Knife & Flesh (The Night Horde SoCal Book 4) by Susan Fanetti Read Free Book Online Page A

don’t you go sit on the steps for two minutes. I need to have grownup talk with Trick. Okay?”
     
    “Not loud like with Papi, though.” Lucie frowned.
     
    She hoped not. “No. Not like with Papi. Go on. Say goodbye to Trick.”
     
    Lucie hugged his legs. “Bye Trick!”
     
    He put his hand gently on her head. “Bye, Luce.”
     
    When Lucie was sitting at the top step, about fifteen feet away, Juliana left the door ajar and then turned to Trick. He was frowning. Before she could say anything, he asked, “Do you have trouble with your ex?”
     
    Yes, but nothing she would share with Trick. “No. Just…normal ex stuff.” Getting back on track, she handed his book back to him. “Thank you. But we can’t accept this.”
     
    Instead of taking the book from her, his frown deepening, he asked, “Why not?”
     
    Now for the hard part. Without time to let him down gently, she had no choice but to be blunt. “I’ve told you I’m not interested in pursuing anything with you. That’s still true. I don’t want…my daughter getting wrapped up, and I can see it happening. It’s better if we just stay out of each other’s way before she feels too much.”
     
    He blinked, and that was the only indication that what she’d said had affected him. But it was enough. In his deep, gentle voice he said, “I wasn’t going to make a move on you. I just enjoy your company.”
     
    She believed him, but it didn’t matter. “I’m sorry. I’m so grateful for how you helped us—truly. But I don’t think even friends is a good idea.”
     
    Now he took the book from her. He also took a step back. His face was perfectly expressionless—no anger or hurt or any emotion at all was present, and Juliana sensed that she’d hurt him far more than he would, or maybe could, express. A lump rose in her throat. It would be nice to be with a man like this, who was interesting and smart, who was calm and controlled, who cared about her girl as well as her.
     
    Why couldn’t he have had a normal life?
     
    “Can I ask why?” His voice was as flat as his expression.
     
    “It’s…” She was lost for words. “It’s…it’s who you are.”
     
    He laughed harshly, and with that sound came a look of hurt surprise. “Well, okay, then.”
     
    God, she’d said that so wrong. “No, I’m sorry. I meant…”
     
    “I get it. You should go.”
     
    “Trick—”
     
    He reached around her and pulled the door open wide. “Have a good night.”
     
    She left without saying anything else.
     
     
    ~oOo~
     
     
    Lucie pulled a pair of tall black boots out of Juliana’s closet. “These, Mami.”
     
    “Yeah? With which outfit?”
     
    Still holding a boot in each hand, Lucie crossed to Juliana’s bed and considered the outfits laid out there. “Wednesday.”
     
    Wednesday was a slate grey sleeveless column dress. “Oh, yes. With the wide black belt.” She sorted through a drawer for the belt in question.
     
    “Uh huh.” Lucie nodded and returned to the closet for the next selection.
     
    Juliana adored this Sunday evening ritual, where she and her daughter assembled their ensembles for the week. Lucie wasn’t very girly in most things—her favorite color was midnight blue, and she preferred plastic dinosaurs to Barbie dolls—but she shared her mother’s love of clothes.
     
    Before her life had been turned upside down, Juliana had dreamed of being a fashion designer. Starting while she was young enough that crayons were her primary art supply, she’d filled dozens and dozens of notebooks with her sketches of pretty ladies in pretty clothes. Her mother had taught her how to sew when she was ten, and by the time she was in high school, she was designing and making her own wardrobe—and her mother’s, too. For her sixteenth birthday, her parents had scraped and saved and had given her a state-of-the-art sewing machine. She used it to this day, sixteen years later.
     
    She still designed and made most of her and