In a nutshell, Lena was better equipped to be out in the world. Madison was…more delicate.
“What do you need?” I asked Madison. “We’ll get it.”
“This is ridiculous. You can’t keep me from leaving.”
“Fuck,” Lena said, her voice filled with exasperation. “Logan threatened you. He’s dangerous.” Tears came to her light-brown eyes. “You saw what he did to me.”
Madison reached out, laying her hand on her sister’s arm. “I won’t break.”
Lena crouched down, next to Madison’s chair. “You will. I told Mom and Dad that I’d take care of you. From the time they brought you home, I was told I was the big sister. It was my job to watch out for you.” Her eyes met mine and went back to Madison. “I fucked up when I let Logan into our lives. I did that.” Her volume rose. “I gave him access to our money and to us. I’ll never forgive myself for that lapse in judgment. I swear on our parents’ graves, I will make this all up to you. We’re going to have it all back, twofold, tenfold.”
It fucking killed me to watch the two of them. In the last year, they’d both become my family in all ways that mattered. It wasn’t as if I had a relationship with my real family. I’d turned my back on them long before I got out of the hellhole in Texas. They’d made their choices. Olivia and Phillip may be able to forget what they did and the life they expected us to live, but I was done. Scrape the fucking shit off my boots and get out of Dodge.
“One day it will be us again,” Lena said.
I didn’t want it to be just them. I’d keep them both locked up and safe in this apartment or better yet, some fucking mansion, one away from neighbors, with a goddamned ten-foot-high perimeter if I could. The thing was that Lena was good and she was learning more about finance and investing. Hell, she had a backup plan, one she just revealed to me after I moved her in here.
Their conversation pulled me away from those thoughts.
“You don’t owe me,” Madison said. “I don’t care about the money, and I’m not afraid of Logan. He’s been nice to me.”
Nice.
Not a word I’d use to describe him.
I guess that showed what a fucking great job Lena did at hiding shit from Madison.
“I’m not taking a chance,” Lena said.
“Butler hasn’t been around since that night,” I said. “Maybe my attorneys scared him straight.”
Madison grinned my direction, her green eyes shining. “And you told him we were married.”
I lifted my chin toward her hand.
She looked down at the plain white-gold band and back to me. “It’s dumb to wear this fake ring when I’m a prisoner in this place. I mean, who will see it?”
“Logan could show up,” Lena said. “We have to be ready on all counts.”
“Once this deal is complete, we’ll move,” I said, “away from the city.”
Lena shrugged. “I’m still worried that I’ll have to repay Infidelity. If I do” —she sighed— “we can’t afford…”
“How is your side job coming?” I asked with a smile.
Her lips curled and her cheeks rose for the first time since I’d walked into this battle. “So far, so good.”
“What side job?” Madison asked.
“Let’s just say that Logan was a little too open with his passwords.”
Madison’s green stare widened. “You’re stealing from him?”
“I consider it more like reimbursement for what he stole from us, a little at a time.”
“Tell me, do we have money?”
Lena sighed. “What we have needs to last until it’s beyond when Infidelity could ask me to pay them back. Once we make it beyond that, things will look up.”