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“Night, Maks”

“That’s SIMSSSSS to you,” I tease, “You know,to toss you against the wall soon and have my ith you”

“I’ a s these days?”

“I find it fascinating” I joke “Okay, MakSIM out”

She laughs and throws a pillow at me while I escape out of her roo when I stuht in front of the kitchen

Chase, her dad, is sitting at the table, tie off, expression ruthless, body relaxed as he sips his whiskey “Sit”

“Shit”

“No, I said sit,” he says in a clear voice “Not like you can etaway anyway, may as well own it”

“Great,” Ifor the whiskey I know he has no choice but to share if we’re both about to have this uncomfortable conversation

I pour a bit into one of the crystal glasses and wait

“You want in this Family?” he asks

I frown “I’m in the Family”

“Do you want hter?”

“Yes,” I say quickly “I always have I alill”

“Do you think it’s really that easy?”

“No” I tilt back the amber liquid “In fact, I’ht now”

He’s quiet “I can’t ask Ash to do it; it wouldn’t be fair Junior would spill, and King… well King would do it for me, but I have another job for him… So, if you want her, if you need her, if you care for her… there’s one thing you can do”

I gulp “What’s that?”

“Work for lass “Work for ”

“So tells me you don’t mean as an assistant”

“No” He laughs “Not even close We have… eneotten too close I don’t want to bring everyone into it until I know for certain, but the leak came from only one possible source”

“Who?”

He leans forward “Nobody rats out or leaves this Fa, and she broke our number one rule”

My stomach drops “She?”

He slides soht side up and stare at the face in the picture and, as if from a distance, feel myself start to shake as cold fills my bones