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to move guns and drugs to more areas and to store them with Dominic’s name being the face of the establishments and Delanti being silent but fronting the real estate. Now I’m sure as you’re connecting these dots you have questions and I’ll be as ruthless as necessary to get to those answers for you. We’ve instructed Napoli to take the deal. Torren is a big fish, so to speak, and we may never have the opportunity to get him again.”
    “Is this even about the guns or drugs? Torren surely must know I work for Dom. Are you sure this isn’t...”
    “About you?” I interrupt. “No, Pepper. Right now we don’t know that. All we can do is hope that we can nail him once and for all through this business deal, and, in the process, keep you safe.”
    “Screw that!” Sawyer booms.
    “Listen man, I understand,” I answer.
    “No! You don’t. She’s worked so diligently to be free of all this. To work through all this, and now...now you want to throw her right back into the mix! I won’t allow it,” he spits.
    “Sawyer,” Pepper says amorously, squeezing Sawyer’s hand, a small smile playing at her lips. “It’s okay. If it’s about me, then we are, or I am, not free of all this. If this is somehow about me then it needs to happen. I can’t wake up tomorrow wondering, forever, if I am still in danger, if I am a loose end to be tied up on someone’s list. This has to happen, babe.”
    Stunned, Pepper looks between us, one past lover and one current. She smiles at our identical expressions. I was sure she would spit fire at me--be mad, scared, or upset. She’s only compliant.
    “Jesus, is it really that hard for either of you to believe that I feel this way?” she asks and giggles. Sawyer and I glance at each other. His expression is still matching mine. In this moment it feels as though we’re having some kind of moment. He’s accepting me. Accepting that I know his woman almost as well as he does. It’s a peace offering. I’m not so stupid to turn it down. I shrug at him. He bursts out laughing. Then Clara’s daughter pops into the room. She is a slight girl. Her eyes sparkle with all that life has to offer. She makes me think back to my school days.
    “What’s so funny? You guys are so loud,” she says, hip cocked out with the brazen bitchiness that only a twelve-year-old girl can muster.
    “Allie, meet Bentley James,” Pepper says.
    “Hi.”
    “Nice to meet you,” I reply, suppressing my laughter.
    “Seriously, you guys are so weird,” Allie says, turning on her heel and stomping back to whatever part of the house she materialized from. She is the spitting image of her mother. The only thing missing is the onset of womanhood and a neon streak of color in her hair.
    Pepper returns her gaze to mine, sighing. She’s too hard on herself. She loves her stepdaughter Allie and it’s obvious the kid loves her back.
    “So, how does this work?” she asks when Allie is out of earshot.
    “Can’t know yet. I meet with Dominic tomorrow to solidify details and hopefully set up a meeting with Delanti. We’ll go from there. Pepper, they pulled me from my current case to work on this, because of my knowledge of it all and our...”
    “Connection,” Sawyer says. I nod.
    “We have no plans to put you anywhere near Delanti. This will strictly be Dominic and Delanti working together. But because you work for Dominic, and because Sawyer and Dominic share a daughter, you are still all tangled up potentially. On top of that, we will see how Delanti plays this out. If he asks about you, if he makes one move, I swear to God, I will kill him on sight,” I vow. Pepper nods her head and sighs.
    “Babe, you ready for all this bullshit again?” she asks Sawyer. He squeezes her tightly to him.
    “We do what we gotta do, love.”
    “Do we need to tell Allie about any of this?” Sawyer asks. I shake my head.
    “I don’t see why. There’s no reason she should know or be bothered by it. She’s just a