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“What? If they didn’t want me getting up to mischief, they should have sent me to an all-girls camp with better supervision!”
“Oh, my God! You’re awful!”
“And you wouldn’t change me for the world!”
“I wouldn’t,” I agreed, loving my best friend exactly as she was.
“Are you just getting off work?” Van leaned forward as if to scrutinize her screen.
“Yeah.” I glanced at my now-cleared windshield. “I should get home. Janie is working a day shift tomorrow.”
Van frowned. “That woman is going to work herself to death.”
“Not if I can help it,” I muttered. Secretly, I wondered how the hell Janie was going to get by once I was away in College Station, and she was here in Houston, especially now that Dad was out of the picture. Not that he stayed out of it very long. She had kicked him out at least four different times over the last nine years, and he always weaseled his way back into the house and her heart.
“Mace, you can’t be taking care of your family forever. You have to live your life at some point.”
“I know,” I said, but I really didn’t. I didn’t know how to make that break. I didn’t know how to set that boundary. “I will.”
Van gave me a look that said she didn’t believe me. I didn’t blame her. I had said a million times I would put myself first, and I never did.
We made plans to get together the next day and ended our call. I fastened my seatbelt and left the parking lot. My windshield wipers squealed and clacked as they slipped across the glass and swiped away the drizzle. That was something else I needed to replace before I went in for my inspection. The right headlight, too. It had been noticeably dimmer the last few nights.
I couldn’t really complain too much. I had traded four grand and a year of weekly cleaning with Mrs. Martinez, one of our elderly neighbors, to buy it. The car was eleven years old and had more than 160K miles on it now. Regular maintenance was all it needed to run reliably.
When I pulled into the open parking space for our townhouse, I noticed all the lights were on which struck me as odd. Janie always kept them off when the rooms weren’t in use, and this late at night, she and my three half-siblings should have all been in bed.
An uneasy ball of anxiety swirled in my belly. Had my dad come back? Was I going to walk up to the door and hear them yelling? Hear him punching a wall or a door? Or Janie? I steeled myself for the possibility that I would be the one bearing the brunt of his anger tonight. He liked to accuse me of betraying him by refusing to leave any time Janie kicked him out of the house. As if I wanted to follow him around to the gambling dens and bars where he wasted all of our money...
Dreading what likely awaited me, I got out of my car and double-checked that the doors were locked. I hefted my backpack onto my shoulder and slipped my phone into the front pocket of my hoodie. I kept my keys in hand, always worried about being mugged despite this being a fairly nice neighborhood.
As I approached our front door, my gaze moved to the one next to ours. I tried not to think about the man who lived there. I really did. I told myself again and again that it was stupid to be so infatuated with him. He was a little older, but that wasn’t the reason my crush on him was futile.
No, he was dangerous.
And not, like, drives a fast car dangerous or drinks like my dad dangerous. Organized crime dangerous. Mafia dangerous. Russianbratva.Vory v zakone.He belonged to Nikolai Kalasnikov’s family, the most powerful mob family in Houston.
Danila Cherevin.
The man I wanted to bemyman.
There had been a moment, at Christmas, after he delivered a pile of gifts for my siblings and gift cards for Janie, when I had gone to thank him. We had shared a kiss. Arealkiss. Not the fumbling, clumsy kisses I had shared before Danny.
That was the moment I thought he might actually bemyDanny. The way he had touched me, the way he had kissed me, the way he had looked at me. I had been trembling inside, my heart racing and shivers of excitement running all through me. If he had dragged me off to his bedroom, I would have gone willingly. I would have torn off his clothes and mine and clawed at his back while I finally learned what it felt like to make love.
But that hadn’t happened.
Danny had sent me away with a promise that someday soon, when the time was right, we would be together.
Except now he was gone.
He had left weeks earlier, with only a few minutes warning. He had stopped by Whataburger while I was on shift, given me a phone number to use if I needed help and a promise to find me when he was back. He hadn’t told me where he was going or when he would return. He had made it clear he couldn’t be contacted.
It was all very mysterious, and I knew better than to ask questions. Wherever he had gone and whatever he was doing, it probably wasn’t legal. I didn’t want to know exactly how illegal either.
As I stepped up to the door to unlock it, I realized it was quiet inside the house. I stuck the key in the deadbolt and turned it only to discover the door hadn’t been locked. My anxiety peaked. Why hadn’t Janie shut off the lights or locked the door?
I quickly entered the house and found it exactly as messy as it always was. Paw Patrol tumblers empty or almost empty and Goldfish cracker crumbs on the coffee table. Hannah’s Mirabel doll on the couch. Colt’s baseball glove and shoes tossed near the front door. Daisy’s swing draped in a blanket with her favorite noisy toys on the floor nearby.
