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I nod my head and slip the T-shirt over my head before leaving. My mind is reeling, thinking over what just happened. Dominic knows I’m a cop. Someone from the force tipped him off, and he just let me walk away. To say I’m confused has got to be the understatement of the millennium. Still, I’m tired. Eventually, I fall asleep.
* * *
When I wakeup in the morning, Dominic isn’t beside me. Come to think of it, I don’t remember him ever rejoining me in bed. I sit up, rub the sleep from my eyes, and look around the room. Everything from the night before comes into focus, and I’m filled with disbelief. I knew I had feelings for Dominic, but I never imagined it would go as far as it did. What surprises me the most is how much farther I want it to go still—even after he spankedme.
I reach for my phone on the nightstand, where I’m positive I left it the night before, and it’s gone. I jump out of the bed and search through the covers, under the bed, in the nightstand drawer—every spot I can think of. It isn’t anywhere to be found.
“Looking for this?” Dominic says behind me. I jump a little from the unexpected comment.
I turn around to see him leaning in the doorway with my phone in his hand. I don’t know what he did with it, but I can only assume he looked through it. As far as I’m aware, there isn’t any information about the case in it. But there are plenty of messages between me and Sergeant Tully that Dominic could have seen.
Sergeant Tully. I was supposed to meet him last night after my shift at the casino, and I completely forgot. Dominic distracted me, and it slipped my mind. He’s probably worried sick about me.
“I need to check in,” I say to him, running my fingers through my hair. “If I don’t, they’ll think I’m dead and they’ll send officers to the casino to check on me.”
“Tully sent you several messages checking in,” Dominic says as he approaches me and holds the phone out for me. “I took the liberty of telling him you’re alright. You need to meet with him in person today. But before you do that, we have an awful lot to talk about.”
He holds a hand out for me, and I take it. I follow him through the halls into the kitchen. Along the way, I’m met with the warm smell of buttery pancakes and syrup mingling with savory bacon in the air. The table is full of steaming hot breakfast food. Dominic pulls a chair out for me and I take a seat, smiling up at him.
Our situation is bizarre, to say the least. He knows I’m an officer, so he knows that I’m here investigating him. And yet, we had an incredible time together last night. Now he’s made me a delicious breakfast. Dominic is nothing like I thought he would be before I started working on this case. I’m pleasantly surprised by him, yet I can’t help but think he has ulterior motives.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions,” I say after a minute. “You must be angry with me.”
“Actually, I’m not,” he admits before shoveling some scrambled eggs onto both of our plates. “Even when I found out initially, I wasn’t mad. I was more worried than anything. You’re around a lot of dangerous people, and I was worried about what they’d do if they found out the truth. Honestly, I thought I could take advantage of what you're there for.”
I furrow my brows and look at him. “What do you mean?”
“You're investigating me. I've known that I'm the main suspect in Officer Daniels’ murder for a while,” he continues, pausing while taking a sip of his coffee. “But I didn't do it. I think you know that too.”
I nod my head and wrap my hands around my steaming cup of coffee. Before I went to the casino, I was positive Dominic was our guy. The more I've gotten to know him, the more I've been questioning that. Yes, he is the leader of the DeLuca family, but I can't picture him killing someone. Call it intuition, but I know that despite what he does, he's a good guy.
“I figured if I kept you close to me, then you could find out who's really behind the murder and help me clear my name,” he says with a sigh. “Unfortunately, that’s not going to work now.”
“What do you mean?” I ask him, resting my hands in my lap. “I’m still on the case. Tully doesn’t know anything about us. He has no reason to pull me. If you’re innocent, let me help you find who did this. They’re obviously framing you.”
I reach my hand across the table to grab his. I want to help him. He pats my hand and smiles at me. “Too many people at the casino know you're a cop,” he informs me.
I think back to how Gio reacted the last time I saw him and realize that I was right. As much as I want to help prove Dominic is innocent, staying at the casino could be dangerous for me.
“What can I do to help you?” I ask him, hoping there’s something he’ll let me do.
He looks over at me with a serious expression and takes a deep breath. “I know this could get you in a lot of trouble, but I need you to get me the case file.”
11
DOM
“Okay,” Daniella says as if I didn’t just ask her to risk throwing away her career for me. She never hesitated and never even thought about what I was asking her to do. She just agreed to do it.
I stand up and lean over the table, grabbing her chin and tilting it up to my face before kissing her. If I didn't know that I loved Daniella before this, I sure as hell know now. For her to risk throwing away her career for me, I know she must feel the same way. When I think about how it's only been a few days since I first met her, it almost makes me laugh. In such a short time, I feel like I've gotten to know everything there is about her.
She and I finish breakfast and get ready to take care of everything we need to. Sergeant Tully had been worried about Daniella the day before, but I hope my message to him this morning eased his mind. I'm hoping that when she goes to the office to check in with him, she can get a copy of my case file and bring it back to me.
The department has been very tight-lipped about the investigation since it started. Mike was able to get me some information, but most of what he gave me was word of mouth. I know there has to be more in the case file, so I need to see it. The DeLuca family is difficult to penetrate, so I know there are things the cops won't have access to that I will. If I can just see the evidence they have, I might be able to figure out what's really going on.
I drive Daniella back to her apartment and wait for her to get a change of clothes before I drive her back to the casino. I don't want her going in, but I can't drop her off at the police station without risking someone seeing us. As much as I want to keep an eye on her, I have to let her drive there herself. I watch her get into her car safely and drive off before I go inside the casino.
My mind is preoccupied thinking about everything Daniella is going to say to her sergeant, but I force myself to act as normal as possible. I can't have anybody in the casino thinking that I'm working against them with a cop.
