Page 17 of My Silver Fox Savior

“Listen, I gotta go.”

I hang up. Ever since this crap with the doctor, everything feels more important. As I drive, my memories skip back to those early days when Dad was building his business. Charley and I were watching and listening more than they ever knew. There was always that voice in my head saying our lives could fall apart. Bills were going to drag us down.

So, I had to use logic. Make money. Maybe, somewhere along the way, I forgot who I was.

CHAPTER TEN

LILY

“Should we get a dog?” Mom muses, looking out the front window of our first-floor apartment. There’s a park across the street, not precisely the most upscale or well-maintained, but it’s much better than the scenes we used to experience. Mom likes to look at it. It reminds her of how far we’ve come.

I look up, jolted from my thoughts. The date from last night—meeting or the near kiss—keeps replaying in my head. Ishouldbe thinking about searching for this Damon character somehow, trying to figure out how to make this situation okay.

“Oh, that’s funny,” Mom murmurs.

“I don’t think our apartment allows dogs, Mom.”

“Oh, no, look, that man.”

I join her at the window. I always feel a warm swell of happiness when I see how full-bodied she’s become since getting clean. She was always so sinewy before, her shape sculpted by her need, but not anymore.

Looking across the street, I see a tall man leaning against the swing in the park. He’s wearing a muddy, off-green long coat that looks almost like a costume. His hair is dark red, but it’s not easy to be sure from here.

“I think he’s staring at us,” Mom says.

“He’s probably just waiting for someone.”

An icy shiver runs over me all the same. Itislike he’s looking. It’s in his posture and how everything is directed toward us. I get the distinct feeling of something ugly slithering through me. It’s a childhood memory punch right to the gut. In our lives before, there would always be creeps hanging around.

“Lily,” Mom says, voice tight with panic.

My heartbeat flutters faster. He’s swaggering across the street. A gasp escapes me when he gets even closer. It’s the red-haired man from the photograph last night. He has a fresh scar on his chin like a small piece of him chipped away, but it’sdefinitelyhim.

“Don’t be rude,” he says when Mom moves to close the window.

Mom stops, but I reach past her, about to grab the handle. He casually opens his jacket, flashing the handle of a pistol. My hand freezes.

“Don’t makemebe rude, either, darling,” he says, with a slight Irish lilt. “I’m merely here to have a discussion with you. I don’t see anything uncivilized in that.”

“We want nothing to do with you … Damon.”

He flashes a smile, which makes me feel like I’ve just lost a game I didn’t even know I was playing. “You’ve just disprovedyour point there, missy. If you want nothing to do with me, you wouldn’t know my name now, would you?”

“Who are you?” Mom hisses. “My daughter has done nothing wrong!”

“Easy there. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I only want to talk. Ma’am, why don’t you give me and Lily here a moment?”

He phrases it like a question, but his tone makes it something else. He stares right at me, an obvious challenge in his expression. He’s daring me to tell him no. He’s daring me to escalate.

“It’s okay, Mom,” I say, touching her arm supportively. “It’s a work thing. I know how it seems.”

She turns, lowering her voice. “Should I call 911?”

I shake my head, thinking of what I learned at The Row; the police often ignore things where Damon and his cronies are concerned. “Just let me speak with him,” I say.

“I’m stayingright over there.”

“Look,” Damon says, holding his hands up. “Nice and civilized, I said, remember?” He leans forward, almost like he’s about to pop his head through the window and into the apartment. “You need to back off, little lady. There’s no reason to pay more attention to this job than the other twenty you’ve got on your desk. You need to listen and listen good. I’m not trying to get anything from you. I have no desire to hurt you, steal from you, or doanythingwrong. I’m asking you to tell your boss this case is a no-go, then move on to another. You’ve got more cases, right?Right?”

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