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Goddamn, it frazzled my brain.
In the best way.
And with my past, it really shouldn’t.
Behave, Mary Catherine.
Don’t disappoint me.
Be a good girl.
All things I’d heard over the years, words that had been indoctrinated into me by both my parents.
Ugh, I much preferred it when Digger said it.
With that thought locked in mind, I turned on my heel and started toward the compound.
As I walked, I processed everything he’d said, and as I processed, I tried not to freak myself out.
I’d barely spoken to Auntie Lena in the past, aside from wishing her a ‘Happy Easter’ in church and telling her when I was eighteen what I intended to study at college. Oh, then there was my confirmation. She’d given me a necklace but she hadn’t spoken much to me.
She was, I’d found, an odd woman. Most said that the Aryans had fucked up her mind, twisted it, but surely, she wouldn’t let others be treated the same way she’d been?
God, I was pinning a lot of my hopes on a woman I barely knew and who had a few screws loose.
A woman who was married to one of the most insane men on the East Coast…
I released the breath I’d sucked in. “You can do this.”
Jesus, who was I kidding?
I couldn’t do dick.
I was—
“No! Digger had faith in you. Even if it goes wrong, he gave you a contingency plan. He’s there. He’ll come if you need him.”
The pep talk might have made me look like a crazy person on the side of the road—New York was used to worse—but it wormed a path inside me, lighting me up with hope.
To offset the cold, I was practically jogging on the road to the compound. That had nothing to do with the pounding of my heart though. Nothing whatsoever.
When I reached it and saw the guards at the gates, I gulped.
“You can’t be a chicken now. Not when Digger gave you that big speech. He wants you to pull on your big girl panties and own this. You can do it. You beat Kitty Frasier in debate class and everyoneknowsshe was Mrs. Ridley’s favorite,” I muttered beneath my breath. “If you can beat her, you can persuade Auntie Lena.”
The guards, I realized, had noticed me before I noticed them.
They stood at attention at the sight of me, and they grew tenser and tenser with every step I took.
Biting my lip, I didn’t bother announcing myself, aware that they’d know who I was.
Instead, I called out, “I’d like to speak with my aunt—Lena O’Donnelly.”
The guards flicked each other looks, but they didn’t have the chance to respond. The gates suddenly opened behind them and a Mini Cooper pulled off the driveway.
I stumbled out of the way, deciding that I didn’t need to end the day in the ER, and that was when the window rolled down and I realized I was a dumbass because there was only one brother who drove that car…
“Mary Catherine?”
