Page 22 of No Sweet Goodbyes

Emma Hayes is trying to kill me. That’s the only possibility I can come up with after almost a week of training her.

In her uniform, out of it. No matter what she’s wearing or doing, Emma drives me crazy in unimaginable ways.

Frankly, it’s bullshit, and I don’t know what to do about it at this point.

I can sit in the middle of a desert, barely moving, barely doing anything for a week while I watch a target. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest. All that time gives me space to empty my mind and focus on the mission at hand.

But her, sitting next to me, across from me for less than twelve hours a day, and I’m a goner.

“Idiota,” Violet mutters under her breath as I walk by her during dinner.

I throw a piece of the tortilla I’m snacking on at her head. “Cállate, hermana.” When she dodges it, I pull her by the end of her long hair. “Why are you picking on me, anyway?”

“Because, pendejo, you thought it would be a good idea to hurt my friend. And now I’m going to have to kill you. Plus, Alice isn’t here. She’s still away at school. That means it’s up to me to make sure you suffer for the bullshit you’re pulling.”

I know she is talking about Emma. There isn’t anyone else. There can’t be anyone else. That doesn’t mean I’m going to give her the satisfaction of admitting that I did anything even remotely wrong to hurt Emma.

“Go away.”

I sit down on the couch in my parents’ living room and smile when Bee comes barreling in like she’s been here forever, instead of a few days.

“Dom!” She throws herself on the couch next to me. “I’m glad you’re here. Vi keeps trying to cheat when we play Yahtzee. It’s not fair.”

Vi snorts from the hallway before sticking her head back into the room. “Speak for yourself, mija. You’re the one who keeps getting Yahtzee. Tell me those dice aren’t loaded. Go ahead.” She walks away. “Exactly!” she calls back when no one says anything. “Bee’s the cheater, not me.”

“I’m just lucky,” Bee says with a laugh. “Emma tells me that all the time, too. I can’t wait to see her again so I can tell her everything that’s happening.” Her face falls a little. “I miss her. I don’t like not seeing her.”

“Dominic, can you come help me?” Mom pops into the living room, wiping her hands on her apron. “I need you in the kitchen to move some things around that I can’t reach.”

With a wink for Bee, I get up from the couch and follow her into the kitchen like the loving and perfect son that I am.

“What’s up?”

Both Momma and Vi stand there watching me carefully, like I might run away. I eye the back door behind them, contemplating my escape routes in case I don’t like whatever they’re up to.

“What did you do?”

Vi glances at our mother and then back to me. They ambushed me and I didn’t even see it coming. But I also know that she doesn’t care about throwing our mom under the bus when it comes down to it. “I didn’t do it.” She caves. “She did. I’m only involved because she promised to feed me for a month so I don’t have to cook.”

“Mama,” I groan. “¿Qué hiciste?” When she doesn’t answer me, I try again in English. “Mama. What did you do?” I look over my shoulder, expecting something terrible. “Why are you looking at me like I’m dying?”

“You’re leaving, Dominic,” Mom says sadly. “I don’t want you to go over there and be sad. I want you to be happy. To find love. You can’t do that if you’re not home to find someone who wants to be with you.”

My stomach drops into my toes. “No, Mama. Please tell me you didn’t.”

I take my phone out of my pocket, ready to call Linc and have him fake an emergency, and then I hear a knock at the living room door.

“No,” I mutter. But I know it’s too late. Bee’s excited screech fills the air, and I narrow my eyes. Not at my mother, because she’ll beat me. But at Vi. “I’m going to get you back for this.”

She could have stopped our mother’s plan. She could have warned me so that I had time to get away. But she didn’t.

Footsteps in the hall have me walking to the other side of the kitchen just in time to see Bee lead Emma into the kitchen with a huge smile on her face.

“Guess what?” Bee announces to the room. “Emma’s here! She said you invited her for dinner, Alta. Thank you so much. I love her.” She keeps babbling on, but my heart is beating so loudly that I can’t hear anything else.

Thump.

Running away isn’t an option.

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