Page 38 of Savage Outlaw

“My little lily pad, I miss you so much. Have you been good?”

She smiled for the answer though her heartachedso badly.

After a few minutes of listening to excited chatter about school and a play date at a park she said, “please put Pasha on the phone. Mama will talk again to you very soon I promise.”

A minute later, her eyes tracing the length of the gym, she did not have long and would have to hang up soon. It was never enough but she made do with what she could for now.

A small voice came on the line and she squeezed her eyes closed with emotion.

Oh, this was torture.

She had faced so much already and still so much in front of her to get her hearts happiness. Nothing would stop Marianna.

“Baby boy, don’t cry. I love you. Tell me what you’ve been playing today.”

The talk became animated on the other end and she smiled with tears on her lashes.

Her three year old twins were a world apart from Marianna and would be until she had the means to bring them to a safer life.

She had been derailed once before … too naive … never again. Nothing would stop her. Nothing would hurt her.

Now she was ice and stone inside.

Dead to emotion for anything but the two hearts who owned her soul.

With the last thirty seconds with her rare phone call she told her babies how much she loved them; she sang their night time lullaby while she tried to hold her tears at bay. Only allowing herself to cry her despair once she was alone in her small apartment tonight.

Outside of the window she watched her boss, the one who offered help when no one else would.

Confusion and suspicion still weighed heavy.

He was laughing with his friend. Big men horsing around with pretend punches. Marianna didn’t smile for their fun, but she did smile when Pasha blew kisses down the phone.

She looked at that man closely as she had these past weeks.

A woman who would cross the world in an airtight container to make a better life for her children has already proven her strength and fortitude.

She survived through a nightmare and here she stood, tough as ever. Determined to tear her hands to the bone to get that good life for her babies.

By any means necessary.

Whatever she had to do.

Whoever she had touseto do it.

She eyed the tall blond man as he laughed and dodged a flying plastic bottle.

“Mama has a plan to make this all right, my angels. I will do whatever is needed so I can see you again very soon.”

The blond man did not know how pivotal he was to Marianna.

ELEVEN

“I bet on you.” - Roux

“I thought that one guy was going to bust a blood vessel when you won the table.” Giggled Poppy from the passenger seat with a lapful of road snacks.

“He was too busy checking out your tits to see what I was doing.”

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