AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Laughing, we obeyed our orders.
“Guess what?” Bane said. “I’m moving in right upstairs, Tricky. What do you think about that?”
Her mouth formed a tiny “o” of surprise, eyes huge. “Really?”
“Really, really.”
“Yay,” she squealed, bouncing in his hold. “Aunty Genny, you are too?”
Genny’s smile faded. She flicked between Sunny, Tricky, and Liam. “No,” she finally said. Genny lifted her out of Bane’s arms and onto the floor. She kneeled in front of her. “I won’t be upstairs, but I’m never far from you, Tricky. Here.” Genevieve placed a phone in her small hands. “If anything happens—if Daddy gets himself in trouble and needs me to save him again, just press one and I’ll be there.”
They hugged tight. “You too.”
I didn’t know who she was talking to until my phone came flying at me. I yelped, fumbling to catch it. When did she get it out of my pocket?
“I put my number in there.”
“’Cause you’ll kick butt if anyone messes with me too?”
“Nah. It’s so you can let me know when we’re doing this threesome.” She popped a kiss on my lips, pulling a surprised squawk out of me. What was with these Merchants dropping kisses on every unsuspecting mouth they came across?! And why a threesome? Who for the love of all that’s good, would be the third?
She saluted the boys. “Until I grace you with my presence again, goodbye, my brothers.” She blew out the door, leaving us in the bewildered, head-clouded state that was the true gift following the grace of her presence.
“Elizabeth,” Liam said. “Kenzie has something for you.”
I looked at the clock in the middle of presenting her gift. Nearly eight twenty. If I grabbed a cab now, I’d get there just after Charlie put her down for the night.
I caught Sunny looking at me and quickly fixed on Tricky. “Here you are, love. I hope it’s perfect.”
Tricky gasped, pulling it out. “Wow. Daddy, look. Daddy, look.” She jumped up and down, showing off her missing teeth, rushing to put the jacket on. “It’s so pretty. Thank you.” She threw her arms around my neck, knocking me on my butt.
I squeezed her back, kissing her on the forehead. “You are so welcome. Have Daddy take a picture of you with your new phone.”
Elizabeth loved that idea. I backed toward the door as the photo shoot commenced. “I’m tired,” I told Sunny. “I’m going to hit it early. Bye, guys,” I said, raising my voice. “See you in the morning.”
I sped out of the apartment into the elevator. After a long, stressful day where I embedded myself in a criminal organization, and therefore broke my biggest rule, what I needed more than anything was to hold my daughter—reassure myself that I still could.
Don’t break the law. Eight months on the street, I never gave in to the temptation to steal a bag of chips from the corner store or run a dime bag from one street corner to the next. If I was arrested, that’d be all the ammo Charlie needed to prove me an unfit mother and win custody of Laurel for good.
Eight months, I followed the rules. Two weeks with the Merchant Princes, and I broke every single one.
“Right here,” I told the cab driver. He let me out five houses down from her window, and I crept up, peering through as Charlie sat down with her popcorn bowl. I didn’t waste a minute pulling out my new knife and scaling the tree.
Laurel paused mid-nibble on her toes, blinking up at me. Tension easing, I lifted the window, slipping inside.
“Da!”
I laughed softly, settling her in my arms. “Very close, baby. Off by just one letter. Try Ma. Mama.”
“Da.” She gazed at me like I was a curious thing, spouting strange sounds. I made faces at her, laughing as she laughed at me—her two tiny little teeth brightening her smile. Laurel tried gnawing on her fist, so I sat down to nurse. While she ate, I told her about my day.
“His name is Ryker. His dad was a member of the Kravet crime family. That’s how he and Sunny met. While their fathers worked out terms, the two boys were sent to play outside. They didn’t see each other that often when they were little, then the two ended up running across each other at high school orientation. Sunny’s siblings were older than him and had their own friends, while Ryker knew what it was like to live a double life. Sunny said they were meant to be brothers.
“Imagine that, huh?” I stroked her curls. “Those two go off and build an empire together, and here your mom is, she doesn’t speak to a single friend she had in high school. Although, it didn’t help that by my first day of orientation, everyone in my neighborhood knew what Grandma did to Grandpa,” I whispered.
