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“You should go, milaya devushka,” Anya urged gently. “She doesn’t make idle threats. I would know.”
“You would know because you programmed me,” Sammy snarled, leaning down so she was eye to eye with the older woman. “Just like you did Nova. And now Wren. But you won’t do that to Abi.”
“I’m only trying to protect those I love,” Anya murmured.
“Abi, let’s go.” Sammy pulled hard on my hand, causing me to jerk toward her. “Shit. Sorry. Are you okay?” She quickly righted me, while Anya reached over the table to steady me at the same time.
Anya made a displeased noise. “You need to be more careful with her. Do not be pushing and pulling any which way on her. What if you cause her to fall next time?”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. You know, don’t you?” Sammy half lifted me out of the chair and onto my feet, surprising me so much that I didn’t protest. Keeping one arm locked around my back, she stabbed a finger in her mother’s direction. “Stay away from this baby. Maybe if it’s a boy, you can visit him. I dunno yet. My brother will have to decide on that. But I swear to God, if it’s a girl, you will never see the child.”
I barely saw Anya flinch before Sammy was practically carrying me out of the restaurant. Glancing back at Anya, I saw that she had sat back down, her face once more a mask of nothingness.
“Why were you so cruel to your mom?” I hissed at Sammy.
“You call it cruel. I call it protecting the ones I love most.”
“That is literally what your mother just said, and you were a total bitch to her. She wants to protect those she loves, just like you,” I reasoned.
Her teeth snapped together as she increased her pace. “No, Abi. Not like me. Never in a million years like me.”
As we stepped into the foyer outside the elevators, Jarrett was leaning against a wall. When he saw me with Sammy, he immediately straightened. “Abi, are you hurt? Damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone.”
“I’m not hurt,” I assured him. “Sammy just treats me like I’m a child who can’t function on my own.”
“Says the girl who has to be rescued every other day,” she groused, ignoring Jarrett as she walked around him to push the call button for the elevator. “If I have gray hair at twenty-four, it’s because of you. I’m going to lock you in a house made of rubber on an island surrounded by a hundred battleships.”
“You’re very dramatic today,” I complained, trying to wiggle free. When she wouldn’t release me, I looked at Jarrett. “A little help would be nice.”
Sammy snorted. “Dawson isn’t stupid. If he thought you were in danger, he would have already attempted to detain me. Key word, attempted.”
She spared him a glance, and he shrugged, his hazel eyes watching the two of us warily. “But he knows you are safe with me, so he’s decided to reserve his energy for the real battle—my mother.”
“Seriously, your family is so weird.”
“Says the girl who fell in love with the biggest red flag in the family.”
CHAPTER FORTY
abi
When the elevator doors slid open, Sammy forced me in and hit the button for the penthouse instead of the lobby. I felt a little bit of petty smugness that her arms must have been getting tired from having to take so much of my weight. But she didn’t release me for a single second, moving so she was blocking Jarrett from joining us.
He could have brushed past her or even lifted her out of the way, but he just stood there, frowning at the scene like it was a confusing puzzle that needed to be solved. His reluctance to touch her left me shaking my head. Maddie used to tell me stories of how her dad battled entire armies with just a few men in war-torn countries.
Yet he was cautious of a woman who had no apparent weapon but the sneer on her face and the sharpness of her tongue?
“Call me if you need me, Abi,” he finally said as the doors began to close.
“You won’t need him,” Sammy said confidently.
“It kind of scares me that Jarrett Dawson is skittish of you. I’m trying to determine whether that says more about you or him.” The elevator pinged, announcing our arrival, and the doors opened soundlessly right into the spacious villa-style suite.
“He and Mom trade favors. The last one he collected on, Mom took me with her. I might have gotten a little overzealous. The pictures I showed him as proof left him a little…squeamish.” She leaned her head closer to my ear. “But your friend Maddie hasn’t had to worry about her bio-mom hurting her again, has she?”
While I was digesting that, she half dragged, half carried me off the elevator.
“Daddy, I’m home!” she singsonged.
