Page 43 of Last Hand

Rebecca responds immediately, slipping back into her mother role with practiced ease. “Let’s take a little break then, solnyshko.” She helps Anya bring the swing to a stop, lifting her down with gentle hands.

Mila reaches for me expectantly, and I find myself automatically helping her stop and lifting her from the swing. Her small body is warm against mine, trusting in a way that makes my chest ache. I set her down quickly, uncomfortable with the sudden intimacy.

“Who wants a snack?” Rebecca asks the twins; both respond with predictable enthusiasm.

As we walk toward the house, Rebecca falls into step beside me, the twins running ahead. Igor pushes himself away from the tree, following at a distance that gives the illusion of privacy while maintaining his surveillance.

“If something happens,” Rebecca says suddenly, her voice barely audible, “take the girls. Go to the cabin.”

“What?” I ask, equally quiet.

“Where the fireflies are,” she whispers now that Igor has moved closer.

“Down the mountain. About a mile east of the road.” Her eyes meet mine, fierce and determined. “Promise me, Fallon. If things go bad, you’ll take them and run.”

I search her face, looking for deception, for manipulation, for the mother who lied, disappointed, and abandoned me. All I see is fear and a desperate kind of hope.

“Okay,” I say finally, the agreement falling from my lips before I’ve fully decided to give it.

Rebecca nods once, then quickens her pace to catch up with the twins. I watch her go, my mind reeling with revelations that rewrite the story of my life, my understanding of who my mother is and what happened to her.

TEN

Leone

I step through the mansion’s doors with Milo behind me, We dropped Rocco to the hospital on the way and Dr Stevens is taking care of him though he wasn’t too happy about it. My temples throb with the beginnings of what promises to be a spectacular headache, and there’s no time for that. Not when there’s an unexpected presence in my home, and especially not when my security team failed to alert me.

I find Nathan pacing my sitting room like a caged animal. His hair sticks up in tufts where he’s been running his hands through it, and his shirt is wrinkled, half-untucked.

“You look like shit,” I tell him as I lower myself into my favorite leather armchair. I don’t invite him to sit. “I told you to wait at home and I would call you when I knew more. Where is Emma?”

“At home. You weren’t answering your fucking phone and this is urgent.” Nathan’s eyes dart around the room, never settling on one spot for long. “I heard from her.”

“From who?” I ask confused.

“From Rebecca, she called me.” I lean back wondering why the woman who abandoned this man and his daughters yearsago, only to resurface now in the most inconvenient way possible is now reaching out. I keep my face impassive, inside, my mind is panicking about Fallon.

“When?” I ask, my voice deceptively soft.

“This morning. She called me from a number I didn’t recognize. Said she couldn’t talk long.” Nathan’s hands tremble as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper. “I wrote down exactly what she said. I didn’t want to forget anything.”

My fingers itch to snatch the paper from him. I remain still. “And what exactly did she say?”

“She’s with Fallon. She was talking about.” His voice cracks on his daughter’s name. “She said she didn’t have time. Just that she needed to get a message to you.”

I snatch the paper from him and read it.

Do you remember the cabin? The one with the blue door. Where the trees reached so high it felt like they touched the stars… how the lights were too bright in the barn window?

I pause wondering what the heck I’m supposed to do with this? “What is this? Am I supposed to understand this riddle?” I snap at him thinking he has wasted my time.

“No, she is talking about the cabin! The one my mother owns in the mountains. I think she is trying to give us a rough location of where they are.”

I stare at him. Nathan runs his fingers through his hair. “She said you need to find the cabin, that she would get Fallon out. I think she is going to help Fallon escape.”

I glance at Milo who has remained silent letting me handle this. I hold the paper out to him, and he moves closer taking it.

Nathan’s eyes light up with a desperate hope that makes me want to slap him. Hope is dangerous. Hope makes people stupid. And he could be playing into the one thing that could get us all killed.

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