“Are you… together?” she asked, looking between Gabriel and me.
“How is that any of your business?” Nope, wrong tone. I shouldn’t antagonize her. “He’s my friend. You can trust him.”
“I am Gabriel,” he said, holding out his hand. She hesitated, but finally shook it.
“Tara,” she replied.
“Bridget is a close friend, and I am only here to make sure she is safe.” He gave her one of those movie-star smiles.
My mother’s expression relaxed slightly. I almost rolled my eyes. He could charm anyone. “Good. I’m glad Bridget has someone to look out for her.”
“I thought we were in a hurry,” I said impatiently. “Why does Domenic have anything to do with an orthopedic study? Is it just because of me?”
Her eyes flickered between mine. “Your father asked for you. At the end. He wanted to—”
Paralyzing rage hit me out of nowhere. Howdareshe bring this up? “I don’t give a fuck what he wanted,” I growled. Gabriel took my hand under the table. “And we are not here to talk about Sebastian.”
“He was your father, Bridget. He loved you—”
“Enough!” I slammed my hands on the table. My mother’s mouth snapped shut. Silence fell in the diner for a moment before the faint chatter picked up again.
“What is Domenic doing?” I asked again.
She pulled a piece of paper from her purse with a shaking hand. “Ever since Sebastian died, he’s been… different. He’sbeen distant and home even less than normal. I was worried about him.”
She should have been rejoicing that he was leaving her alone.
“He’s renting out these buildings,” she continued, passing me the paper.
I scanned it. As I thought, one address matched the one for Axion Biostorage, but there were two others on the list I didn’t recognize. I passed it to Gabriel. “And what is he doing with these places?”
The bell tinkled over the diner door.
My mother stared at me with hollow eyes. “I really don’t know. I swear. But you need to be careful, Bridget. He’s—”
I couldn’t stop my gasp. My mother turned abruptly in her seat, her face draining of any color. And for the first time in years, I was looking at Domenic Crawford.
He looked the same, except with a bit more gray in his hair. As he drew closer, I saw a few more lines around his eyes, but they were still flat and black, like a shark’s. His slow, indulgent smile made my skin crawl as usual.
I wanted to run. I wanted to bolt out the door and disappear. But I wasn’t a child. And Gabriel was right there next to me, still gripping my hand. There were people all around us.
My mother shrank in her chair. I noticed Gabriel pocketing the slip of paper she’d given us out of the corner of my eye before Domenic reached our table.
“Well hello, little one,” he said, still smiling. “What a lovely family reunion.”
I couldn’t find my voice for a moment, but Gabriel’s presence next to me helped. “You weren’t invited.”
My mother looked terrified at his arrival, clutching her bag tighter in her lap, but that didn’t mean anything. She had betrayed me yet again.
Domenic’s smile widened as he pulled out the chair across from me and sat. He wasn’t a large man, but he moved with assurance and power. And he still radiated dominance like a physical force. “And Gabriel. So nice you could come, too. But where is Andrew?”
My stomach heaved with panic. No, no,no.
“You have me at a disadvantage,” Gabriel said politely.
“Hm. In more ways than one,” Domenic replied with a dismissive glance. “I’m Bridget’s father.”
“You arenotmy father,” I hissed.
