Page 39 of Dirty Crown
“You two were running?” I asked. I didn’t know Amara and Nat had been that close after I left.
“I liked to check in with her, yes,” Amara said. “I don’t know if I’m more like and aunt or a big sister, but I feel close to the two of you. I know I don’t say it enough.”
“Holy shit, if you’re expressing emotions, you must be dying,” I whispered, but laughed to let her know I wasn’t serious. I was touched by her words, but I had just as hard of a time letting people know how I truly felt. I loved Amara like family, but didn’t know how to tell her.
“I think more like an aunt, maybe,” Nat said and looked at me. “I already have one big sister and she’s kind of annoying, so I think I’d prefer having a cool aunt instead.”
“Sounds good to me,” Amara chuckled and walked towards the hanging bag. “So are we gonna keep at this, or what?”
Nat nodded and began hitting the bag again while Amara gave her instruction on her posture and her strikes.
I walked away from them with my heart full, knowing they were there for each other and they could help their much needed healing by working together.
I watched my Kings for a little while, then did some cardio on the treadmill before dinner.
By the time we got back into the house, we were one big family again, just like before.
It felt natural to be together, and it felt good to have everybody I loved under my roof. Now all we needed was for Ivan and Penny to show up, and my life would feel complete.
CHAPTER16
“So you see,Blackstone and his family arranged the entire thing,” my private investigator said on the phone a couple days later. “They paid her off, set her up with the new place, and tried to take you down. It wasn’t personal, though, remember that.”
“It’s hard to think about it like that when they got me thrown in jail and on the run from the law,” I said, but agreed to lay the matter to rest.
We hung up after I got details on how to send his final payment, and I still didn’t feel good about the incident after we were done.
He’d found Seymour and had convinced her to come back to Fincross. She’d been paid an enormous sum of money to take a few months off and had jumped at the chance. Lucky for me, she was alive and willing to return. Unlucky for me, it seemed as though the Blackstone family had it out for me and Ivan.
They might be working on the same side with Ilya, but having cut him down at the knees meant the Blackstones were weakened even if they didn’t know it yet.
My mind swung between being angry over them targeting us for seemingly no reason, and feeling free because they didn’t scare me as much as I thought they would.
I had become numb to the danger at that point. I was unable to let fear course through me when I’d already beaten back anybody who’d come for me. I was ready for a peaceful life, a boring life, even if it meant burying my head in the sand.
“What happened?” Amara asked when she walked into the living room and found me on the couch after the phone call. “You look depressed.”
“It’s nothing, really,” I replied, not wanting to upset her or worry her over my continued drama.
“Did they find the professor?” she asked, flopping on the other end of the sofa.
“She’s alive,” I said and exhaled, realizing how much tension I’d been carrying in my body once it was released with each breath out. “I don’t even know what they were trying to achieve, maybe just to fuck with me. Maybe Avery was right, and they needed me arrested to get my attention.”
“Who knows what these assholes do or why they do it,” Amara asked, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. “I think the only thing you can do now is focus on what you want from your life and go get it.”
“I have most of it already,” I said. “I don’t know what else I want or need, I guess it doesn’t matter as long as I’ve got my guys and my family.”
“What about me?” she smiled and opened one eye halfway to look at me. The sun was shining in through the tall windows off the garden and she was glowing as if underwater. She was pretty when she wasn’t tense and killing people. I still wished she’d end up with Ivan and become my stepmom, but beloved cool aunt would have to do.
“You’re family, dork,” I said and kicked her foot with mine. She laughed again and closed her eyes once more.
We talked for a while, going over the possibilities of my life and hers, what we could do with Ivan’s businesses and what she planned on doing after she left our place.
At last I heard Nat tumbling down the stairs from the guest side and it made me sentimental for the days we lived crammed in the tiny house in Oakville. As much as Nat thought she was grown up and basically and adult, hearing her coming down the stairs like that made it clear she had one foot in childhood even at her age.
I hope I could help her cling to her innocence for as long as possible, to not find out just how dark the world could be until she was mentally prepared to handle it…and physically able to kick some ass.
“What are you guys talking about?” she asked, sitting in the big, soft chair near me.
