And Rosie, don’t you go finding someone to fall in love with until I’m back.
A slideshow of images flies through my mind, all of them including a handsome and kind man from my past.
“He’s not for you.” I say the words out loud to the empty bookstore while at the same time sending my sisters a message.
Rose
Still planning to die an old cat lady. Thanks for your concern.
Noli
Oh my gosh, Pops. Good byeeeeee!!!
I huff out a laugh and busy myself with the books. It’s a relief, really. To have the books.
In the past year, my sisters’ lives have exploded with happiness and companionship and all the things you’d hope for the people you love. Poppy and Mack nailed the friends-to-lovers trope. Noli and Collin are the picture of enemies to lovers. I’m so glad for them. Truly. But it’s only made all the more apparent the shell of a life I live.
There’s a single rap on the rear door. It echoes through the long, narrow bookstore, which is much deeper than it is wide, like a car backfiring.
Here goes nothing.
I swing by the check-out counter and turn off our indoor security cameras, mentally apologizing to Mia. I’ll make sure the cameras are reactivated when I’m done with this meeting, but I don’t need her asking me about the stranger who came in after hours.
The walk to the back of the bookstore has me feeling a little like Wendy, walking the plank. But there’s no Peter Pan in my story. Nope. This girl has to rescue herself—or at least grit her teeth, survive, and advance.
I flip the lock, tug my shoulders back, and pull open the door off the alley.
2
Hey, Kids, Spying is Fun (Not)
Rose
My father steps inside, rubbing his hands against the chill in the late-November air.
I can’t help but flash back to a summer day about ten years ago, when I let him into the apartment Poppy, Noli, and I shared. I had just graduated high school, and I hadn’t seen him in several years. I couldn’t believe he was there—in person. My hands shook with the sheer joy of being reunited. I thought he was coming back so we could be a family again. Instead, he looked me dead in the eye, without an ounce of emotion on his face, and offered me a job. He said he could train me; that I was the type for it. A loner at heart, like him. A fan of physical fitness. A helper.
He also said the fewer people who knew, the better. It would be less complicated and easier to do our job that way.
I could barely process what he was saying, but at the chance to be close to him, I jumped in feet first. I thought I could wear him down over time and bring about a full family reconciliation. But that was ten years ago. I thought wrong.
“You’re early.” I press the door shut and lock it.
My dad, Lennox, strides forward without a word in response. In one shrewd glance, he takes in the floor-to-ceiling bookcases, the book display tables, the circular staircase, and the second-floor loft. He’s good at this—assessing locations, determining threat levels, seeing things other people miss.
I resist the urge to squirm under his evaluation. Dueling feelings wage war in my chest when I’m around him—I want him to be proud of me, and I want him to be gone, all at the same time. Ibriefly acknowledge that these feelings are stronger here, in my safe space, before bottling them up and focusing on the job. I have to keep my emotions under wraps, especially now, or I’ll never get out in one piece.
I trail him into the center of the bookstore, stepping forward and motioning for him to take a seat in one of the overstuffed corduroy chairs Mia has positioned for our patrons to curl up in.
“I’m not thrilled about this,” I say as I sit across from him.
I don’t know why my dad insisted on meeting in person. He could have passed along the information through my secure email. We could have video-conferenced. I’ve been doing this for a decade. I’m good at my job. I don’t need a babysitter, but it’s like my dad can’t resist checking up on me. Almost like he doesn’t trust me fully with this assignment.
His first words to me are, “You’re the best option we have to protect Bates.”
So maybe hedoestrust me.
That, or he realizes my history with Anton makes me our best shot at protecting him. My dad knows as well as I know that I’m going to do whatever I can to help.