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Maxim:You did.
Me:I won’t bring it up again.
Maxim:That is wise.
Maxim:I know that boy Harris has been sniffing around you… Take care of yourself, katyonok. You are aware of the consequences to those around you if you don’t.
The threat was both reassuring and annoying.
Everything about this conversation had been.
I liked Franklin Harris. He was cute. But the threat was clear. If he touched me, he’d lose a hand then his life just like Timofai Stepanov had last year.
I curled my fingers in on themselves and straightened up.
My choices might be limited, but I wasn’t going to be like Mama or my sisters.
There was more to life than a wedding ring.
52
STAR
“OMG,Star, Link was riding behind us thewhhhhoolllleeway from Jersey! It was so freakin’ cool!” Katina shrieked as she flung herself at me.
All thin arms and spindly legs clambered around me, holding me tight, so tightly it hurt, but it hurtgood.
Some days, I was sure she was the only thing I’d ever done right, and I hadn’t even made her, had just saved her life apparently.
Just.
Thinking of a world that didn’t have this little girl in it made me realize how grim a place it would be.
Pressing a kiss to her cheek, I closed my eyes as I hugged her back, reveling in the sweet scent of her shampoo and the perfume she’d sneaked from my room to spritz on herself.
The notion made me grin. “Thief.”
Katina gasped. “I’m not a thief.”
“No? Who sneaked into whose room to use my perfume?”
“You weren’t using it,” she pointed out.
“She’s not wrong,” Conor said easily from his position in the hallway where he was leaning against the wall, watching us.
“I’ve got two people ganging up on me now,” I grumbled as Katina released a giggle then let go of me and hurtled into Conor too. He released a choked breath as she… Well, somehow, she kicked him in the process of hugging him and maybe elbowed him in the gut all at the same time.
My kid, for someone so coordinated in gymnastics class, could orchestrate a calamity while walking in a straight line.
“You did it! You brought her back to me! Thank you!” Her cry of joy, of thanks, made tears prick my eyes.
Goddammit, D was right.
Hewasmaking me mushy.
Conor, still looking winded from the multiple blows, returned her embrace. “You don’t have to thank me, Kat. My job is to always bring her home.”
I clenched my jaw at those words.
