Page 110 of Ordinary Girl

“That isn’t why I’m back.”

“It’s what it looks like!”

“Hey, come on, take a minute. You’re too involved here, Joel.”

“And you’re not? We both want the same thing, don’t we? We want Ana safe.”

“And she will be.”

“She already was.” I lean back against the table and cross my arms, dropping my head. “I should have sent her back. Made her go. If anything happens to her…”

“It won’t be your fault. So, how much do we know?”

I lift my head, stare up at the ceiling, my arms still crossed. “We have no idea where Renard is right now. He was last seen in Oslo a few days ago, but since then, nothing. We have no idea if he’s intending to come for Ana himself, or whether he’s sending others to do it for him, we know he has men here, in Denmark.”

“Any idea how many?”

I shake my head, dropping it again. “Rik’s doing his best, but he has very little on the newly-resurrected Balke family. He’s in contact with colleagues over in Norway, but so far we have nothing. It’s only been a couple of days, though, but I hate having so little control over a situation. It’s fucking unsettling.”

“Welcome to my world.” Skip leans back against the wall and lights up a cigarette. “I’m assuming Renard hasn’t been anywhere near the house?”

“No. We’ve been watching it and it doesn’t look like anyone’s been there, not since everything happened.”

“And what about Renard’s connection to the Blackhawks?”

“He’s severed all links with them.”

“Yeah, well, we might have damaged their ability to function as they used to, but we couldn’t take them down completely. Maybe Renard will finish the job.”

“Is that before or after he’s takenusdown?”

“No one’s taking us down, Joel. And shit like that shouldn’t be coming out of your mouth, you’re running this chapter now. It’s your job to rally our men, there’s no room for negativity.”

“There’s a difference between negativity and reality, Skip.”

“You know what you’re doing. You’ll deal with it.”

“So why are you here, then? If you think I can handle this?”

“I don’t think you can handle anything, Iknowyou can. Because I know you care about Ana.”

He’s right. I do. “I’d bring the world to its fucking knees to save her.”

“You’ve never been scared of anything, Joel.”

I look at him, a man I call my brother, because that’s what he is. Family in all but blood. “I’m scared of what I feel forher, Skip. I’m scared of loving her, of losing her, I’m scared she’ll walk away, again, and I’m scared because I might not be able to stop her.”

“I get it.” Skip’s eyes lock on mine, and I believe him. I believe that hedoesget it. Because he loved Sofia. And if he felt half the shit I’m feeling right now, for Ana, I completely understand why he wanted to walk away from this life. “So, right now you need to be strong, for her. You need to protect her. You need to win this fucking war, forher.”

Skip’s words are like the push I needed to get out of my head; deal with this, once and for all, I’ve let myself be distracted for far too long.

“Thiswillbe over,” I say. “And it’s going to be over soon.”

“Then we can all move on with our lives, right?” Skip smiles, and I miss this man, I really do, but he’ll never be out of my life completely, not really.

“Right. We can all move on.”

The end is in sight. And for Ana’s sake, I need to make sure there are no fuck ups this time. This is on me now. It’s all on me. All of it…

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