Secrets and Sins: Malachim (A Secrets and Sins Novel) (Entangled Ignite) Read Online Free PDF

and where she was headed. But she didn’t. She was afraid of the answer.
    “Wait,” Danielle said. She hesitated, knowing the longer she held Carmen up, the more agitated her sister would become. But Danielle couldn’t let her hang up. Not just yet. Panic crawled up the back of her throat and trickled onto her tongue. The taste was bitter, shaming. “Has Alex tried to contact you?”
    A long pause echoed down the line. “No. How could he?”
    Danielle closed her eyes, but when screenshots of fists and blood spooled across her mind, she snapped them open. “He was released from jail two weeks ago.”
    One year, five months, and three days for beating the hell out of her. Including the time he’d spent in jail prior to his plea agreement. She smiled, but not even a trace of humor filled her chest. The assistant district attorney had made it clear that Danielle should be glad he’d even received that much time. That she should agree to the plea bargain and consider herself lucky.
    “No, I haven’t heard from him,” Carmen said, and the surprisingly gentle tone brought stinging tears to Danielle’s eyes. Worry slowly opened the talons that had curled around her heart. Damn. She scrubbed a palm down her face. Enough tears. They didn’t solve a thing. If anyone understood their futileness, she did. “And even if he did get in touch with me, I’m not saying a thing, little sister.”
    She knew Carmen wouldn’t voluntarily expose their weekly phone calls. But Carmen was a drug addict. God only knew what she would give up if desperate enough for a hit.
    Therefore, Danielle had never revealed her current location to Carmen, had never revealed the name she now went by. At the beginning of every week, she visited a store—switching locations around the city so she didn’t frequent one store more than three times—and purchased a new prepaid. On Carmen’s caller ID, a different phone number showed up for each call. She made it a point to request varying area codes so even if by some chance Carmen’s phone was confiscated, received calls from around the States would show up in her log.
    After her husband—now ex-husband since the divorce had been finalized before she left Birmingham—had accepted a plea bargain and had begun his too-short jail sentence, one of the domestic abuse advocates who’d visited her in the hospital and had stayed in contact with her afterward had secretly passed her a phone number. When Danielle had called, the person on the other end had instructed her on how to disappear.
    Not long afterward, Elena Rainier had ceased to exist, and Danielle Warren had been born with a birth certificate, driver’s license, Social Security card, and even documentation certifying successful completion of a Certified Legal Assistant examination from an ABA-approved online college program. Danielle owed that advocate and underground network her life—her new life.
    Her contact had warned her that the identification wouldn’t withstand Alex’s vast search net forever—a couple of years at best. But if she held out long enough, she could save enough money to abandon Danielle Warren, move again, and live off grid, picking up low-skill, cash-only jobs when needed.
    And maybe, just maybe, enough time would pass where she could secretly bring Carmen to wherever she landed without drawing Alex’s attention. It was a dream, a nebulous plan for the future. As of now, though, she couldn’t sacrifice the efforts of the people who’d helped her or her fresh start. Not even for the sister she loved.
    Sometimes the duplicity scraped raw. Not being able to trust her sister grieved her. But when weighed against her safety and continued freedom, she sucked it up.
    “Thanks, Carmen.” She glanced at the dashboard clock again. Almost ten o’clock. She swore softly. Small wonder Pat wasn’t blowing her phone up demanding to know what’d happened. Not that the older man cared about the car he’d let her borrow. He