On The Ropes by Cari Quinn

together, and I wasn’t chasing after him. Especially since that club flashback I’d had while going down on Gio had turned out to be the first of many.
    I wasn’t doing well. Not at all. I jumped at shadows, and spun around every time I heard a creak. I’d gone from being a carefree teenager who tended to do stupid things to a girl who trembled when cars backfired and couldn’t watch a horror movie without every light blazing in the apartment.
    It had only been days. Not even a week yet. I knew it would take time, so I was taking it. No one knew what had happened besides Gio, and he would keep it between us.
    I could never, ever tell Fox or my sister. They’d want to kill me for being in the club in the first place, then Gio for his part. They’d probably go after Marco and the rest of the guys and likely get themselves killed. No way would I have their actions on my conscience.
    The secret was locked inside me, where it would stay.
    At least I had distractions. I had my culinary classes, and my regular shifts at the salad shop. And I had lunches with Jenna, and a workout or two at the gym—not The Cage, lest I be accused of trying to spy on Gio—plus studying. There was so much to learn. I’d thought I would be in good shape coming into the Institute, since I’d been preparing meals almost since I could talk. But nope. It was the second month of classes and I hadn’t scratched the surface at absorbing all there was to learn.
    I was managing. Maybe not awesomely, and maybe a couple times I’d almost weakened enough to call Gio for the contact info for his supposedly “helpful people” just for the reassurance of hearing his deep voice. But I didn’t. I had some pride left, even if it had been dented and banged up lately.
    Then my sister dropped the bomb that they were having people over for dinner Thursday night. And oh, would I mind whipping something up quick? Nothing fancy.
    Never mind I hadn’t even decided if I was going back to work at the club that night. I’d promised Nancy to take her shift, and I didn’t want to renege. I also didn’t want Marco and his buddies to think they’d sent me running with my tail tucked up where the good Lord had split me. I wasn’t a coward. They could bend me over a table and try to debase me, but they’d never break me.
    In that way, I was very much my sister’s sibling. I’d fight to the death, then keep right on into the afterlife.
    Even if I decided to work Nancy’s shift as promised, I’d have to come up with a good cover story for my sister. I could always use the old standby of spending the night with Jenna. She’d cover for me if for some reason Mia checked in with her, though there should be no reason for her to go that far. My sister wasn’t that overprotective. She knew I was eighteen. She didn’t like it, but she knew it.
    By the time I was putting together a cheeseburger casserole and tossed salad for Thursday’s dinner—it wasn’t the French cuisine I was learning about in school, but my dinner guests weren’t exactly the French cuisine types—I still hadn’t reached a decision. I’d wait to see how the evening went. I’d have to leave by nine if I was going to get there in time for Nancy’s ten o’clock shift, and even that would be cutting it close.
    And that was even if I still had a job after my no-show on Friday night. Being dragged into the back room had kind of killed my interest in dancing afterward.
    “Slater’s not coming, but Jenna is.”
    I nodded and kept chopping veggies. Good. I could just leave with her if necessary.
    “Liam and Abby have plans, but they said next time they’d be here.”
    I glanced up at the dejected sound of Mia’s voice. She was still dressed in her Vinnie’s T-shirt and jeans. Why she still worked at the bar when she had all those zeroes in her bank account, I didn’t know. She didn’t yet have all the money our Aunt Patty had gained in a secret settlement deal put together when Mia was a