Vengeful Secret (The Burkes Mafia #3)

11. Sutton

11

SUTTON

I can’t believe that I’ve asked for Gray’s help. It’s the last thing I wanted to do, but at the same time, I feel like I had no other options. I don’t know anyone well enough in town to protect me, but isn’t this just me going right back inside the lion’s den?

“Mama, why are you sad?” Ciara looks up at me from where she’s been playing with dolls on the floor.

“I’m not sad, mo stóirin . Just... thinking.”

“You’re thinking too hard.”

I snort out a laugh, realizing that’s one of my mother’s sayings.

God, my mother. I’m going to have to call her, tell her that Ciara and I will be away for a while. I’ll need someone to watch the house, water the plants. I have a cactus I’ve been trying to keep alive for the last six months that’s on its last legs. Maybe she can help it stay alive.

They’re supposed to be unkillable, but I have a black thumb instead of a green one.

“I’ll be right back, baby. Gotta call your Granny.”

Ciara looks up at me briefly and then back at her dolls, and I walk into the kitchen, worrying my lip between my teeth.

My mother isn’t the world’s most understanding person, and she’s overprotective. If she knew that I’d been followed, almost attacked, she’d freak out. And of course, she wouldn’t understand that Gray can protect us more than the cops can. It’s not like I can explain to her that my ex is an Irish mobster.

My mother answers on the fourth ring, sounding out of breath.

“Sutton?”

“Mom.” Is she on her Stairmaster? “Are you busy?”

“Oh, you know me. Just getting my steps in,” she says brightly. “What about you?”

“A little.” I try to think of what to say and how to say it. “I wanted to ask you a favor.”

“Sure, anything.”

“Will you watch the house for a couple of weeks? Ciara and I are going on a little trip.”

“A trip? Doesn’t she have school?”

I wince. “I’ll be taking her out for a few days, but we'll be in town. Just for a little staycation. I think it’s important that we spend some mother-daughter time together.”

“You always loved mother-daughter dates,” my mom says, and I can tell she’s coming around. “We never got a whole vacation together. Your father would have never allowed that .”

There’s a bit of bitterness to her tone, but I don’t respond to it.

“So, would you watch the house? Water the plants?”

“You mean Cyrus the Cactus? You water him too much, honey, you know that’s why he’s always dying.”

“Yes.” I roll my eyes. “Just watch the house for me, would you?”

“Of course.” She pauses. “How long will you be gone? Where will you be staying?”

I groan inwardly. I knew she was going to ask questions like this. I knew she was going to want to know everything. I can’t even give her the address to where we’ll be staying. She won’t understand.

“We’re staying just outside of town. With friends.”

“What friends?”

“Mom, they’re people I trust.” And that’s not a lie. Even if the Burkes live a dangerous lifestyle, I trust Gray and his men to protect me and Ciara. They’re the only people who can.

“All right,” she says finally with a huff. “I guess I don’t need to know every detail.”

“Thank you, Mom.”

“Just call me, okay? Don’t be a stranger like when you went off to college.”

I chuckle.

She still cares. Maybe it’s to make up for my absent father. He was never cruel to me, but he just… wasn’t there. He’s always working, and he’s made it very clear his career always came first.

It’s not like I wasn’t upset when he passed away, me and my younger brother, Aiden, both, but he’d always been out of our lives. Mom, on the other hand, had always been a housewife and stay at home mother. Family is what’s most important to her.

“I’ll call, Mom. I’ll have Ciara facetime you.”

“Okay.” She sounds hesitant, but I can tell she’s not going to ask a lot more questions. “Just be safe, Sutton girl.”

Affection rushes through me at the sweet nickname.

“I will, Mama,” I say softly, and hang up the phone.

“We’re going on vacation?” Ciara bounces into the kitchen, jumping up and down. “Like to the beach? Like to Disneyland ?”

Oh, boy.

Ciara had recently seen a series of videos online of people surprising their kids with Disney visits, and now she’s asking about it every other day.

I know I should limit her screen time, but as a working single mother, it’s difficult.

“No, no.” I pick her up as she pouts. “We’re going to stay with one of Mama’s friends. But they have a great big house and a pool?—”

“A pool ?” she screeches. “Let me down I have to get my swimsuit!”

Ciara doesn’t seem perturbed in the least by us going out of town, so I guess that’s a good thing.

Thank God for the Burke’s massive pool. It will probably keep Ciara busy for a good portion of the time.

I chuckle as she wiggles down and runs to her room.

I grab a few suitcases and start packing my things, only to find I really only need the big one for my clothes and shoes. I put my toiletries in a zip-lock bag and put it on top of everything else.

“I can pack by myself, Mama,” Ciara says confidently when I take a suitcase to her room, but of course I check to be sure she’s packed more than just her dolls and a swimsuit. Everything of hers fits in two suitcases—one for her dolls and accessories and other toys, of course.

This isn’t like a normal trip, where packing is sort of fun imagining the different situations you might be in on vacation. Everything feels so final, so serious, and this little home that I’ve built for myself and Ciara seems small in comparison to the Burkes’ sprawling estate.

“What about school?” Ciara asks me, and I hum in the back of my throat.

“You'll still go to school.”

I would never take her out of school, because she loves it so much. She’s made so many friends there that she gets upset when she can’t go to school for any reason.

She wrinkles her nose. “I have to do homework on vacation?”

I can’t help but laugh. “I’m sure it won’t be too much. Just don’t want you to get behind.”

“Okay,” she says, but she pouts a little as we put all our things in the back of my car.

I look back at the house, wondering if I’ll ever see it again.

Things seem so dire, and I don’t know if I’ll make it through this, but I’m determined to try.

Gray will help us. I know he will. He’s never lied to me, and I know how protective he is over people that he cares about. This proves that he still cares about me.

But it’s still bittersweet, leaving my little house behind.

I remember the first day I moved in, when Ciara was just a newborn.

“Where are you going to put Ciara’s things?” Mom asks, and I blink at her.

“In my room, of course.”

She scoffs. “You can’t have the baby in the room with you all the time, honey.”

But I’ve been a single mom since the day Ciara was born, and I want her with me all the time. It feels awful to be away from her. Always has. Even just in the other room with my mother. I’d been living with my mom since the birth, and I was a little scared to be on my own.

“This can be her room,” my mother says, opening the door to a small bedroom next to mine. The sunlight streams in just right, and I can see my future little girl, only a fat baby now, playing in the floor, on the window seat.

That lifetime seems so far away now that we’ve had our house for years, and it feels like some door is closing.

I look through the window of Ciara’s room, seeing it look neat and empty through the glass, and take a deep breath.

“You okay, Mama? You sure you’re not sad?” Ciara asks in a small voice, and I turn the rearview mirror so that she can see me smile.

“I’m not sad, mo stóirin . Don’t you worry your pretty head about that.” I pause. “Now you’re the one who’s thinking too hard.”

She giggles. “Granny says I always think too hard.”

“Maybe Granny’s right. The only thing you need to think about is where you’re going to put your dollhouse and what tricks you’ll do in the pool, okay?”

“I’m gonna do backflips!”

“I bet you will, honey.”

I drive down the long, winding road to the Burke mansion, and it seems like my house getting smaller and smaller behind me means it’s gone forever. It’s like I’m losing everything that I built over the last five years. Every tough day with Ciara screaming with colic as a newborn, every time I overcame an obstacle at work… All of it.

But I’ll be back to my normal life soon enough. As soon as we figure out what’s going on. As soon as we figure out who’s after me and why they’re after me.

Gray’s going to help. Everything’s going to be all right. I just have to stay calm, because panicking isn’t going to help matters. Especially since I have Ciara to take care of.

“How far is this place?” Ciara pipes up from the backseat in a mutter.

“Kind of far. You want some music?”

“Yeah,” she drawls, and I chuckle and hand her my phone.

Classic rock booms from the speakers, making the quiet drive a lot less quiet, but I don’t mind. Ciara dances along and sings, and I’m glad that my mother gave her this music taste instead of having to listen to incessant kid’s songs.

We arrive at Gray’s place just as dusk is starting to fall, and the sunset over the estate looks unbelievable. The pinks and purples stretch across the sky, illuminating the big house in the back.

“We’re staying here?” Ciara leans forward with her little heart-shaped mouth in an “o”.

“We are.” I chuckle. “I told you it was a big house.”

“This is a huge house, Mama! I hope the pool is just as big.” She bounces around in her booster seat.

The pool is huge, from what I could tell, and Ciara will have a ball playing in it. She’ll probably miss all the stress and drama, have a good time at the mansion.

For a moment, I wish I was still a child, devoid of all the problems and responsibilities that burden me now.

Nerves rush through me.

Gray is about to meet Ciara.

This could change everything—the way he feels about me, the plan to protect us…

I take a deep breath as I turn the car off, looking up at the mansion, and wonder what lies ahead.