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Of course She should have known “What did he say?”

“He didn’t” Lucas drew the loose strands of her hair back and tucked the off an electric current of want that had her biting her bottolared at me and dropped off the shirts”

She could picture that The Sparroas short, thin, and ever vigilant The only things he seeers was a dull knife or an enemy who died too soon

“Don’t take it personally,” she said, a s at her lips “He looks at everyone that way”

“Except you”

True She’d always been the exception that proved the rule Well, her and her mother Jasper had always been up to too much trouble, talked too much, and played too many tricks for a man like the Sparrow to put up with

“He was practicallyup”

“You had a governess?” Lucas asked, a teasing disbelief lingering in his words

“I had so better I had the Sparrow” She’d learned early on that there was more to her father’s number one enforcer than appeared He’d had a soft spot for kids, never met a stray animal he didn’t want to adopt, and was a fabulous teacher, even if the skills he was ie appropriate “I could pick a lock by four, hit a distance target with a throwing knife at eight, and by ten, I could get to every cave and hideout on the island undetected”

“And you decided to be a jewelry designer instead of a ninja warrior?”

“The Sparrow is the one who gave me my first sketchbook”

All those blank pages just waiting for her to make her mark The memory of her first taste of creative freedom blocked her throat with a lu able to make her own reality away frootten

“You sound like you care a lot about a man ould do this to you” He pulled down one of her hands tucked under her chin, turned it palm up, and traced his thumb over the raised scar of the M and I carved into it

Glad again for the protection of her closed eyes, she clenched her jaw tight and willed back the tears so quick to co coony on the Sparrow’s narrow face as he’d pulled out his favorite blade and drew first blood

“My father wanted to do o, buthim to be the one to actually mete out the punishives opinions other than his own”