Page 74 of Clean Slade
I nodded before I remembered she couldn’t see me.
“I am, Mom. I am.”
I didn’t say anything else. I waited.
And waited.
“Are you still there?” she asked after what felt like forever.
“I am.”
“I thought you lost your reception.”
“Nope. I was just waiting for the lecture.”
Mom kissed her teeth and sighed. “No lecture this time.”
“Really? How come?”
“Well, you ran from home to be a superhero again. Instead, you’re a nanny. I’ll take my wins where I can get them.”
I grimaced. “Really?”
“Nanny is safer than superhero.”
I guessed she had a point.
Besides, it was a good thing I hadn’t told her the full story. If she knew there was a crimelord in my world, she’d have taken the first plane and ferry here to whoop my ass in person and then drag me back home by the ear.
“Yeah. It is, Mom. It is,” I lied.
What else could I do?
I couldn’t tell her the truth.
Not if it meant jeopardizing what I was doing for King and Mac.
I couldn’t risk leaving them now.
After everything that had happened, I needed to see this through.
EIGHTEEN
KING
The phone finally rang a week later. I was starting to worry they’d forgotten about me, although that may have been a blessing.
The other worry was they’d discovered who I really was, but I guessed there was always a risk of that.
Unknown:
14 Elmwood Road. 9:30 a.m.
I looked around the salon and at the clock on the wall.
I didn’t have much time, and the girls weren’t here yet. I wished they’d given me more time.
Well, actually, if I was wishing for something, that’d be to have no part in this bullshit whatsoever, but my father thought I could flush Salieri out, and that was what I was going to do.
