Page 10 of The Killer Who Kept Me

“What my Penelope wants, she gets.” He shrugged.

Dafni chuckled. “That’s survival mode right there.”

Dafni and I looked a lot alike, both with dark hair and blue eyes. Same laugh, but where I was tall and broad, she was petite like our mother was.

A minute later, lunch was being brought out and they cleaned up the cookbook and papers. Dafni caught us up on Maeve and how her recital had gone. Tucker, my nephew, was only a month old and currently sleeping in the bassinet a few feet away.

“Where’s Maeve?” I asked as I cut into my steak.

“I enrolled her in this daycare, sort of. It’s a few hours a day, where she can socialize with kids her age and get used to peer interaction.”

“What the absolute fuck?”

“Saros!” Aunt Penelope admonished. “Language.”

“Sorry.” I smiled softly at her, then turned and glared at Dafni. “She’s three. Isn’t this the time when she should be building a bond with you?”

“Wow, Saros, I didn’t realize you had so much parenting experience.”

“She’s three.”

“I know how old my daughter is, Saros. I fucking pushed her out.”

“Dafni!” Aunt Penelope sighed.

“No, Auntie, he’s wrong. It’s not his business how Cos and I raise our kids.”

“Excuse me?” I dropped my utensils on my plate. “Everything that goes on in this family is my business.”

“Not how we educate and choose to help our children meld into the world.”

“It’s not safe for my three-year-old niece to be in some daycare for a few hours a day without my knowledge. Someone should be watching her.”

Dafni huffed. “Do you think Cosmo would have agreed to this had I not compromised on her security? He has two guyswatching over her. Riley and Gino. They sit outside the daycare and afterward follow me home.”

I picked up my fork and knife and started eating again. “That’s acceptable.”

“I’m so thrilled you’re fine with it. Look, Saros, I get that you have a lot to deal with and now with what happened with Marco, tensions are high, but you need to let me do what I think is best for my kids. You don’t parent them, I do.”

I glanced up and met Uncle Andrew’s eyes; he nodded slightly.

“Fine, but changes like this, I want to know.” I shoved a piece of steak into my mouth. “I still think three is too young to be away from you.”

“Duly noted.” Dafni chuckled, and soon everyone was chatting about life events.

I excused myself after lunch and returned to my office. Em’s face was frozen on my screen, still, and all I could do was sit there, whiskey in hand, and stare into his chocolate-brown eyes. There was something lurking behind them. A story. I hoped it was something wonderful, that when he’d run from me it had been to his family, to something good. But he was too familiar with the dark. He might have been afraid of those men and what was happening, but he wasn’t a stranger to it.

No, he hadn’t run back to a dream; he’d been running to something far less pleasant.

CHAPTER SIX

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Em

It wasthe day before Thanksgiving. I sat in the middle of my bed with a cupcake I’d stolen from the kitchen and quietly sang “Happy Birthday” to myself. There was no candle to blow out, but I made a wish all the same. It was the same one every year. I wished I could meet someone who wanted to keep me.

As I ate my cupcake, my mind once again drifted to the stranger in the alley. He was dangerous and powerful, I was sure. Why hadn’t I given him my number? I rolled my eyes and plopped my head onto my pillow.

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