“My eyes are burning.” Charlie reached over and covered Brooks’s eyes.

“I have a robe on.” I looked down and then over at Charlie who was cracking up.

Brooks separated Charlie’s fingers ever so slightly and shrugged. “Okay, I can deal with that.”

I turned and started heading back into the kitchen. “Well that’s good because I didn’t plan on changing. Especially because your brother is cooking.”

“What did you say?” Brooks said, sounding a little too excited.

There were weird sounds happening behind me, so I turned to find Charlie almost falling as Brooks beelined past her. “Are you okay?” I walked over and reached for her hand. “What are you doing here with Brooks?”

“She begged me to bring her over,” Brooks yelled from the kitchen.

“Thanks man with super-human hearing,” I yelled back to him. This time I whispered. “No really, you both seem chummy.”

“Is that a question?” she said looping her arm in mine.

“Um, yes.”

“Then you would be correct, my love.” She squeezed my arm and kissed my shoulder.

I needed that little bit of news from Charlie. She had dealt with so much over the last several years and eventually started avoiding men all together. Her explanation when I would ask why she was not dating: Who would want to date a girl with my crazy fucked up family. She was right; her family was the very definition of dysfunctional.

When we moved to Las Vegas, I knew it was a relief for Charlie. She needed the distance from her family. Since I decided to start ignoring her (not literally) and was enjoying more time with Julian, it was good she had someone to talk to at the end of the day.

“What are you making, Bro.” Brooks sat down at the kitchen island.

“He’s making me pasta with Bolognese sauce.” I shoved at Brooks to move down a seat. “We didn’t plan to feed more than two mouths.”

“Oh, come on,” Charlie begged. “You know you missed our faces.” Almost on cue, Charlie and Brooks did the puppy dog eyes expression.

“You taught him your look?”

“Well, I think he just watched and learned.”

I shook my head. “Have mercy on me.” My head dropped to my hands.

We continued to tease each other for the next several minutes. Then the doorbell rang again. Julian sighed. “What is this, Grand Central Station?”

He was gone for a little too long, and it felt too quiet. I jumped down from the chair. “Julian.” Just as I was about to say his name again, I heard whispers coming from the foyer. Leaning my body against the wall, I listened to see who was talking.

“You need to leave.” It was Julian’s voice, and he sounded pissed.

“Let me just see her one last time.” That was my mom. She seriously made an appearance here at Julian’s place. Obviously she was not very bright.

Pushing off the wall, I ran back into the kitchen.

“Li—”

I threw my hand over Brooks’s mouth and whispered, “Don’t say anything. Not right now. I’ll explain later.” Removing my hand, I ran around to the other side of the kitchen island to find Julian’s phone. It was sitting by the stove, and there were several messages from Otto.

I clicked on one of the messages to open the app and typed: My mom is here at Julian’s place. What should we do?

Otto: Sending backup now. Are you okay?

Me: Julian is trying to keep her out of the house. Not sure how long that will last.

Otto: If you can leave, go now.

The sounds of fighting were getting louder.

Me: Not possible.

Otto: They just replied. Someone will be there in five minutes.

Me: We need more than one person, Otto.

Otto: On it now. Hang tight, Lily.

Brooks and Charlie looked over at the doorway where the arguing was taking place. I yelled in a loud whisper. “Charlie, sneak out.”

I noticed Brooks scowl. “We’re not leaving you both alone.”

“Who’s leaving?” my mom said as she entered the room. Her eyes went wide. “Is that Charlie? It can’t be.”

“Hi, Ms. Adams.” Charlie stood up to go hug my mom. We had been best friends since grade school, so my mom knew her very well. “It’s good to see you.”

“Oh, sweetie, it has been way too long.”

Julian walked over to stand next to me. His phone was in my hand, but I found a way to slide it into his back pants pocket. He looked over at me. “Your mom insisted on saying hi to you before her flight leaves.”

“Oh, where are you heading?” I noticed Julian reach into his back pocket for the phone, so I walked toward the kitchen island and leaned my hands on the counter. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Are you?” she said, pulling out a chair next to Brooks. “Where’s your manners, Lily?”

“Brooks, this is my mom, Renee.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said, holding out his hand.

“So, Mexico your new destination?” I teased.

“Funny, Lily.” She rolled her eyes. “If you must know, I plan to stay in the U.S. I have some unfinished business to tend to.” We had cut up some cheese, and she reached forward and helped herself. “Julian’s house was on the way.”

“Lucky me.” I glanced at Brooks who was staying completely calm. Charlie on the other hand looked shaken up. “Hey, Brooks, show Charlie the new weight machine in the gym. The one you and Julian bought last week.” I just wanted her out of the room. He didn’t say a word, stood up, and grabbed her hand to leave.

“Want me to yourself, sweetie?”

“Actually, what I really want is you back in jail.”

There were sirens off in the distance and getting louder. “Did you call the cops?” she said sounding pissed.

“Well, what did you expect, Mom? We invite you in with open arms?”

“That was a mistake, Lily,” she said before running toward the back-sliding glass door and left in a flash.

I made an attempt to follow her, but Julian stopped me. “It’s not worth it. This house will be surrounded by cops any second.” Julian sent a text to Otto with an update. A minute later, he replied, telling us to stay put. He would update the cops.

I rested my head on his chest. “Why would she think it was okay to come here?”

“I was just asking myself the very same question.”

“Charlie.” I ran over to the stairwell leading down to the basement. Just as I was about to run down, I noticed Brooks rocking Charlie back and forth in his arms. “C, you okay?” Running down to sit beside Brooks, I started to slip and had to catch my footing. “Well, nothing like a grand entrance, right?”

Charlie leaned over and wrapped her arms about my neck. “What made her so crazy? Or should I say, who?”

“Her family.”

She pulled away. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish,” I said, leaning back. “Apparently good ol’ gramps worked for a mob boss.”

“Fuck me,” Charlie said, standing up. “Okay, you managed to top me on the shittiest parents list.”

“What am I missing?” Brooks asked.

Charlie touched her palm to his cheek. “What part is confusing?”

“Your parents don’t work for a mob, right?”

“Oh goodness, no. Well, I don’t think so.”

The thought shouldn’t have made me laugh, but for some reason it did. I was struggling to hold it together. “Sorry.” I giggled. “It’s just easier to laugh rather than cry.”

Charlie shoved at my shoulder. “Hence, why I like being happy all the time.”

“You’re not happy all the time.” Brooks said.

I finally composed myself. “Listen, there is probably a lot you still need to learn about Charlie. Just know this, she is happy, and she is damn amazing.” Standing up, I turned to find Julian waiting on the top step. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said, holding out his arms.

“Mom?”

“Heading to a strict facility where no one from the inside or outside can intervene.”

“Good.”

“Thanks for calling me, Lily,” Candace said.

“We had a deal. I usually stay true to my word,” I said, pulling the covers up higher.

Julian had encouraged Brooks and Charlie to stay the night with us. Charlie was still freaked out, and I wanted to make sure she was okay. I was happy to have her only four rooms down from me.

“That was Candace?” Julian asked, closing the bedroom door.

“Yeah, I gave her the update on what happened. I promised to be her source, so it was only fair to call.” I leaned up and crossed my legs in front of me. “How’s C?”

“She’ll be fine. Brooks plans to sleep in the chair by her bed.”

“What a gentleman.”

There were still cops outside the house for the night and probably for the remainder of the week. It was unclear why Mom came to the house. The fact that she even showed her face at Julian’s home still confounded me. She had to know she would be arrested. Julian had this place covered in security cameras and motion sensors.

“Did you talk to Otto?”

He sat down on the bed and pushed his body up against the headboard. “I did. He shared some interesting stuff.”

“Good interesting or bad interesting?”

“You tell me.” He reached for my hand and pulled me close to his body. I settled in between his legs and rested my head on his chest. “There was a safety deposit box in San Francisco. Otto has been following her since you and I both arrived back here in Las Vegas. She went to the storage unit again, which was interesting. When she exited the building, she was holding photos. Then she went to the bank where the safety deposit box was located.”

“Those are some serious details.”

“Yeah, so when they grabbed her tonight. The photos were in her purse with a cryptic message on the back of each one.”

“Shut up,” I said and sat up. “But why Vegas?”

“Well, Otto looked at the video of her going through the box. There was a lot of money and some passports.” He rubbed his hands over his head. “And this.” He showed me several images of a little black book on his phone.

I scrolled through and noticed several phone numbers listed. Julian’s name popped out at me. “You?”

“Me.”

“Why?”

“That was your dad’s money in the box.” He brought up another set of images. “There were two passports that belonged to your dad.

“That’s why she couldn’t leave the country.”

“Nope. She must have thought her passport was still in the safety deposit box.”

It was all clicking into place now. “When she realized she was stuck, she came here.”

“Otto has a feeling she did it all on purpose so she could go back to jail.”

“Wait.” I knew I sounded confused. “Why would anyone want to go back to jail?”

“Well, think about it, she was running from her past and the cops.”

“With no passport.”

“Exactly.”

“Who helped her out in the first place?”

“That’s the disconnect they can’t find. There’s potentially a mole or someone willing to risk it all to help prisoners.” Julian brushed his hand down the side of my face. “The person may not even be tied to your mom’s past. She just managed to sweet talk the right person.”

“Please tell me she will be locked away for good this time?”

“Oh, she will be very lonely for a very long time.”

I moved back in between his legs and wrapped my arms around his waist. “So this is over?”

“Is anything ever over?”

“Good point.”