Free Selling Out by Amber Lin

he’d even come,
except that Allie probably insisted on seeing me, and Colin wouldn’t have let
her come here alone—just in case.
    “Allie,” Colin warned, apparently still concerned.
    “The testosterone is suffocating.” She patted his chest, the
gesture infused with both obstinacy and affection. “We need to have girl talk.
You two try not to kill each other.”
    Most likely Philip would be cordial, but just to make sure,
I kissed him on the cheek to placate him before Allie and I shut ourselves into
the library. I sank into the plush armchair, relieved to be away from the
tension.
    As soon as the heavy doors clicked shut, Allie whirled on
me. “What the hell is going on?”
    I explained what had happened, from Henri’s visit to the
party. I omitted the part about Luke, knowing Allie would take the fact that I
had run to him as a sign that we were an item. Behind all her bluster, she was
constantly watching me. She knew something was there, and she thought Luke
would be a good influence on me. If I told her what I’d overheard, she would
defend him. Odd that she trusted him better than me.
    “I wish you would have called me,” she said quietly.
    “You know why I didn’t.” I would never let anything happen
to Allie or her daughter. I had made that silent promise years ago, when a
hurting Allie held a positive pregnancy test in her trembling hand. No matter
what happened now, I could never regret my time with Henri, because it had
given us all the security she and Bailey had needed.
    She stood at the window. “One of these days, you’re going to
have to rely on someone.”
    A repeat of earlier? No, thank you. I much preferred my
precarious position with Philip. Our relationship was like a stream, shimmering
and shallow with no chance of drowning.
    “How did you know to find me here?” I asked.
    She flopped into an armchair beside mine. “I don’t want to
tell you.”
    “Do you guys have Philip under surveillance?”
    She laughed. “No, but I like the way your mind works. I’ll
tell you, but you have to promise not to do anything stupid. Like leaving this
very safe fortress to wander around the shittiest part of town. That counts as
stupid, just so we’re clear.”
    Excitement ran through me. This was a lead. “Jade called
you,” I guessed.
    Jade was a small-time madam with a few brothels in a seedy
part of Chicago. She had been in the game a long time—an eternity, it
seemed—and she knew everything that went down, everyone who went down. If she
was contacting me, then she had information.
    Allie scowled. “She showed up with a couple of muscle guys.
Colin practically shit a brick to see those bozos come around the corner of the
house. Apparently she doesn’t believe in phones. There is something wrong with
that woman. And don’t say cultural differences. She’s not right in the head.”
    I shrugged. “What did she say?”
    “She claimed to have something important to tell you, that
you have to visit her. She knew you were here, but she couldn’t come—“
    “Without Henri finding out,” I finished. And since Colin was
related to Philip, he could visit without arousing suspicion, like the
childhood game of Telephone.
    Allie continued. “I told her absolutely not. But at the time,
I was going out of my mind trying to find you, wondering if you were hurt or…
You know, and she made a deal to tell me where you were as long as I delivered
the message. So, message delivered, and you’re not going anywhere.”
    “I have to. Henri is after me. He’s after the girl. You know
Jade always has the best information. She wouldn’t have asked me to come if it
wasn’t good.”
    “I was afraid you’d say that.”
    Already my mind was spinning on how to get out of here
undetected. Philip would forbid it, and Ella would insist on coming. So I
wouldn’t tell them.
    Allie poked violently at a wrinkle in the leather. Uh-oh.
“What are you hiding?”
    She scrunched her nose. “Well, if you’re