Page 90 of Pay the Price

“To us?” Mia asked.

I nodded. “Alone.”

Grace’s brown eyes went wide. “Why?”

“I’ll tell you in a sec. Just don’t make a big deal about it to Mom and Dad. Tell them you want to show me something if they ask.”

We wandered through the dining and living rooms, passing my parents, who were on the sofa talking about a contractor they’d hired to clear trees in the backyard.

“Where are you three headed?” my mom asked with a smile.

“I’m going to show Otis my science project,” Mia said.

She was a really good liar.

“It’s brilliant,” my dad said. “She came up with the idea herself too. Won first place at the end-of-year science fair.”

We headed up the stairs to the second floor. It was weird to pass my old bedroom. I’d been a senior in high school when Wolf, Jace, and I had gone to the police station to confess to killing Blake. Now I was a man, and I wondered if everyone felt weird about their childhood bedroom or if it was just me because I hadn’t had time to get used to the idea of not living in it anymore.

“We can talk in my room,” Mia said. “In case Mom and Dad come up. And I should show you the science project, in case they ask what you think.”

Damn. I was going to have to keep an eye on her.

I felt like an intruder stepping into the explosion of pink in her room. After the soaring ceilings and heavy oversized antique furniture at Daisy’s house, the average-size bedroom felt small, the twin-size canopy bed like something out of a dollhouse.

Mia flopped back on her bed.

Grace perched on the edge. She looked funny, like maybe she was scared? “What’s up?”

I took a deep breath. “I have to ask you something important, except I can’t tell you everything, so you’re just going to have to trust me, okay?”

“Trust you?” Grace looked skeptical, and considering the fact that her older brother was a convicted murderer and was now asking her to trust him, I couldn’t really blame her.

“I know,” I said. “It’s a weird thing to ask, but I’m asking.”

“Okayyyyy,” Grace said.

Mia grinned. “We trust you!”

Grace shot her a look but I had no idea what it meant.

“Think you can get Mom and Dad to take you to the lake house early?” We always went to the lake house the third weekof July, and my parents had kept up the tradition with Grace and Mia while I’d been in prison.

“That’s not for two weeks,” Mia said.

“I know, but do you think you can get them to move up the trip?”

I wanted my family — and especially my sisters — out of Blackwell Falls while we dealt with Calvin. Charles Hammond was a powerful man, and I didn’t want to risk retribution against my family if he started to suspect Wolf, Jace, and I had something to do with Calvin going AWOL.

Plus, we were still planning to take Daisy’s dad down, even if we couldn’t actually kill him. Eventually, he’d figure out he had a target on his back, and I didn’t want him to put one on the backs of my little sisters, especially when his specialty seemed to be trafficking girls.

Grace looked at me with narrowed eyes. “Why?”

“That’s the part I need you to trust me about. I can’t tell you, I just need you to do it.” I hated asking them to lie to our parents, but if I told my parents they needed to leave town for their own safety — for the safety of my sisters — they wouldn’t go until they’d gotten the whole truth out of me.

Then they’d really be in danger.

“You want us to get Mom and Dad to move up the lake house trip without giving us a reason?” Grace asked.

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