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I nod, deciding not to tell her that she’s trading one gang-bought outfit for another.
I’d rather have her in Reaper clothes than in anything from West Point.
The confused mash of emotions I’ve felt toward the Reapers pales in comparison to how much I hate West Point for what they did to my sister.
Chloe slips into the clothes I hand her, smoothing down her dyed blonde hair as she glances around the room and then back to me. “I can’t believe you’ve been stuck here. That you put yourself through all this for me.”
“It wasn’t the same as what you went through with West Point,” I say, wanting to reassure her. “I hated them when I first came here. They scared the shit out of me. They’reReapers, right? None of them trusted me when I showed up begging for their help, but things changed a bit over time. I sort of got to know them.”
“What are they like?”
“Complicated. Dangerous. But they’re also… more than that. They’re nothing like I expected, honestly.” I clear my throat, steeling myself as I speak the words I’ve been avoiding ever since we left the warehouse burning in our wake. “We’re going to have to get out of Halston, Chloe.”
Her face drops, worry and uncertainty crossing her features. “Are you sure?”
Fuck, I wish I wasn’t. And not because I’m so attached to my old job or any of the people I knew at Club M. Not even because our dad, our last living relative, is here.
The reason I don’t want to leave is because of the three men in his house.
“Yeah,” I say with a reassuring smile, careful to keep my thoughts off my face. “We’ll wait a couple of days until the dust settles, but we definitely need to relocate somewhere safer.”
While I’m grateful for the protection Maddoc is offering by insisting that we stick around for a few days, I know that the only true safety to be found will be away from this city. Away from West Point and Frank and Capside and all of it.
Chloe twists a lock of hair between her fingers. “Where will we go?”
I’ve got no idea, but I keep smiling and fake it. “Anywhere you want. We’ll look into good schools for you, then we’ll just pick one in a new state and start over there.”
“But what about your job?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll find another one. Stripping isn’t exactly the kind of career that’s hard to break into, wherever we end up.”
“And… Dad?” Chloe asks hesitantly.
“FuckFrank,” I say fiercely, hoping like hell she won’t try to defend him in any way. But her shoulders relax, and I realize that whatever softness she still had toward him dried up and died when he sold her.
Good.
“We’ve got nothing to keep us here in Halston, Chloe,” I say, gentling my voice. “And it will be fun, right? We can go anywhere. Maybe head down south for some better weather?”
“Yeah, maybe,” she says, her eyes lighting up a little. “Maybe I could even pick a school by a beach somewhere?”
Neither of us have ever even been to a beach, but why not? We really will be starting over from scratch—including me figuring out how to pay for her to go to college now that I’ve handed over every cent I saved toward it—but to keep seeing that light in her eyes, I’ll make it happen. Whatever it takes.
I drag in a deep breath, and the movement makes the wound at my side twinge with pain.
Shit. I really do need to get it looked at.
I toe off the heavy boots Dante gave me to wear for the mission tonight, then cross to the bed and pull back the covers before glancing at Chloe.
“You’ve been through a lot tonight,” I tell her. “Get some rest while I go let Logan stitch up this scratch, okay? We can figure out everything else in the morning.”
“Yeah. All right.”
Exhaustion is written clearly across her pale face, and she doesn’t push back against my suggestion, crawling up onto the bed and curling up beneath the blankets. She even lets me tuck her in, something I haven’t done in years.
“Sleep tight,” I whisper, pressing a kiss to her temple. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
As I pad over to the door and turn the light off, her eyelids are already falling shut.
