Page 52 of Power Play

“You totally need a nanny. Turn left here,” I said when we got to the bottom of the ridge.

“You’re really good with her,” Liam said.

“Thanks,” I said. “But I’m not a nanny. I have many other jobs, remember?”

“So quit.”

It ticked me off how easily he said it. Nothing had been easy in the past five years since everything went down. Jaw tight, I kept my eyes focused on the road. “You know I can’t.”

“I don’t think I like you working at the End Zone anyway. That place is always going to be filled with drunk guys staring at your ass in those barely there shorts.”

I snorted. “You should know, you were one of them. Look, Liam, you don’t get to dictate the terms of how I pay you back. You just get to take what I pay you.”

“Fine. I’ll cancel the debt.”

His face was lit up in red lights from passing cars. He glanced over at me, our eyes meeting in a way that made me breathless.

“Turn right here,” I said, directing him onto the road that would bypass downtown to the neighborhood where I lived.

“Debt free in two weeks,” he teased.

“Right again at the light,” I said and we pulled down Congress Street. I was painfully aware of the boarded-up buildings and the addicts gathering in the shadows between the street lights. But Liam kept his mouth shut and turned left when I told him.

“Here,” I said and he pulled to the curb in front of Ms. Rene’s house. The lights were on and I could see her silhouette through the curtain on the front windows.

“Nice garden,” he said, leaning down so he could look through my window.

“My landlady has a green thumb,” I said. I reached for the handle and he stopped me with a touch on my shoulder. His hand was so big he covered me from my collarbone to my shoulder blade. It made me feel small. Warm.

“Kit, why isn’t this an automatic yes?” he asked in a low voice. His breath feathered my cheek and I reached up to tuck my hair behind my ear.

“Paying you back isn’t really what it’s about,” I said. I wasn’t looking at him, which was the only reason the words came out. That and his warm hand on my shoulder. It had been five years since anyone had touched me with kindness. It had been since him. And he was pulling me apart.

“I get it. You felt guilty. You wanted to make things right. I’m telling you, you do this for me and we’re square. You could get your life back.”

My life back.

That’s what this entire journey had been about. Once I knew what my father was, once I watched him get sentenced, I felt like I should have been sent to prison with him.

To pay for my crimes too.

The crime of not asking more questions. Why was there so much cash? Who were these black-suited guys who showed up in the middle of the night? Why couldn’t I go to college?

I’d should have asked about the gifts. The clothes and jewelry. Cars and a fancy boarding school education. I’d taken all of it for granted. When none of it was earned. Everything I had was stolen from someone else.

Once he was sentenced, I sold everything we had, paid off the lawyers, and took the remaining amount to the list of victims my dad had accumulated over the years.

Dillon Le Coeur had been the first on the list. Liam Locke was the last.

Five years of my own personal purgatory and now Liam was offering me an end to it.

“If I did this, what are the rules?”

“Rules?” he asked.

“Do I…live with you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

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