“He wants me dead,” I state.
“I know,” she says, softly.
“He usually gets what he wants.”
Carly shakes her head faintly, her gaze a bit vacant. “Not this time.”
“I still have to make it through four more days, Carly.”
“You need to stay with me,” she states. “Stop wandering off and letting him get you alone. Did he leave a trail of breadcrumbs to that bedroom? I wouldn’t be at all surprised.”
“No, that was my idea,” I admit.
She narrows her eyes like she’s not quite convinced. “We have to be more diligent.”
“I wanted to see Dom while I had a chance. Mia mentioned last night she’d let me today, but I forgot when we stayed out last night. Now Mateo told her she’s not allowed to be alone with me anyway.”
“She’s soft-hearted. She’ll try to talk him out of it. He’ll let her. She’ll think she won, but it was his plan all along. Not to mention, since he told her that in front of you, it’ll make you think she’s defying him for you, which will feed your proneness toward the emotional response. It was a play, saying that in front of you. He didn’t mean it. He needs you alone with her—that’s when you’re weakest. That’s when your emotions take the wheel and give you stupid ideas. Why do you think he left you an opening to talk to her after dinner last night?”
“You don’t think Mia knows…?”
She shakes her head dismissively. “Nope, he doesn’t need to tell her. He knows her patterns. He can play her against people without ever letting her know he’s doing it.” Her lips thin with self-directed disappointment. “I’m reluctantly impressed by the way he operates. He’s horrible, but he’s very thorough.”
“I don’t know, I never understand him. I don’t know how you…”
“Distill his thinking processes?” She shrugs, like it’s nothing. “I can’t be sure I’m hitting every nail on the head, but I think I’m close. He’s logical. I’m logical. I have a wide streak of sentimentality I haven’t witnessed in him, but it could be there. I’m sure I don’t see the side of him Mia sees. Maybe that’s where his sentimentality lies. Maybe she’s his Laurel.”
I smile faintly. “Just Laurel, huh? Have you lost your sentimentality toward me?”
“Of course not, but I wasn’t programmed with a Vince weakness. I’m compelled to take care of Laurel. When I take care of you, it’s just because I want to. I’m not obligated to. If I wanted to stop, I might feel bad, but I could still live with myself. Keeping you safe is only my responsibility because I want it to be. It’s not like that with Laurel. Even if it cost me everything else that mattered to me to keep Laurel safe, I’d still do it.”
“You’re a great sister,” I tell her.
“I try.”
“I bet you’ll be a great mom, too.”
Now her hand pauses on its journey through my hair. “I hope so.”
My mind wanders back to Dom. I block out the last image, him giving Mateo love and adoration the bastard does not deserve. I think of him curled up on Mia, fast asleep, his little mouth hanging open.
A moment passes before Carly speaks, but I think she’s been watching me the whole time. “What do you think our baby’s first milkshake will be? Since you want to sell the Vegas house anyway, we can stay in Connecticut. We can buy a pretty house, save up to open Wild Aces. I want a nice, big kitchen. We’ll bake your favorite cookies and make batches of spaghetti sauce with Laurel.” Gasping excitedly, she says, “Ironic bottles. We can even get the baby an ironic bottle so he or she isn’t left out of our mug tradition.”
I smile faintly, envisioning Laurel and Carly flanking me at the table with their brookies, a baby across from me, sucking on a “Festive AF” bottle full of milk.
“We should stop and pick up another Superman doggie before we leave. Our baby can have one to match Dom’s.”
The mention of Dom wipes the smile right off my face. “I don’t want Mateo raising my son. I don’t know if I’d do a great job, but I know he won’t.”
Instead of agreeing, Carly says, “I don’t know. The baby is obviously very important to Mia. He’s no second class citizen because he’s yours. I think Mateo is smart enough to mind his boundaries when it comes to a mother and her child. If he didn’t want to raise Dom, he could have communicated that to Mia when they found out she was pregnant. He’s powerless against that baby now that it’s here and she loves it. He can take on the rest of us, but not her son. It would only hurt him to let her have the baby and treat it poorly. It would depreciate Mia’s feelings for him. She’d come to hate him, eventually. He doesn’t want that.”