Page 89 of Taking Care of the Target

“First, tell me if any of the guys at the table asked about a waitress.” Cassie held her breath, terrified of the answer and wondering what she’d do if they had. Deanne wouldn’t know to look for tails. Cassie thought about her gun, now way too far away in her nightstand.

“They just ordered their food like a normal group,” Deanne said. “They were a bit rowdy and hit on Allie apparently, but if we didn’t serve any of the guys who did that, we’d be turning people away constantly. Why did you look so scared?”

“They just reminded me of some people I used to know. It brought back bad memories and I…I just freaked out a little. I’m sorry.”

The stern expression faded, and Deanne sat next to her on the couch. “We all know something bad happened to you.”

“We?”

“Maude, Owen, me. Harold, too, probably, but you know how he is about trying to stay out of people’s business.”

Cassie’s heart clenched. In some ways, their concern was nice—in a lot of ways actually. Since Dad had passed away, she had very few people who checked in on her well being. Just Annie occasionally, and then Vince, who cared so much that he’d left her to try to keep her safe. While she understood, how exactly she felt about his decision depended on the day. Today she wanted him next to her more than anything. She wanted him on the sidewalk, watching for danger. Wanted him to wrap her in his arms and kiss her until she forgot danger existed.

But on the other side of that concern was the downside of having to lie to those people. More than she wanted to.

“Wanna talk about it over dessert?” Deanne asked. “We’ve got a pint of mint chocolate chip and your Neapolitan, although I think the chocolate part of it’s looking kind of scarce.”

Yeah, I used to have a guy to help me level it out.A sharp pain jabbed her heart. Six weeks and she knew time would never be enough to heal the hole Vince had left.

Cassie forced the best smile she could, digging deep so Deanne—who was starting to know her all too well—couldn’t see through it. “Now you’re starting to solve problems like Maude.”

Deanne laughed and went for the ice cream.

Cassie tried not to think about how she only had a little more time to soak in nights like this with her roommate.

Not sure how I’m going to deal with missing her after I leave, but I know it’s going to royally suck.

Chapter Forty

Three months of working at Front Range Steakhouse and spending Sundays at the Hurst’s had somehow gone by forever slow and too quickly at the same time. There’d been Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s, and Cassie spent them all with the Hursts and Deanne.

Besides working on staying in shape and keeping up her shooting and self-defense skills, she devoted a considerable amount of time to studying trials of former mobsters and how the courts worked in general. Carlo’s trial started in a little over a month, and after thinking she’d never make it this long, it was suddenly almost here.

While frequently breaking her rule about how often she could surf the internet for news in Trenton, she mixed in a few searches on Vince DaMarco. The only thing she found was a tiny mention of Rossi’s. She wished she’d insisted on seeing his place while they were together so she could send him a letter or something. She supposed she could send it to Rossi’s, but there was too big a risk of it getting into the wrong hands. Given what she planned on doing, he’d probably get mad and tell her no anyway.

This way, he couldn’t say no. He’d just have to deal, like she had to when he left her at the Greyhound station.

Occasionally, she worried Vince might’ve moved on in the past several months, but regardless of where they stood, that didn’t change the fact that Carlo Rossi had murdered innocent people. So if Vince had moved on with someone new, she’d deal with it. That’s what she told herself, anyway.

She was helping dish giant slices of chocolate cake when Maude put her hand on her shoulder. “Katie, dear?”

Cassie reached for the silverware drawer. “Need me to grab the forks?”

“No. I need you to stop for a second and look at me. We’re all worried. You’ve been…disconnected lately. And when you first arrived in Oklahoma, you were talking about culinary school, but suddenly that stopped. You know Levi and Owen would work around your schedule. In fact, I’m pretty sure Owen would give you anything you asked.”

Cassie winced. She and Owen had become friends, but she sensed he wanted more. He showed up at her apartment last week and insisted they watch a movie. They had a nice night, filled with great conversation and laughs, and she worried she’d accidentally crossed into flirting. The more time they spent together, the harder it was to draw lines. “I don’t have to tell you that Owen’s a great guy—”

“No, you don’t,” Maude said, her no-nonsense tone in full force.

Tread carefully…Cassie decided to switch topics. “As for school, I’m saving up my money first. This semester just didn’t seem like a good time to start.”

Maude crossed her arms.

Damn.I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy.

“It’s that guy still,” Maude said. “Don’t think you’ve fooled me that he’s not somehow involved in this. You think if you go back he’ll leave his family? Is that really what you want? The Katie I know wouldn’t do that to a family, and she wouldn’t settle for someone who lied to her.”

Cassie wished she never let Maude assume that about Vince. The lying comment stung, too. At first she’d been so furious and hurt by all of Vince’s lying, but he was right about the truth sometimes being dangerous, and while the guilt over not being completely honest ate at her, it was nothing compared to what would happen if these wonderful people who’d taken her in got hurt because of her.

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