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I wanted to throw up, but I steeled myself and looked right at my best friend as I delivered a single word that I knew would tell her everything she needed to know without actually admitting anything. “Good.”
“I knew it.” She started shaking her head as her features hardened. Kristina had always been a fiercely loyal friend, and I loved her for it. “You have to let me help you.”
“I can’t,” I said before my resilience started to fade. I got nervous that she might accidentally slip and say something in front of the wrong person, and everything I’d worked hard to save would fall apart. “Trust me, if there was something you could do, I’d let you. But there’s nothing. And you can’t say anything, Kristina. I mean it. Not to anyone.”
“Not even Dom?”
“Especially not Dominic, said, emphasizing his name. I’d already awoken that particular beast, and I needed to figure out how to put him back to bed.
“What about your dad?”
“Not him either. Promise me you won’t say a word.”
“I don’t even have anything to say.”
“I need you to promise,” I pushed.
She looked at me before locking her lips with her fingers and tossing the key. “I promise. But I don’t like it. Not one bit. Just for the record.”
“Neither do I.”
WE HAVE TO SAVE HER
DOMINIC
Ileft the diner and drove straight to the police station without so much as a plan or any inkling of what I was going to say to Dove’s dad.
The chief of police hadn’t always been my biggest fan, but I soon realized that it wasn’t me he despised as much as it was the family I came from. He tried his best to separate who I was from my father, but I could see how much he struggled with it… especially in the beginning, when I spent more time at his house than my own.
Once he realized that I wasn’t going anywhere and that Dove and I were absolutely mad for each other, he took the time to get to know me better. I modeled myself after him, wanted to be the kind of man that he was rather than the one who had raised me.
Bob Tryst took me in, and the person who used to look at me with disdain every time he saw me started looking at me like I was family. I had no idea how he’d look at me now.
Sauntering up to the reception desk, I smiled at Sarina, a woman I’d known since she moved into town.
“Well, well, well. What brings you in here, sugar?”
I couldn’t help but laugh as she fussed with her graying hair, pretending to make herself presentable for me.
“Just came to see you,” I teased, and her cheeks instantly blushed.
“Stop it. You’re going to give an old woman a heart attack.” She tapped her acrylic nails on top of the counter, one at a time.
“I came to see Bob. Is he here?”
“Sure, honey. He’s in the back. Just sign in, and I’ll ring him,” she said as she pushed a clipboard toward me to fill out.
I grabbed the pen and signed my name before looking at the wall for the time and adding it on the next line. My stomach turned when I realized that I had no idea what I was going to say to him. What if he was happy about the wedding? It never occurred to me that he might be on board with it.
I closed my eyes tight. Sarina cleared her throat, and I opened them, remembering that I wasn’t alone.
“Didn’t want to interrupt whatever war you were battling in there.” She tapped on the side of her head, her expression sad. “He’s waiting for you.”
“Thanks,” I said, and she let me walk away without another word.
I was grateful she hadn’t mentioned Dove or the upcoming wedding or else I might have broken down in the middle of the hallway.
The door buzzed as I approached it, signaling that it was unlocked, and I pulled it open and stepped through another set of doors and into the “war room,” as the cops called it. There were desks and whiteboards with cases being worked on. My eyes scanned over some of the writing, stopping on an entire oversize board devoted to the Firenzi organization, complete with photographs and flow charts.
