And then it hit me. Grandpa was sick. He had to be. Why else would he move? “Are you dying?”
Grandpa shook his head and sputtered. “Why would you think that? Do I look that awful clean-shaven?”
“No.” My breathing returned to normal. “I just… Well, why would you move here for a while?”
“Now, for the bad news.” Grandpa looked pasty white as he got on the freeway.
“What?”
“Everything you’ve ever known… is about to change.”
****
For some reason his words didn’t really hit me as hard as they should have. After all, everything had been slowly changing since Grandma’s death. I just didn’t know how or why.
Things were too weird not to change.
Maybe that’s why I didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, I tried to concentrate on what Nixon and I would do later. I had to. Because if I thought about the fact that Grandpa was driving me outside the city in an expensive car, wearing a suit, I would freak out.
I closed my eyes for a few minutes in order to conjure up Nixon’s smile, his face. When I opened them, Grandpa seemed to be immersed in his driving.
I snuck out my phone and sent Nixon a quick text.
I’M KIND OF FREAKED.
He didn’t respond right away, but when he did, I pretended not to hear the vibration. Grandpa was clueless. I pulled out the phone and looked at the screen.
U R SAFE AND U HAVE NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF.
I smiled and texted back.
WHY? U FOLLOWING ME?
My phone went off again.
GOTTA RUN!
I glanced in the rear view mirror just in case I was right. But I didn’t see Nixon’s SUV. Clearly I was reading too much into things.
Grandpa took the next exit. We were on the outskirts of town in some sort of subdivision I’d never been to before.
“Where are we?” I asked as we passed some large houses and land. I could still see Lake Michigan, so I knew we couldn’t be that far out of Chicago.
“Lake Forest,” he answered.
Something about Lake Forest seemed familiar. I just didn’t know what it was. Maybe it was just because I’d seen lots of signs for it? Wait, hadn’t Nixon taken me out in this direction for our date? Granted, we hadn’t gone this far. Or had we? Gosh, it felt like it took forever to get back, but I could have sworn it was only a twenty minute drive. Or was it?
I wracked my brain. “This kind of looks like where Nixon took me for our date.”
“Date,” Grandpa repeated. “With what, pastures?”
I looked around at some of the pretty farmland. “Yeah, kind of.”
Grandpa didn’t say anything for a while as we headed down a paved road into what looked like private property. “He was probably trying to get you to remember. I should shoot him for doing that to you.”
“He’d probably pull his gun on you too, Grandpa.” Whoops, that slipped.
Grandpa slammed on the brakes. “You saw his gun?”
“Kind of hard not to with people chasing us.” I shrugged.
Grandpa cursed in the same language Nixon often cursed in, and I couldn’t help it. I started laughing. This was too strange. Like something out of a movie. Clearly I was losing my mind.
“What’s so funny?” Grandpa smiled.
“You sound like Nixon. What language is that anyways?”
Grandpa was silent again as we drove to the gate of the property. Across the railing it said. “Alfero.”
“That’s on Grandma’s necklace.” I pointed at the sign as the gates opened, revealing a gorgeous expanse of grass and water fountains with trees lining the driveway. As we neared the end of the driveway, a three-story house came into view. It was a freaking mansion. My mouth dropped open as Grandpa pulled the car to a stop.
With a sigh he pulled the key from the ignition and looked at me, sadness dancing across his face. “Welcome home, Trace.”
Chapter Twenty-four
“Home?” I repeated in a small voice.
Suddenly a man with an ear-piece pulled open my door. “Miss Alfero, an honor. Just this way.”
I gawked at the man and looked back at my grandpa. He was getting out of the car and walking toward us.
The guy with the earpiece gave a curt nod to Grandpa. “Mr. Alfero, welcome home, sir.”
Grandpa gave the man a swift nod in return and put his hand on my lower back as he led me up the stairs to the giant entryway of the house.
Nothing anyone said could have prepared me for what was behind those doors. Nothing. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be happy or sad or pissed or shattered… I could only stare as Nixon stood in the entryway in my supposed house, with at least fifteen armed men. Chase and Anthony by his side.
“Ready?” Nixon asked, not once looking in my direction but over my shoulder to Grandpa.
Grandpa answered a gruff yes and continued pushing me through the giant hall.
Heartbroken and so totally betrayed, I didn’t know what to do. All I knew is the one person I wanted to trust had lied to me, big time.
My legs almost gave out on me before I could sit on the couch. Nixon sat directly across from me. All of his armed men behind him, and then I turned around and noticed that we had twice as many men behind us in that large entryway.
Everyone had guns.
And every single gun from Nixon’s group was trained on Grandpa. Every single gun from Grandpa’s group was trained on Nixon.
It was like a bad mafia movie.
Only every time I blinked it just became more real.
“You broke the rules,” Grandpa said, leaning back in his seat.
Nixon smirked. “What? You think I actually knew right away?”
“You grew up with her!” Grandpa yelled.
“She was six!” Nixon all but shouted.
“You may as well have pulled that trigger. Your father…”
“—Is dead.” Nixon smirked. “Cold and lifeless, lying right next to my mother.”
“What?” I shrieked. “You said that—”
“Monroe doesn’t know, Trace.” Nixon’s eyes softened for a brief second. “He’d been sick a while. It’s…”
“None of her damn business.” This from Anthony, who was staring at me as if we hadn’t shaken hands and spoken a few days ago.
“Gentleman.” Chase cleared his throat. “Back to the reason for meeting.”
Grandpa bristled next to me. Clearly he didn’t like taking orders from people younger than him but then again how was I to know they weren’t lying about their ages too?
“As I was saying…” Grandpa put an arm around me and squeezed. “The poor girl lost her parents at six. That’s still old enough to recognize people, you should have known Nixon.”
“I told you the minute I did,” Nixon defended himself. “And it wasn’t like I could have done anything!”
“You took her outside school property.”
“Before I knew.” Nixon sighed heavily. “I didn’t even guess until I saw the damn necklace with Alfero on it.”
“Then you should have stayed away.”
“Careful,” Anthony said from Nixon’s left. “You may be within your rights to call him out, but he’s still the boss. Has been for some time. So tread carefully, old man.”
Grandpa cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Mr. Abandonato.” He spat out the words like they were venom. “But the minute her cover was blown, the very second, you should have locked her in her damn room.”
What? Why would Grandpa say that? I tried to shrug underneath his arm but he held me firm.
Nixon’s icy eyes pierced through mine. “She’s just a teenager, Frank. What did you want me to do? Blow everyone’s cover? Ruin everything? And for what? Precaution? We’ve been in this for four damn years.” His eyes fell to Anthony. “Some of us longer. How was I supposed to know you’d drop her directly into the fight? Your own granddaughter? We were doing just fine until you did this to us!”
“And you still have no proof!” Grandpa shouted.
“We’re close!” Nixon fired back. “We just need more time.”
“Time doesn’t give Trace her parents back,” Grandpa said softly. “Time doesn’t heal a broken heart, and time will not fix the fact that you have successfully helped expose my innocent granddaughter to our world. I only meant to appease my dying wife, while at the same time allowing Trace to be used as bait only if necessary, and what do you do? You claim her for your own! An Abandonato!”
“All I can say is I’m sorry. I didn’t know. But would you rather have me leave her helpless? Admit it. She would have known something was up if I locked her in her room, and honestly we weren’t even sure she was exposed until last night when we almost…” Nixon swallowed. “Got killed.”
“Until it was almost too late!” Grandpa nodded his head. “So what are you going to do now? How do you hope to make amends?”
“Easy. We’ll let things die down, and we have to work faster to infiltrate the De Lange family.”
Grandpa nodded his head as if satisfied. “She must be protected.”
“We’ve been protecting her.” Chase’s teeth clenched. I thought he was going to break a tooth.
“And she almost died,” Grandpa repeated. “Last night. Isn’t that right? Or wait, were you too busy sticking your tongue down my granddaughter’s throat.”
In an instant Nixon had his gun out and pointed at Grandpa. “Disrespect your granddaughter in front of my men and yours one more time and I will end you.”
Holy freaking shit.
Grandpa scowled. “I would never do such a thing. I love her. I put her into hiding. Fifteen years of work gone just because of you!”
Nixon put his gun down and cursed. “She wasn’t supposed to get in to the school.”
Grandpa joined in with the cursing. “Her grandma was the culprit. She told me on her deathbed it was time for Trace to know the truth. I thought I could give my wife her dying wish and at the same time appease my granddaughter. Allow her to experience the luxury she should have grown up with. The life that was stolen from her. Like I said, I did not think she would be recognized and figured even if she were, we could use her to pull out the De Lange family.”
Nixon looked from Grandpa to me. “Using your own granddaughter? I think we’re done here.”
“I think so.” Grandpa rose from his seat. Nixon and Grandpa embraced one another and kissed each cheek before saying something in that stupid language they were always speaking in.
Nixon took one last look at me and shook his head slowly. My heart was in my throat. I felt tears start to pool in my eyes as I looked from him to Chase. At least Chase mouthed sorry before turning back around and following Nixon out.
“One more thing,” Grandpa said.
In a flash he pulled out his gun and shot at Nixon’s feet. Nixon didn’t move. He just stared at the ground then back up at Grandpa with cool indifference.
“Noted.” Nixon nodded and his group left.
Chapter Twenty-five