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I didn’t offer up that it was she who had pushed to stay in one spot. Her constant guilt about the fact that we were always moving weighed heavily on our mother’s mind.
“It’s my fault,” Dahlia mewled. “She wanted to leave. She had a feeling we’d been there too long before he came.”
Panic spiked through me as I realized what she was doing.
“Don’t do that to yourself,” I urged her. “It doesn’t do any good. What’s done is done, and what Dad did isn’t your fault.”
“Don’t call him that!” Dahlia barked, causing me to draw back.
The fire in her tone surprised me.
“That’s still what he is, like it or not,” I muttered.
“He might have been our sperm donor, Bee, but he’s not our father. A father doesn’t do what he did. He’s despicable.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
We lay in silence for a moment, each of us lost in our own thoughts, until Dahlia broke the quiet.
“You never did end up telling me where you snuck off to, where you got that money you were talking about.”
I blushed, the feel of Atlas on my skin was still too much for me to forget. Every night, when I tried to sleep, I closed my eyes and saw him there, behind my lids, his eyes blazing with passion as he took me to heights I’d never again see. I liked to think I was over the hump of forgetting him, but my sister’s words showed me that I was nowhere near that place.
“You don’t need to trouble yourself with what I’ve been up to.”
Dahlia snickered lightly. “I’m living vicariously through you. It’s no trouble at all.”
I grinned and snuggled back against her, pressing my forehead tightly to hers.
“Promise not to freak out?”
“I probably don’t have the energy,” she quipped.
“I went to rob one of Atlas’ casinos.”
Dahlia snorted, thinking I was joking, but her smile faded when she read the expression on my face.
“Are you out of your mind?” she almost yelled, pulling back.
I pressed my finger to my lips, head jerking toward the door as if I expected half a dozen guards to burst through and demand to know what was happening.
“No,” I said quietly. “I’m trying to get us the hell out of here, no matter the cost.”
“That’s insane. You know who Atlas is—what he is!”
I did. I knew all about him. And gods, I missed him with every pull of my soul.
“What happened? How much did you get?”
“I got caught,” I admitted, returning my eyes to her face.
Dahlia turned opaque, the repercussions of my words filling her with fear.
“What did he do to you, Bee?” she whispered, horror filling her face.
I laughed shortly. “He offered me a job.”
Dahlia’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
