Rerum, New Hampshire
“What the hell did you do now?”
“Oh, thank god,” Jill said, sighing with relief when she heard Chris’s voice only to bite back a groan when she saw the man standing next to him.
“You are in so much trouble, young lady,” Chris said with a mocking glare as he reached over with a smile and pulled her into his arms. “You miss me?”
“Not really,” she said, smiling as she wrapped her arms around her brother only to remember too late about his fondness for bear hugs.
“There’s no need to lie. We both know you missed me,” Chris said, giving her one last squeeze before dropping her on her feet and-
“What the hell happened, Jill?” her father asked, sighing heavily even as he reached past Chris and pulled her into his arms.
“Just a misunderstanding, Dad,” Jill said as she reluctantly wrapped her arms around him as she did her best not to think about the fact that the last time she saw him was when she’d been banished.
Since then, she’d been avoiding him and the lecture that she knew was c
oming, but it looked like her reprieve was finally over. Closing her eyes, Jill allowed herself to enjoy one last minute of peace before she pulled back, trying to figure out what she was going to do next. Granted, she’d been trying to do that since the asshole locked her in here last night.
She already knew staying here was no longer an option. So, she wasn’t going to bother asking. Going to live with her family was out of the question as well. They didn’t want her there and to be honest, she didn’t want to live anywhere where she would have to deal with having her past sins constantly thrown in her face. She wasn’t perfect, far from it. She’d made a lot of mistakes in her life, done things that she would never forgive herself for, made choices that she had been too damn young to make, and she was going to have to live with that for the rest of her life.
She didn’t need a reminder.
“We need to talk,” Ephraim said as he reluctantly let her go.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Jill said because she already knew what came next.
They didn’t want her.
They could give her a thousand excuses, but it all came down to one thing.
She didn’t belong in their world.
“I spoke with Eric and he thinks that it might be a good idea to send you to London for a little while,” Ephraim said as they stepped out of the holding cell and headed downstairs.
“No,” Jill said as she pushed the front door open and realized that she’d been locked up for an entire day when she spotted the pizza shop across the street closing up for the night.
At least she wouldn’t have to worry about quitting her job since they’d probably fired her when she didn’t show up for work today, Jill thought as she headed towards her apartment. She needed to see if Nick was home and hope that he let her in her apartment since her keys were currently in the possession of the other problem that she would worry about later.
“This isn’t up for discussion, Jill. You can’t stay here,” Ephraim explained as Chris threw his arm around her and steered her back the other way.
“What are you doing?” she asked, moving to duck beneath his arm only to have him tighten his hold around her shoulders and move faster, giving her no other choice but to go with him.
“Taking a lovely late-night stroll with my sister,” Chris murmured thoughtfully, as he led her towards the black SUV parked in front of the old fire station.
“I need to take care of a few things,” Jill said, hoping to use however long it took her to close up her life here to figure out her next move.
“There’s nothing to take care of,” Ephraim said as he opened the back-passenger door for her. “It’s all gone.”
“What are you talking about?”
“A minion set your apartment on fire this morning, Jill. They were able to put it out before anyone got hurt, but everything’s gone. We can’t protect you like this, not with that mark on your neck,” Chris said as she found herself climbing into the backseat as a thought occurred to her.
“Wait. What about Grandma?” she asked, trying not to panic as she moved to climb back out of the car only to find the door shut and-
Locked?
“What are you doing? Open the damn door!” she snapped only to feel her stomach drop as dread crawled up her spine when she spotted the large man behind the wheel as her father sealed her fate with a half-dozen softly spoken words.