Page 50 of Ghost Among Lies

"I'm not sure I'll ever want to have a baby again."

I absorbed what she told me and let it play around in my head. When we’d dated, we talked about starting a family, but it was never something we agreed was a necessity in our relationship. Back then, we only cared about getting away from our parents and getting the hell out of the town that held nothing but bad memories for the both of us.

"Then we won't. I love and want you. It's you I need in my future. Anything more than that is just a bonus."

Sloane unbuckled her belt and crawled into my lap. She might've spent our years apart turning into an assassin, but deep down, she was still the woman who sought out my arms for comfort.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

SLOANE

The guards the Astors hired were a waste of space. They didn't even realize we were on them until we had our hands around their necks, and they were halfway to bedtime.

"Do you think all rich people hire from the same idiot agency?" Nyx dropped her guard at our feet. "I'm not sure what their role here is supposed to be, but they suck at protection. A trained monkey could've done a better job."

I had to agree. Even the guards who secured the gates in the community I grew up in were useless. They were no better than rent-a-cops who shouldn't be allowed to carry guns.

"Enough talking," Anita snapped. "Let's move."

"I wonder what crawled up her ass," Nyx leaned over and whispered a little too loudly.

I kept my mouth shut. Nyx was the only one of us who had a death wish. Lilith and I knew better than to push Anita's buttons when she was already in a mood.

We moved as a group up the driveway toward the house. There were no other guards on the property, so we didn't encounter any trouble.

"How do we want to go about getting inside?" Nyx asked when we were ten feet from the front door.

"You're the one who wanted to do things the right way, so I figured we could try knocking on the door to see where that gets us."

Nyx rolled her eyes at me. "Tell a person once she can't kidnap a child, and suddenly, she's a smart-ass."

I ignored her dramatics and raised my hand to knock on the very expensive and probably heavy ornate wooden door. When it finally opened minutes later, I was forced to duck or take a bat to the temple.

"Fucking hell." The young woman didn't stop with one swing. She let out a roar and attempted to use me as a damn piñata.

"Enough!" Anita grabbed the bat and threw it across the driveway. "We aren't here to hurt you. We just want to talk."

"You know," Nyx piped in. "I never realized until now how many times you use the word enough. One would think you're constantly breaking up arguments."

Anita cut her a look that could scorch the earth. Nyx was testing her patience, and by the looks of things, Anita didn't have much left. "Shut the fuck up and get inside before I decide to use this bat to bash your head in."

"Tsk. Tsk. Not the best way to convince the au pair here we come in peace."

I pushed Nyx inside before Anita resorted to bloodshed. Lilith merely shook her head, and Hayes' gaze bounced between us all. I could only imagine what he was thinking.

"What do you want?"

I had to give the young woman credit. She held her ground despite the odds being five against one.

"We just want to talk about Benjamin, Cassie."

"How do you know my name?" Cassie's voice wobbled.

"I know what I'm about to tell you is going to be a lot, but you need to know I'm telling you the truth. My name is Sloane, and I'm Benjamin's biological mother. I have a whole dossier on you. I know you were brought on as Benjamin's au pair when he was one year old, and you were only seventeen. I know you've been with him ever since. You live here in the house and are paid a measly salary, considering you don't get any time off. I know you lost your parents when you were seventeen, and the Astors took you instead of putting you into the foster system. I'm sure it seemed like a miracle to you at the time."

"It didn't," Cassie cut me off.

"What didn't?"