Page 53 of Deadly Sins

31Grant

IWOKE WITH A WICKED hangover, not just from the copious amounts of whiskey I’d imbibed, but from Mia’s intoxicating scent. But the sharp rage that pulsed through my body quelled any desire to see her.

That lying bitch. Not only did she think I was stupid enough not to figure out her identity, but she’d felt that it was okay to lie to me about why she left me.

I needed to know where her baby was, and if I was the father.

I picked up the phone and dialed a number that I had stored on my phone. “Hey, I need to see you.”

The voice on the other end of the line quickly agreed, and we arranged to meet at a coffeehouse.

An hour later, I sat at an outdoor table impatiently waiting with Hero curled by my feet.

I’d almost given up and headed back home when I saw her up the sidewalk. I barely recognized her.

Gone were the fake eyelashes, the caked-on makeup, and the ridiculously high heels. She wore white short-shorts, a loose-fitting T-shirt, and flip-flops.

I stood up to greet her. “Hey, Autumn.”

“Hi, Grant. Sorry I’m late, the traffic was crazy, you know? All the tourists just flock to the beach here in the summer. I totally hate it. Oh. my God! Is this your dog? He’s gorgeous.”

I smiled and kissed her on the cheek. Hero growled at her, but I tugged on his leash to calm him down. She knelt down to pet Hero, rubbing his ears until he groaned. This girl was refreshing. I’d liked her since the moment I’d met her at the party where Tiffany died. And when I’d run into her at the party, I took Ksenya to last week, she’d approached me and offered to help Joaquín any way she could. She’d confided in me that she thought Tiffany was involved in something dark. At the time, I was hoping she could find some clue about who had actually killed Tiffany—now I hoped she knew something about Ksenya, aka Mia, since Autumn was at Diamond when I saw Mia there that night.

I left Autumn outside with Hero, who was now being friendly and waited in line at this beachy coffeehouse. Surfers with sand still on their wetsuits strolled in, and some hot girls in yoga pants crowded the bar. A young mom walked in, clutching her toddler’s hand, and I couldn’t help but stare at the child.

After I ordered, I rejoined Autumn and Hero at a small table outside, a view of Moonlight Beach in the background. The barista served us our drinks. It almost seemed like a perfect day, but my mind was elsewhere.

Autumn squinted from the sunlight and then put on her oversized sunglasses. “So, what’s up? You said it was urgent.”

I had rehearsed exactly what to say in my head. Autumn was overly naïve and friendly. Anything I said could potentially be relayed to Mia. “I visited Joaquín in jail yesterday. Dude looks like shit. A shell of the man he once was. He’s desperate. I was wondering if you’d heard anything else about Tiffany—you said you were going to visit her family?”

“Oh, yeah, I did. Did Ksenya tell you I took her?”

What the . . .

Mia went? Fuck. That must’ve been where she took off to on Sunday. “No. She didn’t. I’m done with her.”

“Really? You seemed super into her last night at Diamond.”

Ouch. I deserved that.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Autumn continued. “She’s nice, but kind of closed off, you know? Like she’s hiding something.”

Ha! Tell me about it.

“Well, yeah. So we drove up to Temecula. Have you ever been there? It’s super cool—has all these awesome vineyards. Ksenya seemed to like it. Anyway, we met Tiff’s mom, she’s super nice. Oh, did you know Tiff had a son, Julián? He’s so adorable.”

I gagged on my coffee. What the fuck? “No, I didn’t. It wasn’t mentioned in any of the papers.”

“Yeah, I mean, she rarely talked about him, and he lived with her mom. Isn’t that super weird? I would never want to be away from my baby. Want to see a picture?”

“Sure.”

Autumn took out her phone and scrolled through some pics.

The second I saw the boy’s face, my heart raced. He had almond-shaped eyes, long eyelashes, and his mouth curled at the edge, just like Mia’s.

There was also a cleft on his chin.