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Eight
“Isit my imagination that their lips are blue?” Farrell asked, peering at Lily and Stella as they splashed in thepool.
“It must be,” Nico said calmly. “The pool’sheated.”
“Maybe, but it’s not exactly balmy out,” Farrellsaid.
“They’re fine.” Nico took another drink of Scotch. “People soak in hot tubs outside when there’s snow on theground.”
Farrell leaned back in his chair, watching the girls play. Sometimes when he looked at Lily, he could see how Jenna must have appeared at her age, could imagine her being young and carefree, without the sadness she still carried close to her heart, a shield he sometimes felt he would never be able topenetrate.
Some of it was her father’s murder, but Farrell knew it was more about her mother, about the alcoholism that had dominated her childhood and the way she and Kate had had to grow up too quickly, cleaning up after her mum and making excuses to theneighbors.
Her shame hung over her like a veil Farrell longed tolift.
It didn’t matter that he loved her more for all her strength. That he respected and admired her. That he knew she was his match in part because he knew she could handle anything withgrace.
Rise above anything withgrace.
Jenna was reason and quiet strength against all his rage, all his hardedges.
But it wouldn’t have worked if she hadn’t felt rage and fear along the way. If she wasn’t at least a little like him, even if the reasons weredifferent.
She didn’t try to change him. Didn’t try to reason away the anger that was as much a part of him as the skin that covered his bones, the scar that marked hisface.
She was able to sit quietly with Ethan at the institution, demanding nothing from him, because she knew what it meant to be unreachable. Knew that even when you couldn’t show it, it mattered that someone was there withyou.
“We might have to pay a visit to Greece,” Nico saidquietly.
Farrell looked at him. “Greece?”
Nico nodded. “It’s gotten rough over there. We need to put our footdown.”
“I thought we were waiting to take over Greece,” Farrellsaid.
“We are, but if we don’t lay down the law now, it’ll be harder to bring under controllater.”
“What do you suggest?” Farrellasked.
He wasn’t up for an all-out war in Greece, not when they were working onBoston.
“Enforce a cut,” Nico said. “It’s easy enough for them to pay. They’ll do it thinking it will keep us out of their business — and it will, for awhile — but until we decide what to do with it long term, it will be a reminder to them that we’rethere.”
Farrell nodded. “Makessense.”
“You up for a day trip?” Nicoasked.
Farrell watched as Lily and Stella practiced handstands in the pool. He didn’t love the idea of leaving Lily so close to Christmas, even for aday.
He liked the idea of leaving Jenna evenless.
He’d been carrying the ring around in his pocket, waiting for the right time to propose, but the longer he waited, the more complicated it seemed to get. Today Christophe and Charlotte would arrive, which would mean more people, more activity, and less private time withJenna.
And now Nico was talking about fuckingGreece.
The week was supposed to be about family, a time to reinforce to Jenna that she and Lily were still his priority, that there was still room for the stability she craved within the lifestyle she’d been so hesitant tojoin.
But business was business. Their security — and Jenna and Lily’s safety — depended on squashing even a whisper of revolt before it become aproblem.
