Page 81 of Heartbreaker

“No, you haven’t,” he says, in a low voice. “We’re too alike. We’re stubborn and want things done our way, even when we should be talking to find a compromise.” He looks over his shoulder and gives me a small smile, reminding me of the conversation we had just minutes ago. Pride swells in my chest.

“Seems like you’ve grown a lot since you left Indy,” Kevin says with a small smile, not missing the look between his son and me.

“I have,” Rome says, smiling wider at me before Kevin pulls him in for a big, back-patting hug. My throat is tight at the show before us, and Oliver and Tyler look away, as if trying to give them some semblance of privacy. After a few moments, the hug breaks, and like a magnet, Rome turns back to me. That’s when I see his eyes are shimmering. Kevin sniffs, overwhelmed by emotion, before clearing his throat, seeming to go back into business mode.

“Okay, well, you can tell me all about those changes later. But right now, what’s the plan?” Kevin is sitting in a chair as if he belongs here.

“Plan?” Rome asks.

“Something is going on, and I’m not going to sit around and wait for something worse to happen. So what’s your plan? I know you. I’ve seen Lana, and something tells me you two together aren’t just waiting for things to figure themselves out,” Kevin says. Rome looks at me, and I lift a shoulder before turning to Demi, who nods and opens her mouth.

“So, you see,” she starts, but before she can finally get her moment, there’s another knock on the door. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.” I have to fight back a laugh, knowing it would only piss Demi off more, and Rome looks just as aggravated as Demi as he storms past our small crowd and to the door.

“Oh, great, you too. Come on in,” Rome says, not sounding welcoming in the least. I’m out of options for who it might be, but I guess I should have seen it coming when Phil walks in.

“Perfect, just the man I wanted to see,” Kevin says, standing and looking far less cordial than he was a moment before. Suddenly, another likeness to his son becomes clear: his untamed temper.

“Hey, Kev, didn’t expect you to be here,” Phil says, sounding a bit nervous. They’ve been friends for some time and have worked closely for years. From the looks of it, Phil knows he should be anxious about that temper.

“Don’t you, Kev me, Phil. I trusted you with my boy when he was eighteen, and I trusted you with him when he was twenty-eight, and right now, I’m wondering why the fuck I did that. Clearly, there’s an issue, a long-standing one. Now tell me, what are you doing about this?” Phil looks like he’s aged ten years in the past ten hours, and runs a hand through his thinning hair.

“I’ve got it handled, Kevin. I promise.”

“How?” Kevin demands, crossing his arms on his chest.

“I… I hired someone to investigate it.”

“Who? Because right now, this is looking like a dumpster fire, and someone is going to get killed. Whoever you hired must be shit at their job.” Rome looks over at me, his eyes wide with panic, as if to say I’m so sorry, ignore him. But I just smile and shake my head. Then I turn to Demi and have a quick, silent conversation. I don’t know what it is she found, but I do know that look on her face says she figured it all out and the only thing left is to set up a trap to get concrete evidence and possibly a confession from our guy.

And when she nods, I know that no one in the room is on her final list. Just like me, she feels safe confessing to everyone here.

“He brought me on,” I say, trying to sit up a bit higher, but Rome stops me. I force myself not to roll my eyes at his sweet but wholly unnecessary antics.

“I’m sure you’re a great driver, sweetheart, but—” My jaw tightens, and Demi opens her mouth to argue, and Tyler lets out a low wow, but Rome steps in to set him straight first.

“She’s a great fucking driver, but that’s not what she’s trying to say, Dad. Maybe drop the condescension for a minute so she can explain.” Kevin looks to Rome, confused, before his face becomes a mask of embarrassment and apology, and he turns to me.

“You’re right, I’m sorry, Lana. That was uncalled for. I’m overwhelmed, but that’s no excuse,” he says, and I nod.

“I’m not going to say it’s okay, but I accept your apology. While I am a great driver, it’s not what I was originally brought on for. Demi and I are agents with the Mavens, an elite group of female private investigators, and we were assigned to come here undercover.” Recognition flashes across his face.

“Mavens… I’ve heard of that. Daydream used you guys, right? Annette hired you to figure out who was fucking with the place?” I nod, because Josie closed a case there last month.

“Yes. Right after Rome’s crash, we were contacted to come in and see what was really going on here. Phil realized something was off, though he didn’t realize it wasn’t just constrained to Monster Smash.”

“It isn’t?” Phil asks, rightfully confused since we haven’t kept him very much in the loop beyond what was fully necessary.

“No, we don’t believe the sabotage started here,” Demi says.

“What do you mean? All of this is happening to Monster Smash,” Phil says, annoyed.

”Yes, but it all started once Roman joined on,” Demi explains.

“What we mean is, we think the sabotage followed him. We don’t think it started here—we think it continued here.”

“Continued here?” Kevin questions.

“None of the issues started until Rome came back,” Tyler muses, picking up on where this is headed. “And Mel works for Kevin.”