I’d already had one man stop and ask if there was something he could help me with. I really doubted he believed me when I told him I was looking for my boss. Turning around to face the end of the lot that I’d walked around for the last almost hour, I stretched my chin up as high as I could. Looking, looking, looking…

Bingo.

Taller than everyone else, bigger than everyone else, and wearing that tight shirt that should have been too hot to wear in Houston, but I’d bet it was one meant for the heat, I spotted Rip.

He had his hands on his hips while he talked to another man two or three inches shorter than him.

I wasn’t sure why it surprised me that he knew people, much less that he seemed to be having a conversation with someone, but it did. It wasn’t like he didn’t talk, but usually he was talking at people rather than with them. Keeping my gaze on him so I wouldn’t lose him again, I started making my way over.

I took in the other man. He looked about Rip’s age, if not a little older and leaner. But it was the tattoo he had on one side of his neck that had me focusing.

I glanced at Rip, then back at his friend, and kept my gaze there. Tattoos poured down the man’s arms in thick, black marks that were really hard to distinguish, but something about them….

The man shook his head at Rip, but his body stayed relaxed.

But Rip… Rip was looking around by that point. For me?

“Ladies and gentlemen, the auction will begin in five minutes. I repeat in fiveeee minutes,” a voice crackled over the speakers that the auction had set up right by a makeshift podium.

Shit.

I raised my hand over my head and waved it. “Rip!” I yelled.

His head snapped to the left before slowly moving to the side more, like he was looking for me.

I waved some more, feeling bad for interrupting him but knowing I needed to show him what I thought he would want to see before time ran out. That was why he’d brought me over, wasn’t it? Screw it. I headed over, weaving through the small crowd as fast as I could. It didn’t take me long at all to make it a few feet away from where Rip and the other man were still standing. I waved my hand as far over my head as possible. “Boss-man!”

He must have seen me because he dipped his chin, his eyes covered with sunglasses, in my direction. But his mouth began moving. Fast.

But not quickly enough before I was at his side, sharing a smile between him and his friend. His friend who was looking at me with a surprised but curious expression on his face while Rip ended what he’d been saying with a “see you later” that was all clipped.

And before I could get out a word, my boss slapped his palm against the other man’s and turned toward me.

Okay.

He didn’t want me to meet his friend. That was fine. Sure.

He was my boss. There was no reason for me to meet his friend.

The other man let out a snort before shrugging and turning on his heel to go who knows where.

The smile I gave Rip was genuine. He was my boss and he owed me nothing but a paycheck for the hours I worked. “I’m sorry I yelled and came over, but I wanted you to see these two cars before the auction started,” I told him, not letting curiosity get the better of me.

There was something off about his facial expression. “What’d you find?” he asked, sounding totally normal, or as normal as ever. Not giving me a single hint who the other man had been, but why would he?

I hooked my thumb over my shoulder to aim it in the direction of where I’d found the goods. “There’s rust on both of them, but nothing worse than what you’ve gotten before. Let me show you, boss man. I think with a little TLC, they’d look really nice.”

His eyes seemed to sweep over my face and head, and I didn’t miss the way he positioned his body to block me from seeing the man he had been talking to. He said, “Show me.”

I did, and I was pretty proud of myself when he ended up winning both.

Chapter 8

When my alarm went off the next day, dread like I hadn’t felt in years instantly made me want to vomit.

It had been a long, long time since I’d been so nervous or overwhelmed that I wanted to puke.

But I still dragged myself out of bed. I had to get up. I didn’t want to, but I had to.

I showered even though I had the night before, put on makeup, got dressed, and headed to the kitchen, ignoring the way my knees wanted to shake and my stomach wanted to revolt. I heard pots clanking from the kitchen area. I was usually on my way to work by this time, and my sister Lily was usually in the shower, so it surprised me to hear her banging away.

If the clangs meant anything, it was that she was still mad at me. I hadn’t seen her at all the last two days. She’d been in her room by the time I got home and hadn’t bothered coming out to say hi.

Sure enough, the second I entered the kitchen and found her, violently scooping what looked like oatmeal into two bowls on the counter, it confirmed she was in a bad mood. Lily was like me: she was a morning person. Unlike our other two sisters, I had never had to be on her case about waking up on time for school. I was usually in a good mood, but Lily was always in a better mood than me.

Today being the exception from the look and sound of it.

“Morning,” I told her pretty softly, hating that we were in this position in the first place.

She didn’t look at me, and it gave me the chance to see she hadn’t showered or anything yet. She was still in her pajamas. “Morning,” she pretty much grunted, almost making me smile.

Eyeing her, I went to the cabinets beside her, watching as she scraped cut-up berries from a small cutting board into the bowls and then shook some walnuts out too. Filling up my glass with water, I tried my best to ignore how much my stomach ached. I didn’t want to go.

“You have time to eat, don’t you?” my beloved little sister grumbled, sounding grumpier than I had ever heard her.

“Yes,” I answered before gulping down the entire glass of water just as she slid one of the bowls across the counter.

She grunted before turning back toward the stove and picking up the saucepan she’d cooked with. “Eat it. Who knows when you’ll have lunch.”

I didn’t feel like smiling, I really didn’t, but affection for this not-so-little girl made my chest ache... with love, of course. With so much love it reminded me of why I was going today. So she wouldn’t have to. “Thank you, Lily,” I told her as I opened one of the drawers and pulled a spoon out.

Lily grunted again as she turned on the tap at the sink and waited, then put the pot under the stream of water.

I didn’t say a word as I scooped up one spoonful after the other of steel cut oats as she finished washing everything. I ate so fast that by the time she was done, more than half of it was in my stomach, and I honestly wasn’t sure if I had tasted more than the first bite.

I didn’t want to go.

“What time will you be back?”

I blinked at her back as she stood in front of the sink, hunched over it. “I don’t know for sure. I’m guessing maybe around three.” I tapped the tip of the spoon against my nose, seeing her spine curl further into the sink area. “I’m not going to be there longer than I need to, sugar lumps, I promise.”

The deep breath she took made her shoulders go up a few inches; I could even see her ribcage expand too. But she didn’t make a sound. She didn’t turn around either.

I wanted to go and give her a hug, but my feet wouldn’t move. I wanted to tell her it was going to be fine. That I didn’t want to go in the first place but that I owed Grandma Genie for taking care of her for years.

But…

I wasn’t sure I could handle it if she pulled away from me or told me not to touch her. It wouldn’t be the first time one of my sisters had done that. So like a coward, I stayed there, fisting my hands at my sides and just watching my little sister struggle with whatever she was thinking. She was the last person in the world I would want to hurt or have mad at me.

“Lily, I love you. I don’t want to go, but one of us has to, and if Dad and your mom are there… I don’t want them to see you. I don’t want them to see any of you. Nothing good would come of it, and somewhere deep down inside, you know that,” I told her quietly. “It’ll be fine. I promise. Your mom will probably be too high and Dad…. Don’t worry about me, okay? I showed you that picture of Ripley. No one’s going to want to mess with him, and I can take care of myself.”