That seemed to snap her out of it, and she turned her pink-painted nail to me. “Nuh-uh. You tell me what’s going on.”
I shook my head. “It’s not my place, Sarah.” She opened her mouth to disagree, but I cut her off. “It’s Margo’s. She is going to tell you everything, but give her a chance to get settled, yeah?”
A deep sigh left her as she gave in. “Okay. Yeah, okay. I just…after what happened last year, I just—”
“Nothing is going to happen here,” Dominic declared. “Everyone is safe.”
The bell above the door chimed and we all looked to see who it was. Carrie walked in first, beaming as she looked over her shoulder at Pam, who was carrying a fresh bouquet of flowers.
“No one is going to get hurt. Not again,” Dominic declared, his voice no longer smooth, but finite, like stone.
The voice of my dead copilot filled my head again as I looked over to Margo behind the counter.
You couldn’t even save me. What makes you think you can save her?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Margo
“You—you—” Sarah put her hands to her stomach, turning green. I pressed my tongue to the top of my mouth, feeling Rossy’s eyes on me, but I couldn’t look at him.
I wasn’t strong enough for that, not yet.
True to her word, Cardinal hadn’t said anything to Rossy or Sarah. As Hayes drove here, I shot her a text, telling her I wanted her to be with me when I gave them the truth. The bookstore was empty, as it always was around five. People were getting off work, picking up their kids from after-school programs, and going home for dinner. We always got another little push right before closing, but for the next hour or so, it was just us. Hayes and Dominic were setting up the security system, and the four of us were in the back supply room. I’d set up our staff meeting chairs in a square. Two on each side. Cardinal was beside me, her hand on my knee, Sarah directly in front of her, and Rossy…he’d gotten out of his seat two minutes into the story, pacing back and forth, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, his glasses hanging from his fingers. It was a nervous tick that came out when there was bad news or a hard quarter.
“You lied to me,” Sarah finally said. Four words, a brutal accusation, laced with hurt and disbelief.
I nodded. “Yes,” I rasped.
“You—you told me your father and mother were happily married.”
I felt Carrie’s eyes on me then, and I tried swallowing the glass in my throat. “I needed you—everyone—to think I was a normal woman who came from a normal life.”
Sarah leaned forward, eyes filled with hot, angry tears, her cheeks red. “Six years, Margo!”
“I never intended to stay here.”
“You…we…you were there when I had the twins,” my sweet friend rasped.
I felt pain in my gut then. “Yes, and it’s still one of my favorite days. I’ll never forget the way Michael smiled at you when I walked in,” I croaked.
She said nothing, glancing at Cardinal as she leaned back. She kept her wobbling chin high. “Are you in danger?”
There was no sense in lying. I was tired of lying. “Yes.”
“Is my family in danger, Margo? Are my children safe, or do I need to send them to their grandparents’?”
“Gordon has no idea who you are to me. He has no idea I’m in Astoria—”
“Well, he must certainly have some idea, Margo. He came to the bloody bar looking for you,” Rossy clipped, his voice shaking with rage. I bent my head, staring at my lap as he sighed. “I thought I was done with the danger…with the senseless violence that’s plagued my life for decades,” he mumbled to himself as he started the pacing again, his footfalls soft against the thin carpet.
“I assume Grayson has looped Michael in on this?” Sarah asked Carrie. Her hand shifted on my thigh, her thumb rubbing in soothing circles.
“Yes.”
Silence.
Cardinal cleared her throat. “I know you’re angry about her lies. I know you’re hurt, but I need you both to see why she felt like she had to lie to start a new life.”