Kate's POV
The alley smelled like wet concrete, rust, and something sharper layered underneath. Cheap cologne. Old sweat. My newly awakened senses caught every note of it and turned the mess into a slow, rolling storm beneath my skin.
"Kate. Oh, thank God."
Rebecca stepped out of the shadows. She'd arrived earlier than the time we'd agreed on, and her voice carried that breathless relief she practiced in front of mirrors.
She wasn't alone.
My good father slid out right behind her, his face arranged into a careful mask of paternal worry.
"Don't be upset with your sister for not warning you, sweetheart." Thomas extended a hand toward me. "She told me she was meeting you, and I couldn't stay home. We've been worried sick."
It was the same hand he used to offer when I was a child. The s
