“No thanks to you.” I snatched a piece of toast. “I’m lucky I survived.”

“Survived what?” Mo asked from the kitchen and then looked at me. “Holy crap! What happened!”

“People really should learn not to drink and walk at the same time.” This from Tex.

Glaring at Tex, I answered Mo. “Apparently, I fall on tables and shit.”

“You should be more careful.” Mo put a plate of food in front of me.

“Right,” I answered. “I’ll be more careful next time I’m around tables named Mil.”

“Huh?” Mo asked.

“Nothing.” Mil smiled sweetly at my sister and then sent me a seething glare. I smiled and took another bite of toast.

“Oh my gosh, that smells amazing.” Trace walked into the kitchen and immediately I started choking.

“Dude, chew your food.” Tex patted my back and handed me a glass of water but I waved him off. Water wouldn’t help. I needed freaking CPR.

Beautiful. Damn, she was so incredibly beautiful that it hurt to look at her. Her soft brown hair was in a high ponytail and for the first time in two days her uniform looked ironed, clean, perfect on her body.

And the killer?

The part that had me ready to jump out of my chair and slam that perfect girl into the wall and kiss her senseless?

She was wearing the boots.

My boots.

The ones I gave her.

I smiled as she stuck out her leg for approval.

With a wink in my direction she grabbed a plate from Mo and took a seat next to me. The smell of coconut wafted off of her and into my airspace. I was starved for it. I leaned closer to her and placed my hand on her bare knee.

We ate with the rest of the group.

Things were almost normal.

Except they weren’t. Which I was reminded of the minute I opened the door to go outside, only to find every single one of the men I had placed to guard the house—gone.

“What the hell?” I dialed my father’s number. We needed those men to get us to school without anyone seeing Trace. My father would have been the only one who suspected she was dead and I was taking a huge risk by even allowing her to go about life.

We needed a driver. And we needed to be able to sneak her in and out of classes, not because a college education was that important but because Nixon had specifically said to go about life as did Luca. Besides, the last thing we needed was for Tony to show up at the house now that my men were missing. School was probably the only place he wouldn’t go snooping around.

The phone rang and rang.

Finally my father picked up. “Chase, I’m a bit busy right now.”

“My men,” I barked into the phone. “Where are they?”

“Son, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Right,” I snorted. “Let’s try this again. You work for me. I’m your boss. If I don’t have my men back within the hour I will personally drive my ass over to your house and slam my fist into your head. Got it?”

My father made a choking sound as if he was laughing at me. “To be young again.”

“Yes.” I hissed. “To be young and actually able to get shit done rather than staying at home being completely useless. I mean it. I did what you asked last night, but this is the final straw. You either want me in power or you don’t.”

He sighed heavily on the other end of the line. “It’s complicated, Chase. I’m not safe, not at the house, I needed extra security. Just in case.”

I was silent for a moment. “Did someone threaten you?”

No doubt Nixon was poking around.

“Not exactly.” He cleared his throat. “I just… you know what happens when you drink a lot and…”

“And?” I prompted.

“Nixon,” my dad laughed. “I could have sworn I saw Nixon, but instead it was the De Lange kid. He wants to make a deal.”

Things had just gotten interesting. “Oh?”

“I was going to speak to you—”

“It’s your lucky day. You’re speaking to me now. What does Phoenix want?”

“Money,” my father blurted. “He wants money and then he’s going to disappear for good. But the thing is, Chase… I don’t have access to the funds we use for bribery. I’m going to need you to make the withdrawal.”

Son of a bitch. My own father was going to betray me. Did he think I was that stupid? The boss never made the withdrawal. Not unless he wanted to get A) shot, or B) flagged by the Feds.

“Hmm.” I paused and mouthed to Tex to get the car. “You do have my permission. When does Phoenix need the money?”

“Tonight.”

“Of course he does,” I said. “Fine. I’ll get the money. We’ll put all of this behind us and live like one big defective family. Sound good?”

“I never did get your sense of humor.”

“I wasn’t being funny, Dad.”

“Fine. Tonight then?” Damn if he didn’t sound ridiculously pleased with himself.

“Sure. Oh, and remember.” I cleared my throat. “If anything goes wrong, if for one second I smell a rat, I’ll shoot you.”

“You’d shoot your own flesh and blood.”

“Of course not.” I hung up and threw the phone against the ground. It shattered into a million pieces.

Tex pulled up and got out of the car. “Shit. You didn’t have to take it out on your phone.”

“I need a new one.” I released Trace’s hand and flexed my fingers.

“I’m on it.” Mo ran back in the house. We always kept extra phones around. Mainly because we needed lots of lines open for business, but also because Nixon and I had always had a tendency to break phones when we got upset. Expensive habit.

I paced in front of everyone. “He wants us in the dark for a reason. Damn you, Nixon.” I realized I had slipped. Trace looked at me curiously, as did Tex and Mil. “Sorry, that was uncalled for.” I cleared my throat. “Normal. Everything has to go normal today. Trace, I’ll go to class with you; maybe we’ll find answers there. If not… Shit, I’ll have to get the money myself.”

“Money?”Mo repeated. “What money? What’s going on?”

“Apparently we need to pay someone off.” I clenched my hand into a fist. “And good ol’ Dad wants me to be the one to make the transfer.”

“It’s a setup,” Tex interjected. “No boss does the business himself. He pays someone to do it for him. What Tony’s asking is not only ridiculous, it’s stupid. He knows you aren’t stupid enough to go do it yourself.”

“Which is exactly why I have to.” I scratched the back of my head. “I’ll go to the bank after classes and make the withdrawal with Sherry. She’s family so she won’t blink an eye when I take that much money from the accounts. Just know that if a bomb goes off it’s probably not an accident.”

At Trace’s sharp intake of breath, I paused. “Shit, I’m sorry, Trace. I was being sarcastic.”

Her hand flew across my face so hard I nearly fell. “Well, stop being sarcastic or I’m going to kill you myself!”

Mo had just returned, holding out my new phone, but she snatched it back from me.

“What the hell, Mo, I need that!”

Mo stuffed it in her purse. “Not until you’re done looking like you want to shoot the first thing that looks at you funny.”

Tex grinned sheepishly and batted his eyes.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Looking at you funny. Is it working? You wanna shoot me?”

“No.” I shoved my hands in my pockets.

“Cool. Mo, give him the damn phone.”

“Men!” she shouted and handed me the phone, then got into the running car. Mil stood on the stoop and waved good-bye.

I paused. “There aren’t any men here to protect you.”

She lifted her coffee cup in the air with one hand and pulled a pistol from her bathrobe with the other. “Do I look like I need protecting?”

“No,” I chuckled.

“That would be a hell no,” Tex called from the front seat. “Play nice, Mil.”

“Always do!” She walked back inside and shut the door.

“She scares me,” Tex announced once we were on the road.

I laughed. “Yeah, well imagine what she was like before reform school.”

“So?” I took a long swig of coffee and leaned against the tree. “Fifty-fifty it’s going to work?”