Page 118 of Silent Ties

“Are you willing to take custody?” Bennie asks.

I nod and wipe my nose with a balled-up sleeve.

I think of that tiny baby. The Zimins took Daisy to a private hospital. One on their payroll. Daisy. . . It still hurts to think about that lifeless person on the ground. Marissa didn’t just pimp her out. She was brutalized and left for dead.

Yet somehow the baby survived.

She’s mine.

Even when Lev ran his mouth about social services, I knew what I wanted.

“Obviously there’s paperwork’s galore.” Bennie rambles on and I try to keep up.

Ren sits silent, letting him explain. She eyes me the whole time, her green eyes warm yet calculating.

She takes out a cigarette as Bennie finishes up his legal talk.

“Do you want out?”

“What?”

She exhales a breath of smoke. “Do you want out?”

I continue to stare dumbly at her so slowly, she spells it out.

“Do. You. Want. Out. Of. The. Zimin’s?” she asks, taking another drag of tobacco.

Bennie stares down at the table, but I catch the seriousness on his face. He’s biting his words back.

She waits for my response, but I’m silent.

“You didn’t want to marry him right?”

It wasn’t in my immediate life plans, no.

“Marissa’s dead,” she points out. “So what’s keeping you there?”

Max.

I shake my head slightly, not sure how to answer. She does know the Zimins, right?

“Do you want to stay married to him?” she asks. “Because you don’t have to.”

Death over divorce.

Ren shakes her head, smiling lightly as she reads my thoughts. “Fucking Lev Zimin.”

I want to know more about her rivalry with the man.

“Divorce is an option these days.” She toys with a silver lighter. “If you want out I can get you out.”

Of all the things she said, I never expected that one.

Run,a part of me screams.You never had any business getting involved with a mafia prince.

But he’s my prince, the other half says.

Except now I’ve got Daisy’s daughter to think about.