Relatively Risky by Pauline Baird Jones

Author:Pauline Baird Jones [Jones, Pauline Baird]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-9888818-1-5
Publisher: Pauline Baird Jones

Nell felt that jolt of surprise, yet again, at how quickly—and without fanfare—one’s world could change beyond recognition. She’d had a few minutes to be relieved that her parents hadn’t lied about everything. They had been high school sweethearts. For whatever reason, that had seemed like the big betrayal, more even than the rest of it. It was that love, that history of their love, that had made her their kid. It had been the rock on which her life and memories were embedded. It all might have started in a weird place, but the world they’d built, the love they’d shared was real. Who she was, that was real, too. It might be a bit out of focus at the moment, but that didn’t mean it had been an illusion.

No wonder they’d been so tied at the hip. Had they done it for her? Or was it something more? Someone had tried to kill them, had believed they succeeded in killing them until she came to town. No wonder her parents hadn’t wanted her to visit Sarah. It would have helped if they’d told her. She rubbed her face, catching sight of the ring in the process. Just because someone gave you something, that didn’t mean you had to take it. Her parents were proof of that.

Of course, they’d had to fake their own deaths and hide until they died.

Sarah’s hand covered hers. “Are you all right?”

Nell wasn’t sure. Her mom’s rules of “all right” hadn’t covered getting handed a ring of power over a criminal empire. Was she all right? It didn’t feel “all right” knowing that creepy St. Cyr had been dad to her dad. And her mom’s family? What were they like? Besides creepy. What had really happened all those years ago? And not to be all about herself, but how would it affect her going forward?

“I’m probably okay.” Nell heard the doubt in her voice and tried to smile at her friend.

No one knew she had the ring, did they? So no one ever needed to know she’d had—why had he given it to her? Had it been an impulse when he realized he was going to die? Had this been what the killer was after? She reached over and picked it up again, remembering that moment when she’d really looked at him. What had she seen in his eyes before the bodyguard interrupted them? It would be so easy to imagine she’d seen…something. That he’d felt something for her as a person. As a granddaughter. That the ring wasn’t to hose her but to acknowledge her as his son’s child.

Wow, she really did have an imagination. Which could be put to better use than trying to imagine what a dead, wise guy might have been thinking when he tripped her. And stalked her. And dumped a hot potato in her portfolio.

Thanks a lot, gramps.

“No one needs to know I have it, do they?” she asked, uneasily. Who had expected to get it? “You could

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