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I’ve got a bad feeling about where this is going. Gia’s expression is drawn and she doesn’t seem to be able to meet my eyes. She clears her throat and continues.
“My dad went to Will Roan and Will said Jake had forty-eight hours to pay the debt. There was no way Jake could do that, and my dad couldn’t come up with sixty grand that fast. So…my dad asked Will to transfer the debt to him and give him thirty days. Will agreed to that.” She tucks a damp curl behind her ear, tears shining in her eyes when she finally meets my gaze across the table. “He had paid off $45,000 and had the last $15,000 ready to take to Will the last week of the thirty days. Jake came to my dad crying, saying he owed another dealer and was going to be killed over it by the end of the day. So my dad gave Jake the money and went to Will, asking for more time for the last $15,000. He was found in an abandoned building the next day, shot in the head.”
“Oh, Jesus.” I reach across the table and take her hand. “I’m so sorry.”
She wipes tears from beneath her eyes. “It was a long time ago. But my dad was everything to me.”
“When you say you plan to settle the score, though…what do you mean?”
Gia holds my gaze, a steely resolve in her eyes.
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore right now,” she says.
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
She pulls her hand away, narrowing her eyes. “If I need you to look out for me, I’ll let you know.”
“Gia…”
Getting up from her chair, she says, “I need to go. I have stuff to do.”
“Can we talk later?”
“It’s kind of inevitable since we both live here.”
I run a hand through my hair, frustrated. “You had to know I’d be concerned. Did you think I’d tell you seeking revenge against a bad guy capable of murder was a good idea?”
She stops walking and turns to face me, her expression icy. “I said I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“Promise me you won’t leave while I’m on the road.” I stand up and walk over to her.
She laughs, unamused. “I’m not promising you anything.”
“What the hell happened to this conversation?” I demand. My tone is a little harsh, but I’m on the edge. “All I’ve done is care about you and want you. How have I become the asshole?”
Her expression softens. “Look, I’ve never told anyone what I just told you. I’m feeling overwhelmed right now. I have no plans to do anything anytime soon. I just need to take a break. Clear my head.”
I nod. “I can understand that.”
She stretches up to kiss my cheek, giving me a small smile. “I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.”
I watch her grab her purse and keys, walk outside and close the door behind her. Then I flop down on my couch and exhale hard, looking up at the ceiling.
So much for her reason being something simple we can work through together. It sounds like Gia’s out for blood, and I don’t know how to find a way to stop her.
Chapter Eighteen
Gia
“Hey, are you okay?” Ro asks. Her forehead is all scrunched up and I can tell she’s worried.
I smile. “You’re the one on crutches, and you’re asking me if I’m okay?”
She turns around and lowers herself into a patio chair by Maverick’s pool, where I’m lounging in the sun for the afternoon. Ro has gotten much better at moving around on her crutches and they hardly slow her down anymore. She leans them against the table next to her chair.
“You just seem like you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders these days,” she says. “Now that you’re living in Prince Charming’s castle, I would think you’d be…happy?”
“We’re not together.”
“I know, and Maverick is also way hotter than Prince Charming, for the record. He’s got that dark look about him but he’s also funny and sweet. I don’t get why you guys aren’t together, because the sexual tension around here is thick.”
I sigh heavily. “We both have a lot to stay focused on.”
“I wish I knew what that meant,” Ro says. “For you. On the outside, you’re a badass boss, but I can tell something’s bothering you.”
I look out at the pool, the sun glinting off the water and tropical flowers blooming in huge urns in each corner of the pool’s stone patio. Maverick and I are doing a dance, spending lots of time together but never crossing the line we both want to blow past so badly. I’m teaching him poker and we’ve been watching movies in his home theater. He keeps the freezer stocked with mint chocolate chip ice cream. He hasn’t pushed me any further to talk about my plans to avenge my dad’s death, but the conversation we had about it still hangs between us.
