***

“Fuck,” I mumble as Mason licks and bites the inside of my legs. Thank God for central heating in my building because it’s freezing. My bare pussy is on display for my sister to walk in on should she wake because here I am, sprawled out on my timber coffee table. How did I let this happen? Oh, right, I didn’t. Mason whipped my pajama bottoms off the moment we had sat our coffees down safely, and now I know why. Because barely a second later, he laid me out on the table and true to his words he eats breakfast.

Spread wide, I laugh. ”No, Mase, that wasn’t an invitation for your cock.”

“Well, at least let me start the day off right. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, after all.” The cheeky smile he wears warms my heart. He seems weightless from worries. I’ll do anything to keep that look on his face.

He yanks me forward, not gently. And a moment later, he’s devouring me like a starved man.

His lips seal kisses and licks over every inch of my pussy.

“I’ve imagined this for weeks, Lindsey. You’re so fucking beautiful.”

And I believe him, because never has a look more honest shone from a man before now.

I believe every word he says, and it does nothing but fill my heart with joy and bleed with pain all at the same time, because I have one job left to do before I can leave it all behind.

After the rush of excitement from one hell of a breakfast, thankfully one Ali did not walk in on, she trudged out of the room and joined us in the living room where the three of us talked. She filled me in on why she left the clinic and my heart broke for her when she told me what happened when she arrived at the bar. I didn’t understand what her and Roamyn have because we just haven’t got the chance to talk about it. There’s a twelve year age gap between them. It took me awhile just to wrap my head around the fact they even had a thing. But I know Ali down to her bones and I’ve never seen her cut up about anyone this way. She hung her head while tears cascaded down face as she spoke; the carefree Alison Jenkins was nowhere to be seen. She swore to us she never willingly took any drugs or tasted so much as a drop of alcohol and I wanted to believe her because in my heart, I knew she wouldn’t lie straight to my face. Sure, she’d kept things from me, but face-to-face, she can never lie convincingly. With a simple nod, Mason stood by my decision and he left to go be with his daughter, but not before insisting Ali go to the hospital so they can test what was in her system.

***

The car ride from the hospital to the rehab clinic is taking forever. It’s peak hour and impatient drivers are blasting their horns. The afternoon sun casts down on the windows. Tucked away in the confined space of the taxi, Ali sits, staring through the window. It’s quiet and she’s distant.

Concern winds me up as I worry how this incident with Roamyn will affect her progress. I reach out, searching for answers. “Hey, you feeling all right?”

Her lips turn up at the edges into a small forced smile. “Yeah, I’m okay. I won’t let this bring me back down to that hell. Before last night, I hadn’t felt this energized and happy in years. Finally, I’m winning. I’m beating the addiction. Roamyn may not believe in me, but now I don’t feel like I need him too. I believe in me, and that’s all that matters.”

I sit here stunned, mouth agape in shock. “Geez, did they add some maturity to your food in that place or what?”

Ali chuckles and the mood lightens. “Nah. But I’d hit rock bottom. I was supposed to go to prison, Linds. And somehow I don’t think prison is really like Orange Is The New Black. When I let that sink in, it all hit me so hard. I sat and thought about it. If I went to prison, no one but you or Olly would miss me, or visit me, and that really sucks. Realizing that hurt. All I ever wanted was love. I lost myself trying so hard to find it. It was time for me find myself again.”

I squeeze her elbow reassuringly while pride flutters through me. “That’s amazing, babe. And for what it’s worth, I believe in you too.”

Sometimes it’s all we need, for something to happen for us to realize we no longer need someone else to believe in us, be there for us. We have ourselves, and when you believe in you, you have a power no one can take away.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Lindsey

The bright shade of red on my lips doesn’t allow me to feel any beauty. I’ve danced with the devil to save myself and now it’s become the blood from my deception.

Oliver sits across from me. Chocolate cake and tea sits between us because Lord knows this moment calls for bad food and your best friend. The bell on the door chimes and my head shoots up, eyes darting in that direction. Dread consumes me. For every time the door opens, I worry Mason will step through and this will all be over. We will be over, my career over. My life, over. But it’s not him. It never is. We’ve sat here in this café for nearly two hours, neither of us speaking much. We’re just listening to the sounds of the coffee machine in use and watching the snow fall outside of the window beside us.

We were done. A part of our lives is now to be put away on a shelf to collect dust and be nothing more than a distant memory, a book never to be opened again, a story to be kept hidden.

We robbed the devil himself, Giuseppe Marino. We took our cut and our freedom. Ali’s freedom. Rossi deleted the bank security footage so we’d never be caught and he left with a new-found wealth. Adriana was on her way to turn herself in. Everything had gone according to plan but my stomach will still stay tied up in knots. I rarely trust anyone, let alone Enzo Rossi, so I followed him a few times before the job. I saw him with her. I saw the way they looked at one another. They tried to hide, be discreet, visit places no one would ever look to find them, but they failed. I now know Rossi’s weakness. He is in love with Adriana Marino.

Thanks to his weakness, I gained the upper hand.

“If I eat anymore cake, I’m going leave looking like one. Take it away, babe.” Olly pushes the white ceramic plate with a small portion of chocolate cake remaining on it over to my side of the table.

A weight lifts from my chest as I release a sigh, finding humor in Olly’s comment. “Leave the cake. I’ll have it.” I sit back in the chair of the small, quaint café. It’s a gorgeous little place with a vintage feel to it. It’s shabby chic, not Olly’s style at all, but most definitely mine.

“I feel awful. I’m so relieved it’s over but just the thought of bringing up Adriana and threatening him with her made me feel sick.”

“It was an empty threat, babe, and he doesn’t know that, so that’s all that matters.” He shrugs as though it’s no big deal and it really isn’t. But years ago, Adriana meant something to me. She meant something to Oliver. Voicing the threat aloud was enough to curdle my stomach with bile.

“Yeah, I know,” I answer quietly.

“Feels weird, doesn’t it?”

“What part?” I ask.

“The part where we’re not killers, con artists, thieves.”

My body relaxes and my lips curve up into an involuntary smile. “Yeah, sure as hell does.”

I pick up my warm tea from the table and raise it in the air. “Cheers, Olly. We had a good run. My life,” I pause, my throat thickening with emotion, “…it wouldn’t be the same without you, and I wouldn’t be where I am without you.”

A shit-eating grin appears on his face and it’s the happiest I’ve seen him look in a long time. “Aw, Lindsey, is this your way of trying to say you love me, too?”

I scoff.

He laughs.

Life from this day forward will be different. I no longer feel the need to hold back so much from Mason. Worry still floods in, my heart still races with uncertainty at the thought of a real relationship with the man, because I can’t tell him everything. I never can. But now I’m free from burdens that could hurt him and Charlotte, all with the exception of the Marinos. But this isn’t a secret I’ve kept from Mason. He’ll keep me close and I’ll let him. We’ll fight the battle together when they retaliate.