eyes, like she wanted to believe me, wanted to put her faith to rest in my words, but couldn't get over ten years of seeing herself as nothing other than an avenging criminal. "You didn't even give it a fucking chance, baby. First test had you running scared. I know we haven't known each other that long, Scotti, but I think I've known you long enough to know you're not a chickenshit." Her eyes flashed at that, making it clear she didn't want to be considered that. "So stop acting like it."
"I'm not chickenshit," she objected immediately. "And while this has been largely about protecting myself and my brothers, I also didn't want to..." she trailed off, shaking her head.
