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“Not like you ever had a checkbook of your own, you bastard,” I muttered in the shower. But I really had thought my dad was dead somewhere. Seeing him again had made me feel…well. What had it made me feel?
Nothing much, I thought, as I sat in my bedroom, looking out across the skyline in a robe.
But I sure had felt something looking into Lola’s eyes that night on the shore by the lake. I knew that she was difficult, unpredictable. But now I no longer knew what to think. I’d been coming to think things about Lola that I’d never thought about anyone else—that she was kind, that she was dependable, reliable. I liked her—maybe more than liked her.
But seeing her standing next to Max had sent me crazy. It had showed me something I hated about myself. That deep down, I was vulnerable. And there were the two people left alive in the world to whom I was vulnerable.
My phone rang, and I looked across absentmindedly at it. I didn’t feel like taking any calls, not now…
But it was a blocked ID calling.
I stared at the phone for a moment. I hadn’t had a single moment of contact with Luca. He was wanted now in connection with the fire atThe Blue Orchid, even if his testimony—that I was a fraudster—was still about to drag me to court. There was an APB on Luca, his bank accounts were canceled, and his passport had been frozen. Could it be…?
I picked up the phone, and answered it.
There was nothing for a moment, only some light static.
“Hello?” I said.
“Hello, ‘Lex.”
It was Luca.
“This is a surprise,” I said. “I thought you’d be halfway across the world by now.”
“Couldn’t resist watching you go to jail, ‘Lex.”
I sighed. “I ran into someone the other day. My dad, as a matter of fact.”
“Your dad? What a nice surprise.”
“Well, hardly,” I drawled. “After all, Luca, he’d come to get a good look at me. After you blackmailed him into screwing me over.”
“I didn’t blackmail anyone,” said Luca quickly. Even though his Caller ID was blocked, he was taking care not to say too much that could be incriminating. “If I did employ your father for anything, I can promise you that the work was well-paid.”
“All I want to know is, how’d you figure out he could do it?”
“It’s amazing what you find looking through old records and documents. I knew I had something to use against you the minute I found a couple of your father’s old forgeries.”
“And what have you got now, Luca?” I said confidently. “Now that I’ve found out what you did and how you did it, and everyone’s closing in on you.”
“I’m so glad you asked, ‘Lex,” said Luca, and then in the background, I heard something.
It was just a muffled noise. But it sounded like a whine, a little cry. Immediately, I thought of Lola.
“What have you done?” I said, in amazement.
“I always wondered why you were so protective of Lola Ryder. And then I found her kid’s birth certificate. Like I said, it’s amazing what you can find. I bet the wedding was her idea. Hoping to reunite her baby with her baby-daddy, no doubt…”
“What have you done with her?” I bellowed. What was he even talking about? I was shaking. Lola’s little girl, the little girl with the blue eyes—
Wait.Blue eyes. I thought of my father.
Then I thought of Macy.
It can’t be.
“Give her back!” I said.
