just stares into my eyes. I see Sterling there, looking back at me. Hopeful and a little angry and trusting and innocent. He doesn’t see himself that way. He never has but it’s so much clearer to see those parts of him in the eyes of his daughter.
“I promise.” And I mean it with every fiber of my being. Standing up, I give her a quick kiss on the forehead and shoo her inside. She studies the charm the whole way.
“I should call the police,” Ginny says when the door closes behind her.
“And tell them what?” I ask. “What lie will you spin this time?”
“You know that we were given guardianship over her. You can’t just show up and put ideas in her head and—”
“Guardianship,” I cut her off. “I’m still her mother in every way. You two are not her parents.”
“Are you threatening me? Maybe I should call the police. I should have when you broke your promise and he came to the house. How could you do that? How could you tell him after what he’s done to this family? He’s only going to hurt you and her.”
“He would never do that.”
“Then why didn’t you put his name on the birth certificate?” she demands.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you. Not anymore.” I take a step towards her and she flinches, but this time there’s no Malcolm there to step in and save her. It’s been a long time since he cared enough to concern himself. “It’s time to fight your own battle—face-to-face—this time.”
“I always fight my own battles,” she seethes.
“No, you don’t. Did you know I felt sorry for you once? I thought you were in over your head with my family, but now I know you’re just like my brother and my father—even my mother. There’s always an excuse for their behavior. There’s always an angle to be manipulated. But you can’t change basic facts. I’m her mother. You aren’t.”
“You don’t stand a chance against us.” Her hands ball into fists as her face goes pale. “Nothing’s changed. We still have all the lawyers, all the money, the police report, the witnesses.”
I shake my head and despite everything, I can’t help but laugh. I look over to the studio window. Class has begun, and in the center of the students, Ellie is turned the wrong direction, dancing to a completely different beat than everyone else. She’s mine. My little girl. Our little girl. I fought and lost before. I won’t lose her again.
“Everything’s changed,” I tell her, “especially me.”
20
Sterling
“Cyrus is supposed to arrive fifteen minutes from now. Is that enough time?” I’m alone in Adair’s suite at the Eaton, talking to Luca and Jack over an encrypted communication hub running out of Jack’s G-Wagen. We’ve run this setup before, dozens of times on damn near every continent, but never with our own skin in the game.
It adds spice, to say the least.
It also means we can pull it together in a pinch, and we’re running out of time. The most difficult element was getting Adair to agree to follow my instructions without an explanation in advance. I just promised her I wouldn’t order her around again after this. I wouldn’t risk it.
Luca is meeting with the hotel manager, Mr. Randolph, who’s been trying to get a private meeting with him for a couple of weeks. Randolph’s name has been on my list since before we returned to Nashville—ever since he embarrassed me at Thanksgiving five years ago, in fact. Today, the entire Eaton dynasty gets what it deserves, right down to the asshole manager.
“We knew we’d be threading the eye of the needle with this. You getting cold feet, Ford?” Jack has the easy job—he always does.
“You’re just mad you still have to stay in the car,” Luca chuckles.
We have an impressive array of tech at our disposal, earpieces and mics so small no one will see them by accident, wireless cameras, and a fiber-optic splicer that costs more than a modest house. Someone has to manage all of it, and who better than Jack, since he made most of it? I hadn’t been surprised when he’d led us into a hidden room in the back of the Barrelhouse and a stash of equipment. Jack might want to be out, but old habits die hard. I’m not certain he’ll ever relax into the life he claims to want entirely.
Normally I take point, Luca covers me discreetly, and Jack provides operational support from nearby, usually somewhere