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“Their lives are already under a microscope, according to you.”
“Yes, but not in the way that they could be targeted. That’s dangerous.”
“You have your answer. You just haven’t let it marinate inside you.”
I gritted my teeth, sighed, and nodded. “There’s always my parents,” I jokingly stated.
Dominic’s stare turned empty, and moments like these made me uneasy.
“Is that possible?” I asked.
“Not likely.”
I frowned. “Why?”
Dominic inhaled a deep breath, and the plane bounced as the wheels touched down. “Your uncle?—”
“Killed himself,” I rushed to say.
We stared at each other before he spoke again.
“It is a fairytale to assume they will understand why he killed himself. The time has passed for you to comfort yourself with such hopes, Penelope.”
“Dominic, please. They’re my parents. If I tell them what happened, they will understand.”
“And if they don’t?”
Silence filled our space, and he repeated.
“If…they…don’t?”
I swallowed the knot forming in my throat and turned towards the window.
If my parents were as hellish as my grandfather was, that would break my heart. Except for Uncle Dexter, the family I’d been born from would cease to exist.
My gut tightened. I had to hold on to hope that this could be solved amicably. But the more I thought about it, the more unlikely the idea became.
* * *
He kissed my lips, and I watched him stroll to a Range Rover, get inside, and drive away.
I hadn’t planned to stay home. My mind was on my grandfather. Dominic had said it himself; time was of the essence. I needed to see if mending our broken relationship was possible. If so, that would be the start of something beautiful.
I also needed to hear from my parents. And I knew if anyone knew where they were, it was my grandfather.
Stepping onto the porch, I locked the door behind me, strolled to my Infiniti, and got inside. “Here goes nothing.”
I pulled away from the curb, and my security detail followed me. Somehow, I would have to shake them. Mostly because I didn’t know how Dominic would feel if he knew what I was up to. But this was my family, and I needed to deal with them. I slipped into evening traffic and blew past a light that caught the detail at an intersection.
Cheering, I patted the steering wheel, then glanced to my left to see a second detail coasting easily next to me.
“Oh shit.”
I jumped in front of a car on my right.
“Where the fuck did they come from?”
I slipped down a side street and hit the gas. Up ahead, lights blinked at a railroad crossing, and a train's horn could be heard in the distance. I tensed and locked my jaw.
