Page 5 of Home Free

Sympathy shaded Alexa’s eyes. “I’m sorry. That really sucks.”

Elise nodded. “I just want him to be okay, you know?”

“I do,” Alexa said, “but that’s not up to you.”

She was right, but that didn’t make it easy to hear. “I know.”

Julia’s voice came to them from the waterline and Elise watched as she scooped up JT and carried him toward the chairs where Elise sat with Alexa.

“I can’t wait for summer,” Alexa said.

“Me too.” Summer was Elise’s favorite time of year with the Murphys. It was the season of all-day frisbee battles on the beach followed by lingering meals on the patio of the house they shared, the season of piling onto sofas in the great room with pizza and beer to watch baseball or reality TV.

Now she couldn’t help feeling they were on the cusp of change. Nick and Alexa would be moving out of the big house to move into their brownstone down the street. Soon — hopefully — they would adopt a child.

Declan and Kate were having another baby in June, and Declan had already moved out of the house to live with Kate at her family’s estate in Marblehead.

Ronan and Julia were Elise’s family. They’d never put a time limit on her living with them, had always made it clear she was welcome to stay as long as she liked. The house was more than big enough to accommodate them, and there was a lot to like about living with her sister and getting to be with her nephew every day.

But the thought of being the only one at the house after Finn left Boston made Elise want to scream.

Something had to change. Quitting her job at Fringe, the boutique where she’d worked since her rescue, had been a good start, although she hadn’t really had a choice after her new boss sexually harassed her.

She could move into her own place, but somehow that felt like defeat instead of progress, like admitting she would always be right here in Boston, walking the same streets where she knew every store, where she wouldn’t have a panic attack that would leave her shaking and crying on some corner.

Julia deposited a squealing JT on Elise’s lap, and Elise buried her face in her nephew’s neck. He smelled like salt water and graham crackers and sweat. She covered his face with kisses until he squirmed out of her arms.

“You ready to head back?” Julia asked. Her dark blond hair, tousled by the wind, was a riot of waves around her shoulders. “It’s getting chilly, and I need to take JT over to Annie’s.”

Annie, Kate’s mom, had offered to watch JT while Julia and Elise drove up to the mountain house for the weekend. JT was beyond excited. Griffin, Declan and Kate’s seven-year-old son, was JT’s idol, and he loved nothing more than following him around and mimicking his every move.

Alexa got to her feet. “I need to stop at the brownstone. The contractors were supposed to install the lighting in the kitchen today.”

“I can’t wait to see it when it’s done,” Julia said, packing up her stuff. “It’s going to be so gorgeous.”

“I’m excited,” Alexa confessed. She and Julia started up the beach, talking about bathroom finishes and tile and paint colors while Elise trailed them, JT’s sticky hand in hers.

She didn’t want to be here, but she didn’t want to be at the mountain house either.

She just wanted to be with Finn somewhere far away, someplace where they weren’t haunted by the past. Was it possible? Or was the past something you carried inside, something you never really escaped?

She didn’t know. But she was starting to believe she wanted the chance to try.

3

Finn looked at the small face on the computer screen and forced a smile. The little boy staring back at him wasn’t the same boy Finn remembered. That little boy had been vibrant and happy, his eyes shining, English falling proudly from his mouth as he practiced the words Finn taught him, laughing as Finn tried and failed to say the Ukrainian words Petro had tried to teach him.

This little boy looked like Petro, but his brown eyes were haunted, his face gaunt, dark smudges circling his eyes.

Behind Petro, an older woman named Anichka encouraged Petro to speak, but it was slow going. Petro either had forgotten much of the English Finn taught him during their year together or wasn’t in the mood to use it, and Finn’s grasp of Ukrainian had always been lousy.

Petro squirmed and said he wanted to play, his brown eyes focusing on something off camera. Finn said goodbye and spent a few more minutes talking with Anichka, making sure she was getting the money Finn had been sending since Ronan insisted Finn be put on the payroll at MIS.

It was ridiculous. Finn wasn’t doing work at MIS that didn’t involve Fedir and Iryna’s murder, a job his brothers weren’t getting paid for mostly because Finn couldn’t afford their fees.

Still, Ronan had insisted, and Nick had finally pulled Finn aside and told him it was something they wanted to do for him and to please just shut the fuck up about it and take the money.

Finn didn’t need it. He’d lived on next to nothing for the past eight years, saving a good portion of what little he made along the way. And it’s not like he needed money in Boston, living in his brothers’ house and eating their food.

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