“You should bring something pretty,” Freddy told Toni while he watched her pack, his little body on top of her dressing table.

“Why?”

“Because.” He gave her an adorable closed-mouth smile and looked up at the ceiling.

“Frederick Jean-Louis Parker . . . what are you getting at?”

“I may be a kid, Toni, but I’m not a child.” Yes, he was. “That wolf likes you. And you like him. But you have to look pretty. To keep his interest. So you two can be boyfriend and girlfriend and he can give you things that you can sell for profit.”

Chuckling to herself, Toni folded another pair of jeans. “Where do you get this stuff from, Freddy?” She knew it wasn’t from their mother or Aunt Irene. And it definitely wasn’t from their dad, who to this day referred to himself as a male feminist, “because I have too many girls of my own now not to be.”

“Delilah.”

Toni froze in midpack at Freddy’s answer, her folded jeans held over her case. “You’ve been spending time with Delilah?”

“A little. She’s nice and fun.”

Toni forced herself to continue packing and to keep her voice casual. She knew if she overreacted, Freddy would panic. Freddy and panic were two words that were very bad together. Very bad.

“She’s fun? Really? What have you two been doing?”

“Making money for the orphans. First at home, but she said we’d start here now. A lot more orphans in New York.”

Unable to keep packing, Toni turned and gazed at her baby brother. “Making money for orphans?”

“Uh-huh.”

“How have you been doing that?”

Freddy looked at the open bedroom door. “I’m not supposed to tell,” he whispered.

“You can tell me. You know that.”

Freddy’s trusting smile broke her heart. “I know I can.” He motioned her close. When she stood right by him, his little knees pressed against her hips, he said, “Sometimes we just sit in the park and I look sad and Delilah asks people for money. Sometimes they don’t want to give it to her or they want her to go somewhere with them to give her money, but she doesn’t want to do that. So she makes up stories to tell them. I know that you and Daddy say we shouldn’t lie, but to help orphans, I think it’s okay. Don’t you?”

Instead of replying to that, Toni asked, “What do you two do other times?”

“Delilah gives me this little TV to watch and a headphone that I can talk into while she plays cards with some people. Then I . . . I . . . I . . .” His little face screwed up as he tried to think of the right words.

“Count cards?”

“That’s it!” He grinned. “It’s easy for me.”

“No one notices what she’s doing?”

“No. But I think that’s because they’re mostly men and they stare right at her, but they don’t see the thing she wears in her ear. They stare at her a lot. Probably because she’s so pretty.” Freddy frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Toni lied. “But you’re starting classes on Monday. You won’t have time for all this once that happens. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Hey.” She placed her hands on either side of his hips and leaned in. “Will you do me a big favor?”

“Sure!”

“I’ll need travel supplies. The good stuff.”

“You want me to hit Mom’s stash of those fancy chocolates?”

“You read my mind.”

She quickly gripped her brother’s nose with her lips and twisted around while he giggled and pushed at her. Then she wrapped her arms around his waist, kissed his neck, and lifted him off the dresser. She spun him around once before putting him on the floor.

“And when I’m gone—”

“I know. Don’t let Kyle make me feel like a loser because I’m not an artist. And don’t let Troy make me feel like a loser because he’s older and thinks he’s smarter than me.”

“And?”

“Don’t steal. Don’t set the house on fire.”

“Good man. Now get what you can and bag it for me.”

“Okay!” He charged out the door, and when Toni heard his little feet hit the stairs, she started for the doorway. That’s when she was grabbed from behind and dragged back toward her bed.

She wasn’t really startled by that grab, because she’d known that Livy had been asleep under her bed the entire time. Livy wasn’t the normal guest that people had over. She really liked that feeling of sneaking around someone’s home even when she’d been invited, and no one in the entire Jean-Louis Parker family gave a shit.

“Don’t even think about it, Antonella,” Livy said in her ear as she wrestled Toni back.

“I’m going to twist that bitch’s neck until it snaps,” Toni snarled, desperately fighting the strong little arms wrapped around her. “I’m going to put her down like the sick pup she is!”

Toni was thrown on the bed, and Livy climbed up on her chest, pinning her down.

“You’re not being rational,” Livy said calmly.

“Fuck rational! She dies tonight!”

“Uh . . .” Ricky said from the doorway. “Is everything all right?”

Livy motioned Ricky in with a tilt of her head and said, “Get in here and close the door.”