Mary’s phone buzzed. She read the text, then handed her phone to John.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, handing it back to Mary.
“What’s going on?”
“There’s someone asking about you at the counter,” Mary answered.
My breath caught in my throat.Are they after me?
Mary pulled up the security feeds on her computer, and we watched as John greeted the two people standing at the end of the counter.
He shook their hands with a smile and talked to them for a minute before they left.
I sucked in a gulp of air as the door shut behind them.
“Who were they?” The guys reminded me of Mary’s nephew. Only more menacing. Their smiles looked fake, even on camera, and they never stopped looking around.
“I don’t know.”
When John returned to the office, I repeated the question.
“I don’t know, but they’re not who they claim to be.” He tapped his phone screen before putting it to his ear. “Jamie, I need you to pull up the Grannie’s feed and have Doug run facial recognition on the two guys who just left.”
After a brief pause, he said, “Thanks, have Jay send someone to Grannie’s.”
“Nina, for now, I don’t want you leaving without an escort.”
Mary paid me well, but I couldn’t afford SSI’s rates. “I can’t afford—”
“Don’t worry about the cost; you’re family, and we protect our own,” Mary said.
This time, my tears were from gratitude.
I’m family?More than anything, I wanted that to be true. Not because they wouldn’t charge me for protecting me, but because I’d always wanted a big, crazy family.
“Thank you. Can I still work?” I couldn’t afford to lose hours; Nana depended on me to help with the bills.
“Yes.” John glanced at his phone. “But not until Matt gets here. He’ll stay with you today. We’ll figure out our next steps before your shift is over.”
Overnight I’d gone from being a nobody, a boring working college student, to needing a bodyguard.
What the fuck were my birth parents involved in?
Chapter 22
Austin
John’s number flashed on the caller ID of my personal cell phone late Thursday morning.
“Winchester.”
“Get your ass to the SSI office and be prepared to fill me in.”
My first instinct was to tell him I didn’t take orders from him, but I had just enough sense to recognize that he’d only call if something bad had happened.
“What happened?”
“Two more guys came to Grannie’s asking about Nina.”
