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He was fishing for something specific, but I had no idea what. “Nothing except the whole keeping to ourselves part. At least not that I can thinkof.”
“Don’t worry about it then.” He motioned for me to continue. “But at some point, thatchanged?”
“Well, like I told Marco, my mom took trips every now and then. When I was fourteen, she left on one, and she didn’t comeback.”
I hesitated, my throat constricting. I’d had seven years to get over that loss, but it still stabbed just as deep. I didn’t even know whether to be furious with Mom or to grieve. Had she abandoned me by choice, or had something happened to her out there, wherever she’dgone?
“You’ve been your own for seven years?” Nate said. He shook his head. “That must have beentough.”
I had the urge to go to him and let him wrap those brawny arms around me. But how had he known it’d been seven years since I was fourteen? Had Marco’s assistant heard the twenty-first birthday talk in thebar?
“It was okay at first,” I said, feeling the need to defend Mom, even though no one had criticized her directly. “My mother owned the apartment we lived in. We had a joint bank account with plenty of savings to cover food and the bills. I could handle myself. But then—the superintendent realized I was living there on my own. He called Child Services and the police. I couldn’t stay. They started tracking the bank account, so I had to stop usingit.”
My voice faded. I looked down at my lap. I didn’t want to talk about the rest of it. About the time on the streets, about the allegiances I’d had to form to stay alive. “Thatwas tough. That’s all you really need to know. But I found my way out. Kylie and I got an apartment of our own last month. I work in a warehouse. I’mgood.”
My hand had leapt to my necklace of its own accord. My thumb worried the latch, flicking the locket open andclosed.
West’s jaw twitched. Aaron’s gaze jerked to my hand. “That necklace,” he said. “Your mother gave that toyou?”
“She did. Right before the last time she left.” The strangest feeling crept up over me, that I didn’t need to tell him I hadn’t opened it until yesterday. Something about it—they all alreadyknew.
“Aaron’s a bit of a magpie,” Marco teased. “An eye for theshinies.”
Aaron ignored him. He took another step forward, as if to ask to see it. My fingers closed around the locket. Kylie grasped my other hand, squeezing itreassuringly.
“WhatI’dlike to know,” West said, his eyes still narrowed, “is what you remember from before you came to New YorkCity.”
Before. My pulse lurched, and my mouth went dry. I didn’t know why. There was nothing so terrifying about it. Because the truth was: “I don’t remember anything.” My voice quavered. I paused to steady myself. “I know we moved here from someplace else, but... Everything before is a blank. My mom and I never talked aboutit.”
I’d tried to ask, once, when I was ten. Mom’s mouth had gone so tight and tense I’d been ashamed before the question had even finished comingout.
You don’t need to think about that,she’d said.Not for a long, longtime.
“So you haven’t got the slightest clue,” West started up. Before he could finish his thought, Nate swung around towardhim.
“Leave her alone,” he growled. “I know you can feel she’s telling the truth just as well as I can. Do you really think it’s fair to dump everything on her all atonce?”
West shut up, but that didn’t stop him from glowering at the beefier guy. Marco chuckled, as if he found their squabblingamusing.
“I don’t get it,” I said, sitting up a little straighter. “You keep talking as if you know more about this—about me, and my mom—than I do. What’s really going on here? Why are you all evenhere?”
And why do you make me feel like I want to somehow jump all of you simultaneously?Yeah, I’d keep that question tomyself.
Aaron’s tone stayed calm and even. “We knew you a long time ago,” he said. “Before you came to the city, when we were all children. The fact that you don’t remember... My best guess is that your mother suppressed those memories to make it easier for you not to give yourselfaway.”
“Givewhataway? And what do you mean, ‘suppressed’? You’re talking like she put a magic spell on me orsomething.”
I laughed a little, but the guys didn’t take it as a joke. They exchanged a glance. Aaron ran his hand over his golden-blond hair. “That is one way of puttingit.”
“Let’s just say there’s alotyour mother didn’t tell you.” Marco pipedup.
Nate shifted toward me. The strong, protective energy of his presence washed over my body, settling my nerves. “There’s something you need to know about what we are, and what you are,” hesaid.
“Hold on,” West interrupted. “If we have to handle her with kid gloves, fine. But that one doesn’t need to hear this. She’s got no place in this conversation.” He pointed atKylie.
My fingers tightened around Kylie’s. “My best friend stays. That’s non-negotiable.”
“I don’t think you’ll get very far arguing the point,” Marco said. “I already triedonce.”
