I opened my eyes and stared through the grime at the parking lot.
“Olivia?” Dad called.
I turned my head his way. He was now close to the door.
He held my gaze and nodded, seemingly communicating something weighty, like for some reason he was proud of me.
I felt my flesh crawl.
Dad turned away, walked out and slammed the door behind him.
I looked back out the windows.
I then heard Georgia say, obviously into her phone, “Yeah, Gill. Call Henrietta. Get some heavy duty bags. Clean up on aisle five.”
I sighed.
“Liv,” she called to me.
I looked to my sister.
She had a hip hitched, her phone up in front of her face, her eyes to it, thumb moving on her screen.
“How’re you fixed for next Thursday?” she asked.
Good God.
My family.
* * * * *
Nick
5:38 – That Evening
Jogging down the stairwell to get to the underground parking lot of his building, Nick made his fourth call to Olivia that day.
He was concerned.
It was his third call, the first, that morning, she’d answered. The last two that afternoon, she had not. But he’d also texted three times, all that afternoon, and none of those she’d answered.
He had no ears at that warehouse.
And he had a leak.
She had a meeting that afternoon at that warehouse.
She worked with vipers.
And she was his.
They found that out, they’d strike.
He had no choice but to let her go to work every day with that threat hanging over their heads, a threat she didn’t fully understand.
But with his access cut off to the House of Shade, and Sylvie and Creed just back from Phoenix and on the job, Nick was keeping closer tabs on his woman.
So yeah, she didn’t reply, he got worried.