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“Trouble,” Sidney says, “as in danger.”
“The tedious sort like your parents?”
I laugh and Sidney cuts me a savage look that makes me want to make her all hot and bothered. Which, I don’t think was her fucking intent.
“No, Vic. Trouble like mafia.”
“There’s mafia trouble?” she asks as she strides in and closes the door. “You should put on a shirt, as hot as all that is.” Vic waves a hand over my chest. “You’re a little too distracting.”
She turns to Sidney. “Don’t you think?”
“I don’t think anything,” she mutters.
I head off to my room and pull on a clean T-shirt. My phone’s charged, so I call my brother.
“Mom said Sidney’s grandmother rocked up, and she sent her to your place,” he says.
“Yeah, she’s here now. But I’m calling—”
“Donny’s having a good think about behavior adjustment and how to treat women, Rose says the baby’s good. They’re taking them both to Westhead Hospital. Protocol. But . . . that’s not why you’re calling.”
With a breath, I take him through everything Sidney saw in New York, her dad, and how the mafia might be looking.
“You and I’ll have words, Mack.”
“Like you’d go telling Dakota’s secrets.”
He half growls because I’ve got him. “Fair enough, Mack, but this is about more than a secret. We’re talking law stuff.”
“Well,” I say, “do law stuff.”
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck you too.”
We both laugh. “I’ll be in touch. Keep your woman safe.”
When I join the other two, Sidney is much calmer. It’s clear she idolizes her gran. Vic.
I’ve been jealous of her grandmother.
It’s almost funny.
But there are more important things on hand. I lean against the wall and fold my hands, looking at where they’re sitting on the sofa.
Sidney’s still a little mad at the edges as her gaze slips over me, returning to the scene of the crime over and over like she can’t help it.
And Vic? She’s all disappointed I’ve got my shirt on. But it’s not a creepy disappointment. It’s more she enjoyed the view like she might with anything she found visually pleasing.
“I need to know that the princess is gonna be all right,” I say.
Her brows climb a little as her mouth curves in a small smile. “Princess? I’ve been telling your princess she’s safe from the mafia. My concern has been her damn parents. And I love my daughter, but she’s controlling as all get out, and she’s hellbent on turning Sidney into her.”
“Sidney’s all Sidney,” I say.”
“Sidney is here,” says Sidney.
“Your mother likes to undermine your self-worth.”
