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“What? What is it?” She was so damn sick of being kept in the dark. Maybe if she’d pushed Mama more she would have told her what was going on.
Then, she wouldn’t be in this situation.
You can survive this.
“From what we know of your dad, he, well, he wasn’t always on the right side of the law,” Jake imparted.
“What?” She sank into a chair. “No.”
“I know this is hard to hear, sweetheart,” Elsie said. “We tried so many times to convince Penelope to leave him, but she wouldn’t. I guess she loved him. He could be charming. So much fun. But then he had this darker side.”
That wasn’t what Mama had told her. She’d said he was kind and fun. She’d never said he was a criminal.
“That’s not true! Mama would have told me.” She stood, anger thrumming through her. Why were they lying to her? Mama was gone and her dad was dead, and all they wanted to talk badly about him?
“I’m sorry,” Elsie said.
Rage flooded Cat at the pity in her eyes. She didn’t need pity. She needed answers.
“Mama wouldn’t lie to me.”
Still, unease filled her. Because she never thought that she’d leave her either. Getting up, she ran from the room. She didn’t go far though. Her legs didn’t want to carry her. Instead, she slumped against the wall and slid down it so she was sitting on her ass.
What was she going to do without Mama?
It had always been them against the world. Her friends lived hundreds of miles away. Cat had never felt this alone. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she sniffled. She hated this.
She was strong. Always strong.
Leaning her head against her knees, it was all she could do to hold back the sobs.
“Leave her for a bit, Elsie,” Jake said through the open door.
“But she’s hurting. And she has every right to be upset, Jake. How could Penelope just leave her like that?”
“She thinks she’s doing the right thing. It was probably to protect us. But especially Cat. She knows we’ll look after her.”
“Of course we will. If Cat will let us. But what if she tries to leave? To find Penelope?”
“Shit,” Jake said.
“Do you think we should have told her about De Leon?” Elsie whispered.
Cat tensed. Who?
“Christ, no. You’re already worried about Cat running off and you want to give her a target?”
“A target?” Elsie asked.
“We don’t know whether De Leon was involved in Pete’s murder,” Jake said. “But there’re rumors Pete was working for him. He could know what happened to him, could know what Penelope is running from. Hell, he could be the reason she’s running. We have no idea. What I do know is that De Leon is bad news, and that Cat won’t be able to resist going after him. It’s way too dangerous. Alejandro De Leon is a bad man. He’ll kill her without a hint of remorse. Or worse.”
Worse?
She swallowed heavily and quietly got to her feet to creep upstairs.
At least now she had a name. Alejandro De Leon.
It was a start.
1
“You sure you want to do this, Cat?” Immy asked through the phone. She had them all on speaker.
Was she sure? Nope.
But this was what she’d been working toward ever since Mama left. Well, she’d had to finish school first. She’d promised Mama.
However, now it was time to set things in motion.
“I have to,” she told Immy. “You’ve made sure their regular server is out?”
“Yep, I just caught her call in to work saying that she’s got a tummy bug,” Isaiah assured her. “Your manager is freaking out.”
Cat looked at her uniform in the mirror of her crappy apartment. Jake and Elsie had wanted her to go to college after graduating from high school. They’d even offered to help her with finances, as well as telling her that she was welcome to live with them as long as she wanted.
But she couldn’t do it. It had felt like she was taking advantage of them.
So instead, soon after graduating high school, she’d moved into this crappy apartment.
It was shitty, located in a bad neighborhood, and the security was non-existent. The first thing she’d done was add her own deadbolt to the door. She also had a baseball bat by the door and knives hidden around the room.
Not a gun. She’d just never been able to bring herself to buy a gun. They kind of scared her. Although she’d never been entirely sure why.
When she left the apartment, she always carried something from the protection kit Sampson had given her. He’d made one up for each of them. Each contained Mace, a stun gun, a rape whistle, a personal alarm, pocket knife, and a folding baton.
Sampson liked them all to be prepared. And safe. The guy was a walking weapon. And considering the way that Jenner’s singing career was picking up, he might need all those skills to keep his brother safe.
