Page 193 of Perfect Pitch

I take a few strides until I’m standing right next to her. “If nothing else, it will give us a chance to talk.”

She lifts a proud face to meet mine. “About what, Mitch? About how I was just an assignment? Don’t worry. I understand.”

Without giving me a chance to respond, she moves to the phone, calls down a message for Charlie, and asks for a bouquet of flowers to be prepared.

* * *

“Get off at this exit!” Austyn shouts.

“Austyn, if you just tell me where we’re going, it’d be simpler,” I try to reason with her. If she’d just admit to where we’re going, actually talk to me and not ignore me, maybe we’d get there together. But I’ll continue my ignorance.

“You’ll come up on the wrong side if you follow a map, Mitch. Trust me.”

“That’s not the problem. I’m worried about protecting your six.”

“No one in Seven Virtues is out to harm me,” she informs me haughtily.

I turn the wheel in the direction her arm points. “You can’t be too careful.”

“Trust me, I learned my lesson with you. There are three things you can’t be too careful with—your body, your heart, and your soul. If you lose all three, you may never come back. Take a right here.”

I turn and try to address the topic. “Austyn, what you saw at Redemption...”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“It wasn’t what you thought.” I try again.

“Unless you want me to jump out of this car, you’ll stop trying to bring up that topic to me. At least right now.”

Her voice is reasonable, but a quick glance at her hands shows she’s crushing the stems beneath her fingers. I pull the car off to the side of the road and throw it into park. Turning to face her, I force out a quick explanation. “The woman has been stalking your father on and off for years. She was released from the mental facility she was in not long before that night.”

Austyn freezes but I can tell she’s listening, so I go on. “We wear body cams, Beats. We’ve noticed her escalating. She first tried to impersonate your mother. Recently... you.”

“Mama? Me?” Her voice is barely above a whisper.

I press my luck and touch her shoulder. She flinches. My words come out in a rush. “Austyn, I swear I’m telling you the truth.”

“How am I supposed to believe you?” She’s staring ahead as tears are leaking from her eyes. The devastation on her face is almost my undoing when she finally gives me her face. “How am I supposed to trust you?”

I whip my phone out and call Kane. Once he answers, I summarize the situation before asking, “Will you please confirm to Ms. Kensington...”

“Austyn, everything Mitch has said is the truth.” But it’s not Kane’s voice that replies.

It’s her father’s.

Austyn’s body bucks under the force of her sob. “Dad? You knew? For how long?”

“About Mitch and his part in your leaving? Not until the other night when he took responsibility for everything.”

“Dad, I’m afraid to trust anyone or anything.” Hearing that must be what taking a mule kick to the solar plexus feels like.

“Austyn...” Beckett’s voice is agonized.

I can’t imagine what this is doing to him as a parent, especially since he just found his daughter. I reach over and clasp her hand. “Trust me, Beats. Even if you’re not ready to with your heart yet, I swear you can trust me to protect you.”

Her lips tremble before she finally nods.

“Beckett, Kane, Austyn’s asked me to take her to Seven Virtues. Unless you can give me a reason why not to go...”

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