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“Go home,” I told him. “Tell your master I don’t need anything from him anymore.”

It was over between us. I had come to my senses and seen the light. Whatever. I wanted nothing to do with him anymore.

I went straight to bed, sleeping until Princess was dropped off in the evening, bringing some of Tina’s macaroni and cheese with her.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, her eyes big with concern.

“Much better, pumpkin,” I said, ruffling her hair. “What do you say, we watch some TV and eat popcorn?”

She nodded eagerly. We hadn’t done that in a while. The last couple of weeks I had spent all my free time with Jack, even when he was with me at my house we would do activities with Princess. I hadn’t spent much time alone with the little girl. I felt a stab of guilt.

My phone buzzed. Messages from Jack. I ignored them and pushed my phone away.

“How are you feeling about your mom coming home?” I asked.

Princess did a sort of shrug and I knew she must have been thinking of all the previous times she’d come back, trying to make things work.

The little girl looked at me. “Is being a grown-up hard?” she asked me suddenly.

The question took me by surprise.

I found myself nodding. “Yeah, it is rather,” I said. “Harder than we even realize.”

She pulled a sad face. “But you know your mom loves you, as do I and Tina. Even when we make mistakes, we love you.”

She didn’t react and I knew that it seemed like empty words. What did love mean anyway when it wasn’t enough to keep your mom home and your friends safe?I didn’t have an answer to that question but I did have ice cream and I knew that could fix a lot of problems, so I made sure to give her a big bowl of caramel crunch and was rewarded by her smile.

I knew Jack would drop by and not long after Princess had fallen asleep, I felt his presence outside. I opened the front door and went out to meet him, even though it was freezing outside.

“How are you?” he asked, rushing forward to take me in his arms.

I stepped back and held up my hands.

“No,” I said, quickly, hating how my heart was beating.

“No more.”

I could see hurt in his eyes.

“Why?”

“I’m not willing to die for love,” I said sarcastically. “We have too many enemies, too many people wishing us harm. Not to mention, the world of difference between us.”

He stepped forward, his voice cajoling. “But our difference is what makes this work, it is what makes us so great together.”

I looked at him, sadly. “We are not great together. We have great sex, that’s it, but I’m not willing to die for sex. I told you people were after me and you insisted I was seeing things. Before that, you almost lost your job because you weren’t paying attention. You could’ve ruined your business!”

“I don’t care about any of that!” he said, the power in his voice scaring me a little.

“But I do!”

He seemed to hear me.

“I thought I could do this, but it is too much. This is the third time I have come close to dying. I won’t be so lucky next time. I need to figure out what I’m doing with the rest of my life. I need to find out who killed my parents and why someone is trying to kill me.”

“You can’t do that alone,” he said.

I gave a harsh laugh. “I was alone for years. But my senses have become dull, I’m slower than I ever was before. I just need to get back into shape.”