It’s not like I can ask her to move.
“Always studying hard.” Kaleb tries for a grin, but it’s shaky.
“Yeah, Dad, I study.” Natalie looks at me with a question in her eyes. “Guys, what’s going on?”
“My mom’s coming,” I say. “When she gets here, we’ll explain.”
“Um…” Natalie laughs drily. “You know this makes no sense, right? Is one of you ill or something? I don’t get it. Dad, are you and—”
“Just wait,” I say quickly. “I’m sorry, but it’ll be the easiest way.”
“Nobody’s sick, Natalie,” Kaleb says. “This isn’t a bad thing. It’s…”
The door opens and Mom walks in. She’s wearing a large wicker hat and she’s dyed her hair a deep black color… but no, I see her real hair poking around the wig. She’s wearing a heavy jacket.
“Mom, you look like you’re in disguise.” I laugh at the strangeness of her getup as she walks over. “What’s going on?”
“You said to watch out for Lennie, so I did.”
This morning I called Mom to tell her about Lennie and…
Oh, no.
“Mom, did I tell you about the men Kaleb hired?”
“What?” Mom snaps.
“What?” Natalie echoes.
I realize by the twisted shock on their faces how strange that must sound out of context.
How did I forget?
“You know Lennie showed up,” I say.
“Yes… you told me about that this morning. We’re going around in circles, Kelly.”
“Well, Kaleb arranged security to follow us at a distance. I completely forgot to tell you.”
“What did you do, Miss Jones?” Kaleb says, sitting up and glancing out of the window. “The wig, the disguise, was that all of it?”
“No, I was very clever about it, actually,” Mom says, her eyes gleaming in that way they always do when she can’t hold back her pride about something. “I cut through a shopping duplex, changed my appearance, and then met my friend on the other side to make sure Lennie couldn’t follow me. Different cars, you see.”
“Would that work with the men you hired?” I murmur, turning to Kaleb.
“I am so confused right now,” Natalie says, a note of exasperation in her voice.
My mind whirs at the thought that in trying to lose Lennie, Mom might have accidentally ditched her personal security.
“Not if they were expecting her to pull something like that. But with the element of surprise? Shit, it’s possible.”
“But that doesn’t matter, right?” My spine tingles harshly at the thought Lennie could pop up at any second, a vicious sneer on his face, with a bunch of his lowlife goons ready to tear us to pieces. “Because you put a guard on me too?”
He bites down, shaking his head. “I called them off. I wanted…”
He trails off, but he doesn’t have to finish for me to know what he was going to say. I wanted us to be alone.
He’s mentioned several times how he can’t stand the idea of another man looking at me, and I guess that must extend to the security guards he hired.
“Can somebody please explain?” Natalie sighs, exasperated. “Angela, Lennie came back?”
“Yes, last night. He sauntered into the apartment,” Mom explains.
“Luckily Kaleb was there,” I say. “Otherwise he would’ve caught me alone.”
“Dad, what were you doing there?”
“Give me a second, little gnat.” Kaleb takes out his cell phone. “I need to call the security—”
The bell above the door rings loudly as the door crashes open.
Lennie ducks his head and swaggers into the diner, a knife gleaming at his side, his smile knife-like in how it glimmers victoriously. Behind him, four men saunter, each of them as tough-looking as him, each of them wide and muscular and strong-looking.
Fear lances through my bones as Lennie strolls over, tossing his knife casually from hand to hand.
“Hello, ladies.” He grins at Mom and Natalie and finally me. “I think it’s time I showed you who’s in charge.”
The waitress darts behind the counter, reaching for something – probably her phone – but one of Lennie’s men grabs her and wrestles her into a booth. The man looms over her, his greasy black hair hanging around his face, tattoos creeping up his neck and over his cheek.
“Either that,” Lennie goes on, reveling in the moment. “Or I take you all one by one while this useless hunk of shit watches. Good job trying to lose me, Angie, but you really need to be more vigilant with your Find My Phone app. I broke that passcode in seconds. Kelly1, how fucking sweet.”
Mom glances at me with fear in her eyes.
Kaleb slides up the booth, to the end of it, as though he’s getting ready to spring to his feet at a moment’s notice. “This isn’t going to end well for you, Lennie.”
Lennie lets out a mad cackle. “I’ve got the numbers. I’m the only one with a weapon. What have you got?”
Chapter Eighteen
Kaleb
He asks me what I’ve got as though I’m not going to be able to give him an answer, but the hot fire moving through me is answer enough. I’ve got the blazing self-belief that I’ll never let anything happen to my woman, knife or not, numbers or not.