Total Surrender by Rebecca Zanetti Read Free Book Online

house, and he’d quickly become a dedicated watchdog. Well, he watched the television, the birds outside, and Piper’s shoes.
    Her mom poured two glasses of Shiraz and sat. She’d donned a bright pink jogging outfit along with lime green tennis shoes. “I have so much time on my hands, I need to find something to do before we both end up on that show featuring six-hundred-pound people.” She sipped the red wine and pursed her lips. “Maybe I should go back to work.”
    Piper sliced the lasagna and placed pieces on the plates. Then she took a bite and hummed as the flavors exploded on her tongue. She shook her head. “You sold the yogurt shops when we moved, saying it was time to retire. You worked your butt off for years with your businesses.” So many hours, so many customers, just to feed and clothe her kid. “Although—”
    “Don’t say it.” Her mom raised a hand. “I don’t want to hear one more time that our life could’ve been easier if I’d stayed with the commander.” She lifted her gaze and met Piper’s directly. “I thought we were past that.”
    “We are,” Piper said softly, noting her mother’s hands shaking. “I just don’t understand.”
    Her mom shook her head. “He’s a dangerous, bad man, and I was attracted to the sense of bad boy. Never go for a bad boy, Piper.” She sighed. “Our affair was short, I saw how dangerous he really was, and I got the hell out with you.”
    “I know.” Piper took another bite. “He’s not that bad, Mom.”
    “Yes, he is.” Her mom took another drink of wine, her gaze averted. “Even though I was just a lowly receptionist, Idiscovered something bad was going on there at his facility in Tennessee, and the second I found out I was pregnant, I took off. He didn’t come looking.”
    No, but he hadn’t known about Piper, now had he? “What was the something bad?”
    “I don’t know. But there were so many guns and so many secrets. And Franklin, although he believed he was doing good work for the government, he had his own agenda and probably still does.” Her mom reached for her fork, still not meeting Piper’s eyes. “I told you we shouldn’t have come here.”
    Piper eyed her mother. “Yet you came with me. Why?”
    “Oh, I wasn’t letting you go into the lion’s den on your own. He’s a fanatic, and he’ll sacrifice anybody for his agenda.” Rachel shook her head. “I can’t believe you actually tracked him down from an old picture I’d left in storage with
commander
scrawled across the back.”
    Piper smiled. “I’m a hell of a hacker.” And did Rachel just keep the picture to share someday, or was there hope there? Maybe her parents just needed to be in the same room to work things out. Her mother perhaps objected too much? “I haven’t gotten to know him yet, but I want to.”
    Rachel shook her head. “We all make mistakes, but he’s not the type to learn from them.”
    Piper frowned, her mind spinning. “What aren’t you telling me?”
    Rachel glanced down at her full plate. “This just wasn’t supposed to happen—you weren’t supposed to go work for him. Ever.”
    “He got me out of prison,” Piper said.
    Rachel sighed. “Did he?”
    Piper shook her head. “Yes.”
    Rachel took a deep swallow of wine. “Then that’s enough talking about it. But the second you learn how dangeroushe is, we’re out of here. We can start a new chain of yogurt shops somewhere else.”
    Piper nodded. “Fine.” Leaving Boston hadn’t been that difficult for either of them. “The house is owned by the company, and we have no rent. I make tons of money, so why don’t you relax? Or go back to school and study?” She peered closer at her mother. “If you could study anything, what would it be?”
    Her mom lifted a slim shoulder and finally met her gaze again. At almost fifty years old, Rachel Devlin looked thirty, tops. Smooth mocha skin just a shade darker than Piper’s, bright green eyes, and generous laugh lines showed