My eyes widened not because that was what I thought she expected—because she did—but because I was seriously impressed. Lucy was creative as hell, I knew that, but this was awesome in my book. “Honey, that’s great. I’m so proud of you. Your parents will be too.”

“I’m not going to tell them…”

I was silent until I stopped at the next red light and then I put the SUV in Park and turned to face her. “Lucy…”

“They have so much going on right now, Aunt Em. I don’t want them to have to worry about me too.” She bit her lip, chewing off the makeup she had obviously painstakingly applied with no help.

“You’re right. They do have a lot going on right now. And you’re a big part of that. The twins, they are going to be just fine, Lucy. And Layla is already doing so much better. It’s you that your dad is stressed the most about, baby.” I reached out and stroked her cheek. “He would die if you started keeping things from him now, especially something that he would want to celebrate with you.”

Lucy swallowed hard and sucked in a shaky breath before nodding in understanding. “Okay. I’ll tell them.”

I grinned. “Great.” I put the Escalade back in Drive and noticed that we had sat through a green light and now had to wait since the light was red once more. There was nothing behind us except for an old truck that I just now noticed in the rearview mirror. I probably wouldn’t have even taken a second glance at it if it weren’t for the fact that a truck like that this close to Malibu wasn’t something I would normally see. Even the low key gardeners that took care of some of the lawns drove better trucks than that one. “When do you find out if your teacher likes the assignment or not?”

“Next week. I have the weekend to do the interview and write the paper.”

“As soon as you find out I want to know, okay?” I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, not really paying attention to anything but Lucy for the moment. “We can all have dinner somewhere special that night.”

“I’d rather just have a meal at home with everyone, including the twins. That would really make it perfect.” Lucy smiled a little sadly. “But since they aren’t likely to come home before then I’ll settle for dinner at Papa Gianni’s.”

A laugh bubbled out of me just as the light turned green and I started to ease through the intersection. “You got it, Lu-”

My words were cut off and a yelp escaped me as the vehicle that had still been a few car lengths behind us suddenly bumped into the Escalade. I jerked forward from the impact and Lucy let out a small cry of distress. My foot pressed down on the brake so I wouldn’t go any farther into traffic and turned my head slightly to glance out the back window.

I couldn’t see anyone. I glanced around us and a shiver of pure fear—the same feeling I would get right before my mother would fly into a rage—went down my spine. I checked to make sure the doors were locked, and glanced around to see if there was anyone else around that had noticed the fender bender. But we were at a relatively vacant part of the city. There wouldn’t be regular traffic for at least another twenty minutes. The calm before the storm of rush hour traffic.

My hands went straight for my cell phone and with fingers that noticeably trembled I started dialing 911. “I’m scared,” Lucy whispered, glancing behind us too.

I reached for her hand and gave it a little squeeze as the operator greeted me. “Nine one-one. What is your emergency?”

“We’ve just been rear-ended,” I told her, unable to stop the shakiness of my voice. “But the person who hit us is gone…”

“A hit and run, miss?”

“No…” Because I could almost feel the presence of someone else outside the SUV. “I don’t know…”

“Do you require medical treatment?” the woman asked, sounding professional and concerned. “Is anyone hurt?”

I started to speak, to tell her no, we were fine. Lucy’s scream locked up my throat, however, and I nearly dropped the phone. Her eyes were on whatever or whoever was behind me. I could hear the operator speaking as if the voice was coming from a long tunnel as I slowly turned my head and found the thing of nightmares standing at my window with a crowbar in his hands. Not just anyone’s nightmares, but my own. I was transported back to a time when all I could see were glazed-over high eyes glaring down at me with hate. A time when I wondered if this was it. Was I going to die this time?

I had seen that face before. Those dark eyes so identical to the little girl sitting beside me. But the rest of him was nothing like the beautiful creature I had come to love like a niece. His eyes were glazed with a look I knew well, because I had spent the first fifteen years of my life seeing it daily. He was high, raging, and mean. Just like my mother had always been.

Suddenly I was a little girl again and I knew that I was going to be hurting before this was over. “Please,” I whispered into the phone as the crowbar hit the driver’s side window the first time, cracking it, “please, help us.”

The next swing and the glass exploded all over me. I was torn between wanting to protect my belly and the child growing inside, and Lucy. That fear made my mind fuzzy. When I should have just shot the SUV into Drive and hit the gas, I panicked instead. Shaking with fear I unfastened my seatbelt as fast as possible and reached for her. “Run!” I commanded.

Lucy only paused for a moment before she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door. She had barely jumped down and I was trying to jump out behind her, my phone forgotten in my fight or flight mode. For the moment I was solely focused on flight and the need to get Lucy as far away from the kind of monster that I’d had to live with growing up.

“No you don’t, bitch,” Vince Grady growled as he caught my foot, tripping me as I climbed across the seats. “She’s mine.”

I kicked out at him, trying to dislodge his hold on my ankle so that I could run after Lucy. “She’s ours!” I yelled at him. “You can’t have her. Jesse will kill you if you even try.”

“Oh, he can have her back,” he snarled, pulling me across the console and closer to him. The stench of something smoky, stale and sour turned my stomach and I nearly gagged even as I fought him to get free. But in his drug-induced state he was freakishly strong. When he caught my kicking foot, trapping both feet in his hands I knew I was in serious trouble. “As soon as he pays enough.”