Page 31

I lean back in my office chair as the door opens and grin as Cara slips around the door, carrying a tray of coffee.

"Thought you could use a break."

"Yeah, I’ve been hard at work all day," I reply as I reach out for her, pulling her onto my lap for a kiss before she can so much as put the tray down. She grins into my embrace, softening against me at once, and I know she has been holding off on this for just as long as she is able.

I have to admit, I’m getting far too used to these little interruptions from her when I am supposed to be working. It’s like there is a constant pull between us, a need to be together. It makes the times we aren’t in the same room hard.

I should really be keeping my focus on my family’s work, but given our recent victory, things seem to have calmed down around the city.

We have been clearing out all of the brothels and almost all of the women have been given new homes, a few heading out of state to live with friends or family.

I’m sure it’s going to be a while before they are entirely back on their feet, but at least just by receiving their freedom back they are going a long way towards it.

And that leaves Cara and me time to plan the wedding.

She wants to get married as soon as we can, and more than that, she has insisted on taking every detail in hand personally, seeing to it that everything is precisely as she wants it.

I suppose it makes sense, after her last wedding, when she didn’t even get to choose the groom for herself.

I am happy to give her everything she could possibly want. I don’t give a damn how much it costs. I just want her to feel like she is truly part of my life now, part of the family.

My father already views her that way. We have a standing dinner date with him every Friday, and the two of them chat about music, Cara indulging him in his conversations about records.

And the news on the topic of her father has been gratifyingly silent for the time being, though I’m not sure how long it will stay that way.

He seems to have done the smart thing and made a break out of the city, but where exactly he has gone or what he is planning are another thing entirely.

With his empire in shambles and his only family abandoning him, I don’t see what he has left worth fighting for, but a man like that won’t necessarily act in ways that make complete sense to outsiders.

I am about to lose myself to this kiss with Cara when a sudden noise pulls me back to reality—a buzzing at the door. We pull back from each other, and she frowns as she looks back at me, clearly confused.

"Were you expecting someone?"

I shake my head.

"You?”

She does the same. She hops from my lap and makes her way over to the buzzer, and peers at the small screen that allows us a view to the street outside.

"Looks like Maya..."

My heart drops. My sister wouldn’t just come by with no warning. If she’s here, then she has good reason to be, and I am not entirely sure I am going to like it.

"Let her in. Buzz her up."

I wait by the elevator as Maya rushes upstairs, and when she reaches me, I can tell that something serious has happened. Her eyes are wide, her gaze drawn, as though she has seen a ghost, and she is clutching her phone in her hand, brandishing it to me.

"What the hell is wrong? Are you okay? What are you doing here?" I demand.

I need answers before I jump into this. If it’s as serious as her expression tells me right now, I don’t want to walk in with no context.

She swallows hard. She stares me down for a moment. And then, at last, she speaks.

"It’s Miranda."

The world stops for a moment.

"Miranda?” I hiss back, as I snatch the phone off of her. Cara glances between us, no clearer on what is going on.

"Who’s Miranda?”

"You didn’t tell her who Miranda is?” Maya asks me incredulously, her eyes widening.

Doesn’t she get it? There are some things we just can’t get into, some things that I thought were so far in the past they would never matter any longer.

She is on the other side of the damn world, all the way in Italy, as she has been since the night that call came through—the call where she told us that she couldn’t come back to the family, the call that changed everything, the call that tore another gaping hole in my heart. ..

I lift the phone to my ear, and pause for a moment. I can hear breathing. Is it her? I stand there for a moment in silence, no idea what to say, no idea what to do.

"M-Max? Is that you?”

I squeeze my eyes shut. It’s her; there’s no doubt about it. Hearing her voice tosses me back in time, to the years that we grew up together. We were the two oldest. We had been a pair for so long, until she had turned her back and left...

"Yeah, Miranda," I reply, after a long pause. "Yeah, it’s me."

"Max, I?—"

In the background of the call, I hear what sounds like a gun cocking. My ears prick up at once. But she’s meant to be out of all of this. She's meant to have left this all behind...

She has to catch her breath, her fear getting the better of her. And, if there is one thing I remember about my sister, it’s that she doesn’t scare easily.

She speaks again, her voice low and urgent.

"Max, I need your help."