Sixes & Sevens (Seven Hearts Book 1) Read Free Page A

punishment by where you were required to kneel. You were lucky if you were taken to a room with a soft floor.
    Her father’s incarceration had always been used against her, no matter which home she’d been at. Three different families had housed her since her father was taken away. Jaycee had always maintained her father’s innocence, but no one believed her. In fact, her first family had gone as far as banning her from talking about him, or the incident—as they called it—altogether. They had taken away anything that reminded her of him, including her photographs. It hadn’t done Jaycee any good to resist. The harder she tried, the more she struggled, the tighter her confines had gotten. It was like she lived in a Chinese finger trap. Or quicksand. Any movement toward returning home, or helping her father, had only taken her farther away from him, tightening her restraints. Without a sympathetic ear, she’d had no news of him since her placement into the Smythes’ home. It been so long she she’d seen his face. Would his hair have turned grey? Would he be lean from not eating properly? The biggest question, the one she hated to even dwell on, was if he was safe. How could he be??
    She’d found out from a social worker, Paul been locked up in a maximum-security correctional center on the outskirts of her hometown, Maple Grove. His innocence hadn’t stopped them from throwing him to the wolves, wolves with too much aggression…and possibly shanks. Jaycee shivered at the thought, and made the sign of the cross. (She wasn’t a Catholic, but as a Christian, she figured it couldn’t hurt.) Jaycee reminded herself not to think about it.
    When overmorrow arrived, Jaycee would sneak out. Somehow, she would save her father, regardless of the risk to herself. It had taken her a long time to get up the courage, gather her resources, but she’d made a plan. May 22, her eighteenth birthday, Jaycee began seeding the threads of her machination. Her foster parents had forced her to go to a college near their home. Independence, Missouri, was near a lot of colleges, but she’d wound up at MCC-Blue River working toward her associate in arts. The time would come for her to enroll in a four-year college for her bachelor’s, and Jaycee had Maggie convinced to allow her to go farther from home. Meaning she would finally be allowed to move into a dorm.
    Roger had unwittingly helped her by moving several hours away to get his bachelor’s degree first. It left Maggie very little ground to stand on, though she tried the “it’s different; he’s a man defense.” Jaycee had finally worn her down by agreeing to go to a few mother daughter luncheons. The deal did, of course, include being dressed as twins. Not that they looked remotely alike. Jaycee barely stood five three, while Maggie was a willowy five eight. With tan skin and blond locks, Maggie was the exact opposite of Jaycee’s pale skin and dark hair. The lunch dates had been painfully awkward, but it was worth it in the long run.
    “Whatever it takes.” It was Jaycee’s motto the last few months. To her, it meant she would do whatever she had to, whatever the situation was, she would force herself to comply. She would smile at strangers, and force herself to speak up in the company of Maggie’s friends. She would swallow her protests, stop hiding out, and go with the flow. What Maggie didn’t know, was that Jaycee had secretly applied to the University of Eastern Missouri, which was located one town over from Maple Grove. Jaycee had been accepted. Maggie would go ballistic if she knew. The colleges Jaycee had pretended to be interested in were still on the same side of the state. Definitely not back on her home turf. Jaycee had started collecting information on Kansas City colleges the moment Maggie had agreed to let her go farther away for her bachelor’s. It worked as a great cover story for all the forms and papers she had to fill out and submit to switch to UEM.