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Chapter 28

"Jaime."

Jaime stuck the papers back in the folder and set it aside. He reached in the box on the floor by the couch and took out another one, spreading the papers across the table.

"Jaime."

He frowned and picked up one of the sheets, scanning it more closely.

"Jaime."

This time he looked up. His eyes were bleary.

Eddie sighed. "You should take a break. You've been at this for hours."

Jaime frowned and shook his head slightly, looking back down at the paper in his hands. He read a little more, then set it aside, reaching for the next piece of paper.

"Now I know who Katie's involved with," he said. "I can find out what they've got her tied up in."

Eddie sat on the couch next to him. "You think she's involved against her will?" She tried to keep the doubt from her voice.

Jaime looked at her, consternation creasing his forehead. "Of course she is. There's no way she would be running around with a crew that's shot at the cops, sold guns that have killed cops, because she wants to."

Eddie pressed her lips together to keep from saying anything else.

Jaime saw her expression. "Look, you don't know her."

"I know I don't," she said. "But…Jaime, do you really know her anymore? It's been three years. She's a member of a gang. She doesn't sound like the sister you remember." She winced, hoping she had tempered her words enough.

Jaime shook his head. "She's not a member of the gang." He handed her the paper he was holding. "Her name hasn't been on any of the arrest sheets. She's stayed clean."

Eddie took the sheet from him. "The guys she's with haven't."

Jaime took the paper back and stuck it in the folder, moving his attention to the next one in his pile.

"Did you see what they've been collared for? Assault, aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon, battery, attempted murder, murder one—"

Jaime cut her off. "That's why she needs to get away from them."

Eddie held back what she wanted to say. She took a breath and let him look over another paper. When she finally spoke, she gentled her voice, knowing there was no way to soften the words. "You know it's not that easy."

Jaime didn't answer, but Eddie saw the muscle in his jaw twitch.

"We have to be at your dad's for Sunday dinner in an hour."

"I just want to get through a couple more files first," Jaime said, his attention already back on the box of papers.

"Hand me that stack," she said. She took the full folder from him. She couldn't change his mind, but she would do what she could to find something that might help Kate.

#

Kate steeled herself.

Carlos opened the front door to his parents' house and held it for Kate.

She brushed past him on her way in, Frannie on her hip.

It was just as much chaos as her first Sunday meal with Carlos' family. Two little girls ran past, a little boy yelled for his mother, and Carlos' youngest sister picked him up.

"Oh," she said, her lips rounding in surprise. "You brought your friend home after Mass," she said. She gave Kate an uncertain smile.

Kate stiffened. Lara wasn't as openly suspicious as Carlos' oldest sister, but she was clearly uncomfortable with Kate.

"We're going to get Frannie some lunch," Carlos said easily. "You want me to take Silas to his mom?"

"I'll find Bella," Lara said. She paused. "It's good to see you again," she said to Kate.

Kate mumbled something in response, just wanting to avoid any more interactions with Carlos' sisters.

"Do you and Frannie want to wait here and I'll get her a plate?" Carlos asked. He nodded toward the empty den.

Kate let out a relieved sigh. Carlos smiled in understanding. "I'll be right back."

Kate set Frannie down and she immediately went to the basket of toys she had already discovered during their stay over the past few days. Kate carefully lowered herself to sit on the rug, wishing she was out of her dress and back in her jeans. When Frannie brought her a doll, she took the doll and the doll-sized blanket, swaddling the toy while Frannie when to get another toy from the basket.

"Oh, I didn't know anyone was in here."

Kate's hands tightened on the doll. She forced herself to look right at Carlos' dad.

Anthony stood in the doorway to the room. He glanced back over his shoulder, then took a couple steps in.

"You and Frannie doin' ok here?"

"We're fine," Kate said stiffly.

He nodded, but didn't say anything more.

"You don't have to pretend to not know who I am," she said bluntly.

Anthony let out a small huff. "You don't beat around the bush." He moved to the sofa and sat down. "You must get that from Danny."

Kate clenched her jaw. She waited.

Anthony bent forward to take the toy car Frannie held out to him. "You're a sweet little lady," he said with a smile for her. Frannie gave him a grin and toddled back to the toys.

"Jaime never said you had a kid."

Kate's fingers clutched the doll tighter.

"Jaime doesn't know," Anthony surmised.

"No one does," Kate said stiffly. She waited.

"She's real cute. Rose likes having her here." Anthony took a stuffed animal Frannie shoved at him. When he didn't say anything more, Kate looked at him.

Anthony met her eyes. "They won't hear it from me."

Kate nodded, swallowing hard.

"You know," Anthony said as Frannie plopped herself down in Kate's lap and took the swaddled doll in her pudgy hands, "I've known your family a long time. I was Joe's T.O., then Jaime's."

Kate kept her eyes on the top of Frannie's head. She brushed at her daughter's curls lightly.

"I know what they went through when you disappeared. How frantic Jamie was, Danny running down every lead to find you."

"It was better for everyone that I stayed away," Kate said, her words coming out more harshly than she intended.

"Look, I'm not poking my nose in where it doesn't belong. But I know your family. There's nothing you could do that would make them hesitate to take you back."

Kate's phone buzzed from her bag near the couch, where Carlos had set it. She pulled it out and looked at the caller ID. Johnny. She met Anthony's eyes.

"There's plenty I could do," she said sharply. "Plenty I've done."

Anthony didn't recoil.

"You ok in here?" Carlos asked, coming into the room with a plate and a covered cup of juice.

"Can you sit with Frannie?" Kate asked, holding up her phone.

Carlos gave a nod and Kate could see his suspicion about who was calling.

She cast a last look at Frannie before hurrying from the room and tapping her phone screen to take the call.

"Where the hell are you?"

Kate's jaw locked at Johnny's words. She dodged around one of Carlos' nieces and took the stairs two at a time until she got to the room she and Frannie had been staying in.

"I've been in a holding cell," she lied. That's what Carlos said he had told Johnny when he and Joe went to check in with him.

"You're out now," Johnny said. "Get back over here. We're not done."

Kate looked out the window of the bedroom. The tidy houses lining the street. A couple kids playing in a front yard.

"I'll be there tonight," Kate said. She stepped away from the window.

Johnny let loose a string of curses.

"Tonight," Kate said again.

"Hurry up," Johnny ordered. He ended the call.

Kate closed her eyes. Her breath picked up. She fought to get her growing fear under control. There wasn't going to be any way out of her life with the Dimeboys. She was going to be there until it ended her. And Lacey. And Frannie. She bit down on her lip hard.

She pressed the heel of her hands against her eyes. There was no out.

A rap sounded on the open door of the bedroom.

Kate quickly dropped her hands and raised her chin in defiance.

Carlos was in the doorway. He didn't say anything. Kate swallowed hard.

"This isn't who I am," Kate choked out. She gestured at the fitted dress she wore.

Carlos didn't move.

"I'm not some girl you take to church and then home to your family. You know tha."

"You're not some girl," he said.

"Don't," Kate said through gritted teeth. She steeled herself, willed herself not to feel anything. Heat built behind her eyes, a painful knot lodged in her throat.

"You mean something to me, Kate," Carlos said. "You and Frannie."

"I'm your CI," Kate said. She glared at him. "That's all."

"Is that all you want it to be?" he asked quietly.

Kate couldn't bring herself to tell him it was.

"It's all it can be," she forced herself to say.

Carlos stepped into the room. His palm was warm against her cheek. Kate fought the urge to lean into the touch.

"Kate," he said.

Kate thought his hand was shaking, then realized it was her trembling against his touch. She fought to stay in control.

Her skin burned under the heat of his hand. She couldn't stop herself from lifting her face closer to his. Her breath came in uneven, jagged gasps.

Carlos was steady, his dark eyes full of emotion that scared Kate.

Everything in her wanted him. She had wanted this for so long.

Carlos lowered his head. His lips didn't brush hers, they connected with hers.

Kate felt his hand on her cheek press more firmly. She moved her hands to his shoulders, gripping the muscles there.

Carlos' free hand went to the back of her neck. His touch sent heat down her spine. She moved closer to him. Carlos whispered against her lips that he wasn't going anywhere.

Kate knew it was a mistake, but it was only one in a long list of them. She wasn't going to think about that now. Not with Carlos' lips on hers, his tongue brushing against her teeth, his hand cupping her face.

Right now she was losing herself in Carlos' kisses.

#

"Come on, what's going on?" Bella said, lowering her voice and leaning over the kitchen island.

"She's staying here?" Sofia asked.

Lara watched her mother hold up her hands to stall any more questions. "She's a friend of Carlos and she needed somewhere to stay."

"Since when does Carlos have friends like that?" Sofia asked. "And since when does Carlos look like he's a criminal and not a cop?"

Lara winced slightly. She hated to say anything against their younger brother, but it was true. Over the past months Carlos was looking rough around the edges, his hair in need of a cut, stubble on his face. And Kate was definitely not like any girl Carlos had brought home before.

"Lara," Rose said. "Why don't you go round up the kids? I think we have all the food ready."

Lara agreed and headed out of the kitchen. Behind her, she heard one of her aunts ask her mom what was going on with Carlos, unwilling to let the conversation go.

Lara called for the kids. She stuck her head in the den and saw her dad with Kate's daughter, sitting on the floor, holding a sippy cup of juice while the toddler picked at a plate of food. She hesitated at the sight of her dad with the little girl. Kate's daughter was adorable. She was clearly well taken care of. Lara had trouble reconciling the little girl with the hardened woman who had shown up twice with Carlos now.

Overhead, she heard footsteps. She gave the little girl a last look before going to find the rest of the kids.

She jogged up the stairs, ready to find her sisters' kids in the spare room where her mother kept children's books and puzzles on a shelf.

"You guys…" her words trailed off as she got to the open door of the room.

Carlos and Kate were pressed together, his hand on her face, her hands holding onto him like she might lose him. Their lips were entangled, no sign they had heard her.

Lara quickly stepped back from the doorway. She put a hand to her throat and drew in a breath. Let it out slowly.

She heard Kate murmur Carlos' name and quickly went back to the stairs. She pulled her lower lip in between her teeth and put a hand on the banister. She hurried her steps downstairs, away from the private moment she had just witnessed.

"You know Anthony won't let the job take over with Carlos. He keeps an eye on him," Lara's aunt Gina was saying.

"Carlos has too good a head on his shoulders to let the job take him under," Sofia said confidently. But Lara saw her sister's doubt.

"And Carlos and Kate are just friends," Bella said.

Lara knew that much was wrong. "I don't think so," she said before she caught herself.

All eyes turned to look at her. Lara felt her cheeks warm with a flush. "I don't think—friends don't—that's not what I just saw."

Sofia's eyes lit with understanding and she fixed Rose with a look.

Rose returned the look, clearly sending a silent message to her daughter that any commentary at the moment would not be welcome.

Sofia pursed her lips, but didn't say anything.

"Kate is Carlos' guest. We're going to treat her like a guest in this home," Rose said, looking at each of her daughters.

Lara thought about the way Carlos had held Kate. The tenderness in his touch.

"She's more than a guest to Carlos," she murmured.

Rose's face creased with concern briefly before she smoothed her expression and went back to pouring juice into children's glasses. "Did you check the backyard for the kids?" she asked.

Lara shook her head. She tried to push aside the uneasy feeling she got about her brother with the woman he had met. She went to call the kids for lunch.

#