Can you come see me again and help me please? I’m not that far away. It’s less than a five-hour drive. I had my visiting hours cut—I’ll explain why when I see you in person—but they can’t take away my rights. The law allows me four hours per month, and they’re granting me two to see family on June 30th. You are my family, baby. See me. See me. See me. I’ll write to you for a thousand years if I have to. I swear, baby girl, I swear.

Help me.

Your loving mommy.

Years of practice didn’t ease the heavy knot in her gut. Letter after countless letter didn’t make the words hurt less. Every note she read was a piece of her flesh being sliced.

You couldn’t hide from that kind of hurt, she’d learned. You just had to let it bleed, and hope it didn’t bleed out what was left of your heart.

Folding up the letter, she slid it back into the envelope, then tucked it away in a kitchen cupboard. She walked into her bathroom, washed her hands and face, brushed her teeth, then stripped off her clothes. As she removed the silvery wrap, she was tempted to bring it to her nose, to catch a final, trailing scent of that man who turned her on.

Instead, she resisted, letting it fall on top of a pile of black, shimmery fabric.

Sliding between the cool sheets of her bed, she reached for the photo album she kept in her beside drawer, then traced her thumb over the pictures from years ago. Some color, some black and white.

She turned the pages.

The ending was the same every time.

She shut off the light and flipped onto her belly, hating that she still ached between her legs. After everything in between touching Brent and falling into bed, she still wanted him. Even after she’d seen her brother. Even after she’d read the note from her mother. Even after she’d looked at the photos.

Still, she longed for him. Still, she felt the same damn pull.

Bodies were stupid things. Lord only knew, hers didn’t work properly anymore. She was supposed to be dancing. Supposed to be doing so many things.

She’d remade herself though. She’d shrugged off who she used to be. She’d risen anew from the ashes of her family.

From her mother, who had killed her father in cold blood.

But some days, she wasn’t so sure if she could ever outrun her history.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Mindy clutched her belly, the sound of early-morning slots soundtracking her laughter as they waited to be seated at breakfast.

Brent stared at her with narrowed eyes. “It’s not funny,” he grumbled.

“Oh, it’s funny. It’s completely hilarious,” she said, poking him in the chest.

“I beg to differ. Other things are funny. Dry humor about politicians. Jokes about hipsters. Comedic bits about waxing gone wrong,” he said, that familiar urge to start a riff taking over.

She shook her head. “No, this is funnier. The way you put your foot in your mouth is the height of comedy,” she said, as the hostess at the Allegro’s breakfast cafe walked up to them.

“Right this way,” the hostess said. “We’ve got your regular table for you, Mindy.”

“You’re royalty here. That could be a good bit. The security chief who’s treated like a queen,” he whispered to his friend, who swatted him.

“Stop it,” she said, but she was laughing.

The hostess led them to a green upholstered booth in the classy breakfast spot in the middle of the hotel on the Strip. Mindy ran security at the Allegro and had for several years now. One of his closest buddies, they had one of the rare male-female friendships where they truly were just friends, maybe because they’d known each other since high school. Maybe, too, because they’d had that obligatory moment that kyboshed the prospect of anything ever happening between them. At a high school graduation party, over beer and quarters, and truth and dare with their group of friends, someone had dared Brent to kiss her.

They’d kissed for a few seconds, and it was fine. Nothing more. Later that night, she’d brought it up. “That was like kissing my brother. Can we, you know, never do that again?”

He’d laughed, and clinked bottles with her. “Never is fine by me, sis.”

It was a good thing, because he needed her on the friends side of his life. She seemed to need him, too. She was one of the smartest people he knew, but she had horrible taste in men lately. Understandable, since she’d given her heart to someone long ago. She’d spent time in the military, and had fallen for another soldier, and he’d fallen hard too. But he’d died in combat, and since then Mindy had kept relationships at a distance, preferring instead to date casually from time to time.

Usually assholes.

With disastrous results.

The hostess handed Mindy a menu, but she waved it off. “Don’t you know I have it all memorized by now?” Mindy said, tapping the side of her head.

“Of course you do. I’ll send the server over shortly to take your order,” the hostess said with a smile, and handed Brent a menu.

“Like I said, royalty.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “And like I’ve said a million times—”

“I know, I know,” he jumped in, cutting her off. He adopted a high-pitched tone, mimicking Mindy. “You’re an ass, Brent Nichols.”

She cracked up once more, her light blue eyes twinkling with delight at Brent’s impersonation. “I told you it was funny.”

“Too bad I didn’t record her slapping me so you could have it for cell phone posterity.”

She snapped her fingers in an aw shucks gesture. “I would absolutely add that to my collection of stupid things Brent has done over the years. It’s quite an extensive collection.”

“I am well aware of that.” Mindy was privy to the pranks he’d pulled in high school, the bar fight he’d gotten into a few years ago, and a bet he’d made at a bachelor party for a buddy last year. He’d come out unscathed on all accounts since he had some kind of magical lucky streak. But the Shannon situation was far more complex than going all in with his big mouth or the big ego that matched it. He needed help. He needed finesse. He needed Mindy.

Brent quickly scanned the menu, then shut it and stretched his arms across the back of the booth. “So, swami, tell me what to do.”

“I’m not even going to say you need to apologize. Because you need to do more than apologize. You need to grovel. You need to beg her not to hate you.”

He let out a long, deep, frustrated steam of air. “I can’t do a damn thing right around her.” He dropped his forehead into his palm, the sunburst black ink on his forearm staring back at him.

“You have an Achilles heel when it comes to Shannon.”

Brent raised his face. “I know. Believe me, I know.”

His confidante on all matters related to Shannon, Mindy had been briefed chapter and verse from the start. She knew the good, the bad and ugly. She’d helped him pick the diamond for the ring when he was getting ready to propose in college. She knew, too, that he’d fucked up that fateful day ten years ago. She’d encouraged him then to try to make it right. But Shannon hadn’t taken his calls, so he’d been forced to move on. Now, she’d reappeared in his life, like a goddamn blazing neon sign, and he wasn’t going to let her wriggle away again.

“So what do I do?”

Mindy was about to answer when the waitress popped by to take their order and serve them coffee. As she walked off, Mindy checked the time. She had to be at work soon, and she was already dressed for the gig, in her white button-down shirt and gray pants, designed to blend in as she surveyed the scene at the hotel. “Here’s the deal,” she said as she poured a pink packet into her mug. “You have two things you need to do. One, you need to remind her how good you were together. And, two, show her that you’ve grown up.”