Page 41 of Worth of Waste

“Mike seemed pretty—”

“Mike is dead because of that house,” Dino interrupted.

Karen’s heart found her throat. “What?”

“Exactly what I said. His involvement with me beyond a level someone thought was appropriate cost him his life. All because he put forward the paperwork and transferred my money between accounts so I could buy a house. Now, it’s watched. It’s mine—people know it’s mine. I won’t put you into it just to have them know about you and J, too.”

“You say people like it’s just anybody. It’s not just anybody, is it?”

Dino didn’t even blink. “My uncle is not a nice man.”

“Ben DeLuca, you mean. In your letter, you wrote about him a lot.”

“He’s a monster.”

Karen heard what Dino said loud and clear, but she was also listening for what he didn’t say. Something she had noted all those months ago when she read his letter—a certain tone he had when he talked about his uncle, and how he referred to himself.

Ben wasn’t the only person Dino thought was a monster.

He believed he stared at one every day in the mirror when he looked at himself.

Karen didn’t know how to help him to see that wasn’t true at all.

“But not a monster I want you worrying about,” Dino added when Karen stayed silent. “And that’s why I won’t push that house on you. It’s not important.”

Karen fiddled with the sleeve of her shirt, a question burning on the back of her tongue, wanting to come out so badly. She wasn’t sure if she should ask. Her heart was screaming at her, wanting to say how she felt, while another part of her wanted to stay safely hidden inside the cocoon of walls she’d built that would keep Dino at arm’s length.

Given the way he was staring at her, she knew there was no possible way she would be able to keep him at a distance for long.

Dino wouldn’t let her.

Karen really didn’t want to, anyway.

There was still a real fear in her heart that made her worry—one day she might wake up, and he’d be gone. To where, she didn’t know. How, she couldn’t answer.

It was just a possibility.

It happened once.

It could happen again.

“Karen?” Dino asked. “You good?”

She blinked out of her daze, staring up at him and realizing how close he had come to stand in front of her while she was lost to her own thoughts. She could smell the spice and woodsy scent of whatever cologne he was wearing, and she almost wanted to bring him closer, just to see if that smell would swallow her whole and make the rest of the outside world disappear.

Somehow, Karen beat that urge down.

“I’m fine,” she eventually said.

“You look a little lost.”

Well …

“I am, but it’s okay.”

Dino cupped her jaw in his large hand, his thumb stroking her skin softly but surely, letting her know with each touch that he understood without needing to be told a thing. “Thank you.”

Karen’s gaze widened. “For what?”