Chapter 0316

“Pickings are slim,” Daniel says, grinning at her. “All in jail for the moment. Though if you’re into girls, I know some Russians...”

Janeen raises her eyebrows, clearly intrigued, but I interrupt.

“Enough of this —“ I say, stepping between them. “We need...” and then I sigh, deciding how to phrase this. I turn to my sister.

“Janeen, Daniel and I need to make plans. And you’re welcome to be in on them, but if you do...I need you to either be in or out.

You're either a part of this, or you should — for your own safety — stay out of it completely.”

Janeen goes quiet for a moment, studying me, and then flicks her eyes to Daniel. “Did you do this to her?” she asks quietly.

“Turn my geeky little sister into a mafia boss?”

“Nah,” I hear Daniel answer, and I don’t look at him. “That's all dad.”

“Well,” Janeen says, returning her gaze to me. “I kind of like it.”

“So, are you in?” I ask, needing an answer and wanting it now.

“Of course I’m in,” she says, giving me a frown. “You know you can count on me, Fay. Always.”

I turn to Daniel then, because — no matter what — we're in this together. “You good with that?”

“lam if you are,” he says, looking down at me with his steady green eyes. My heart twists a little as I look up at him. He just

looks...so much like Kent.

I quickly look away, needing...well, needing not to go there right now. There's too much to do. Briskly, I nod. “Okay then. Let’s get

started.”

Daniel and I set up camp on the second-story back deck, which is almost too luxurious and comfortable to serve as the base of

our command. But we make do, curled up at the circular wooden table with the blue umbrella open above us. Dad, when he

wakes, makes us breakfast and brings it to us while the three of us chat. He doesn’t interfere or join in, though — clearly deciding

to give us our space.

I thank him and hope he knows how grateful I am that he’s here, but I don’t ask him to get involved — both because I know he

doesn’t want to, and because...well, because I can’t stand to put him in that kind of danger. My father is a gentle soul.

Janeen, however, is a terrier. I have much less worry about her — and frankly, she’s even better than Daniel about getting

organized and bringing all of our pieces together.

Daniel contacts our lawyers, getting all the information he can about Kent and Jerome’s incarceration as well as our finances. It’s

not long before we have a pile of mixed news to sort through.

“So, the bad news,” Daniel says, ending his call and sitting back down at the table with us, “is that all of dad’s property and bank

accounts are locked down because he’s under investigation.”

“Oh,” I say, sitting forward, disturbed by this. “So, um. How are we going to pay lawyers and stuff?”

“They'll do a certain amount essentially on credit,” Daniel sighs, running a hand through his messy hair, “under the assumption

that they'll get paid when dad goes free, or when his accounts and stuff get unlocked. But until then...”

“Are we broke?” I ask, a little afraid. I mean — I’m no stranger to being poor, but this situation gets a lot more complicated if we

don’t have resources.

“That’s part of the good news,” Daniel says, looking at me and leaning back in his chair. “You and I still have access to our

accounts and property.”

“We have accounts and property?” I ask, tilting my head to the side.

“How do you not know this, Fay?” Janeen scoffs.

“I was busy, Janeen,” I growl, glaring at her.

“Getting knocked up,” she murmurs,

which makes Daniel laugh. I enover

and shov her harshefiigh that her

pounce into Daniel's, and

they both stop laughing, seeing that

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“Can we be serious, please?” I say before I turn my attention back to Daniel.

“My property is in Europe,” Daniel

says casually — as if it’s a normal

thing — “and you have this house

which is paid f epiiehs bitte

pre SG ore goes through me at

that — at least we have somewhere

to stay. “And as for accounts,

apparently dad gave the lawyers a list

of our assets in case something like

this happened. I'll access them now.”

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But while Daniel types on the computer, pulling up our bank accounts, the doorbell rings.

I frown at Janeen. “Were you expecting anyone?”

Slowly, she shakes her head. So, aa

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