Page 160 of Revere: A Legacy Novel

She loved him for that.

She loved him for a lot, but especially for that.

“How was your flight yesterday?” she asked.

“Packed. I got my shit at the apartment handled, though, and I’ve got a meet with the Outfit boss today. I should be back by tomorrow if all goes well.”

“It will.”

She said it more for herself than him.

“I’ll let you go. Don’t ever keep a Queen waiting, Catty.”

“Stop trying to psyche me out, Cross.”

He hummed under his breath, saying, “Love you, babe.”

“Love you.”

Catherine hung up the phone, and glanced at her parents’ large home. Cross didn’t realize it, and she hadn’t freely offered the information, but she was nervous to have even a conversation with her mother about working together. Or rather, her working for Catrina.

The majority of her life had been spent with her mother hiding every little bit of her business that she could from Catherine. Catrina rarely answered questions about what she did, or how it all worked. She did not talk about being a Queen Pin to her children. Catherine’s continued curiosity only made her mother shut down the topic even more.

Like she was worried Catherine might follow those footsteps.

Now, here they were.

Doing exactly that.

Funny how life worked.

Before she could overthink it much more, Catherine got out of her car, and headed for the house. She found her mother where Catrina said she would be—working in the office upstairs. Catrina barely looked up from the folders she was flipping through as Catherine sat down in one of the two high-back leather chairs in front of the desk.

“You know,” Catrina said, “when you were a young teen, I knew you liked to snoop around in our office just to see what you could find.”

“Did you?” Catherine asked.

Catrina glanced up, and her amusement was clear. “Things don’t typically move themselves, Catty.”

“Fair enough. I mean, I didn’t try to hide it, either.”

“No, your interest in this business was always quite obvious.”

“Not the business,” Catherine said quickly. “You, Ma.”

Catrina froze. “Pardon?”

“The business was only a very small part of it. What I was interested in the most was you. The things you did, and why. How you did them, and why you had chosen to do it. I wondered where you came from and how you got to where you are because those were things you didn’t share. These parts of you—the Queen, her business, and all the rest—were locked up tight. The more I questioned, the harder you shut me down. I wanted to know who she was because she was still my mother.”

“I only wanted to be your mother, and nothing more,” Catrina admitted. “I was never supposed to be a mother, Catherine. Not that I couldn’t be one, but because women like me typically choose a different life path, and children are almost never a part of the equation.”

“I get that.”

“When I had the chance to take that path, and continue being Queen, I chose to do so in a way that kept the two separate as much as was possible. Or, I tried.”

“But you’re always her, Ma.”

Catrina smiled. “Always.”