Chapter 7

Neve

They won’t let me stay here long.

That’s the first clear thought I have after the sign slides past the window, and once it arrives, it won’t leave.

Someone will see me. Someone always does. Word will cross the river in a day, maybe two, and then they’ll come. Polite men in good coats, standing at the gate, asking for what belongs to Preston Crane. And Iron Fang will give me up, because Iron Fang already did once.

I don’t know why Dominic wants me home now. I don’t know why my mother would care after eight years of not caring. But I know how this ends, because I’ve lived the ending before.

I won’t live it again.

So I need a plan.

I don’t have one yet. But three years of back doors and bathroom windows taught me that every place has a way out. I just have to find this one before they find a reason to send me back.

And until I do, they can have whatever’s left of me. Not the eager little girl who’d have done anything to be lik