by M. S. Parker
I didn’t know how long it had taken, from the time I’d entered the penthouse to when I finally picked up my bag and walked out. I left the keys behind me, a bit of finality, because I didn’t plan on coming back. And I didn’t need the temptation they would offer. I had to make a clean break.
The doorman was one of the men I didn’t know well and still in a dull state of shock, I didn’t think to avoid him, just told him I needed a cab. He stared at me, clearly concerned and asked if he could call Dominic.
“No!” I practically shouted the word as panic flooded me.
He held out a hand, almost looking panicked himself. “It’s okay, Miss Aleena. I’ll get you a cab, of course.”
He immediately stepped to the curb and raised his hand. I watched, but didn’t really pay attention as a cab pulled up. If I’d been less out of it, I’d have thought something of how long he spoke to the driver before opening the back door for me, but my brain wasn’t working at its best, focused only on getting away.
I gave the driver Molly’s address as I climbed into the back seat, and once the door was shut, I curled in on myself and cried.
9
Dominic
“There’s nothing.”
The small diner where Kowalski and I sat was bland and nondescript, perfect for this kind of meeting. He’d called me directly since I’d forgotten to give him Aleena’s information. He’d agreed that if I was trying to keep this low profile, it was best that I not be seen meeting with a man that any number of people would likely make as a cop.
He wasn’t a cop now.
But he had been. And he told me, once a cop, always a cop.
I’d had a lot of experience with officers of the law when I’d been a rebellious teenager and I knew that most people could’ve picked him out of a room as being in law enforcement.
It was the eyes.
They saw everything.
Running my tongue across my teeth, I considered his words, but didn’t respond right away. There could be several ways to take what he’d told me. Either he had nothing to tell me, no updates, or there was nothing he could unearth…if it was that, then I was pissed. He’d said himself that he was the last resort.
I took a sip of my coffee. It was surprisingly good. The diner he’d selected was a hole in the wall, the kind of place I wouldn’t have chosen to save my life. Which just meant I didn’t always know as much as I like to think I did. The bill had already been put on the table. The coffee cost less than three dollars. I’d paid four times that for coffee that tasted like shit. I made a mental note to make sure I told Aleena about it.
Putting down the cheap, excellent coffee, I tried not to sound accusatory. “What do you mean nothing?”
“Just that.” He flipped open the file he’d brought with him. “As of yet, I have nothing to tell you. I’ve done a surface check with the legit adoption agencies. Now, if your adoption was closed, that makes it more problematic. You have to know the right tricks.” He paused and gave me a small, closed-lip smile. “I know the right tricks. I’ve got some feelers out. There were a few pops, some names that came up, but none of them felt right. A couple of the boys that match your description—blond male, blue eyes—have already come up and I’ve ID’d them.” A shadow flickered through his eyes. “One died before his first birthday. Another passed away from leukemia when he was twelve. Others, I’m working on. We’re lucky that only a handful of boys with your description were born in the New York area.” He paused and added, “You’re sure you were born in New York State?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “That’s one of the few things my adoptive mother told me.”
My phone buzzed. I looked down, checked the number, then set the phone aside. I didn’t know it, but if it was important, they’d leave a message.
“I’ll continue looking into open adoptions, but I’m going to start checking the closed adoptions, talking to some of the people I know who handled the private ones.” Kowalski paused and said, “This will take time.”
“I’ve waited this long.” I was frustrated, but not discouraged.
He nodded. “It would help if I could talk to somebody who was there when you were brought home. Any employees, family friends…” He left the sentence hanging.
Grimly, I stared at him and then slowly, I said, “You can try talking to my adopted father, but I doubt he’ll be willing to talk at all.” I felt half-dead inside as I added, “He barely sees me as his son anymore. He won’t go out of his way to help me.”
My phone buzzed again. It was the same number. Who the hell kept calling me?
Kowalski glanced at it. “If it’s urgent, I’m fine to wait.”
I shook my head. “This takes priority.”
“Of course.” He reached into his jacket and withdrew a pen and paper. “Your father’s information?”
I had to flip through my phone to find it and a text came through at the same time.
This is Geoffrey Carter from Regent. I apologize for disturbing you, but we keep your number on hand in cases of urgent matters and I need to speak with you regarding Aleena Davison. Please call me at your earliest convenience.
I stared at the message, my stomach twisting in dread.
I stared so long, I completely forgot Kowalski was there until he cleared his throat. “Is everything okay?”
No, I wanted to say. Instead, I lied. “Ah, yeah.” I cleared my throat and tried again. “Yeah.”
Rattling off the information he needed, I glanced around and rose. Tossing a few bills on the table, I looked at him. “Is that all?”
“For now. I’ll be—”
The jangling of the bell over the door cut off the rest of his sentence. I started to walk as I punched in the number that had appeared in my history.
“This is Snow.”
“Mr. Snow, Geoffrey Carter. I’m sorry to bother you, but Aleena Davison just left here. She had suitcases with her.”
“Suit…what the fuck are you talking about?” I dimly realized I was shouting into the phone and people were staring. I didn’t even care.
“She was upset...”
I didn’t bother to listen to the rest. I jogged toward my car at the end of the street. Maxwell saw me coming and hurried around to open the door, but I waved him away. “Back to the penthouse. Now.”
“She’d left to go running,”
Geoffrey told me. His face was pale and if I hadn’t been so angry and upset, I might’ve felt bad for him.
“When she came back, she seemed fine at that point, maybe a little tired. But then a man approached her.”
“Who?” I crossed my arms over my chest, mostly to keep from grabbing the doorman and shaking him. That wouldn’t get answers any faster
Geoffrey held out a couple pictures. “I had security print these from our cameras. He gave her something. I believe that’s what upset her.”
I grabbed the pictures and found myself staring at the downward angle of Joshua’s face.
Joshua, the prick I’d kicked out of my apartment last night. I was going to kill him if he was the reason she’d left.
The images showed him passing over an envelope to her.
“Did she open it out here? Did you see what was inside?”
“No,” Geoffrey said, his voice quiet. “I’m sorry.”
I just shook my head and headed inside.
The elevator moved too slow. If I could’ve run to the top, I would have, but that was too many stairs to climb, especially at a fast pace. I was impatient though, desperate to get upstairs. I had to see what had chased her out. There was something.
Something.
There had to be.
She wouldn’t have just left for no reason.
I found the note I’d left her by the phone and there was no sign she’d even seen it. Usually, if she saw a note, she left a response. A smiley face, an ok…something. This simple note—Gone to see PI—was just my black chicken scratch on white paper. Oddly forlorn.
I moved through
each room. Living room. Kitchen. Hallway. Up the stairs to the bathroom. The sour, acrid stink of somebody getting sick lingered beneath the mint of mouthwash and toothpaste.
My own stomach roiled in sympathy.
I moved onto her bedroom and the pieces immediately clicked into place.
Numb, I dropped down onto her bed and picked up the pictures.
I found myself thinking of last night and how Penelope had turned into a living, breathing vine, twining herself around me until I’d had to forcibly remove her.
Her mouth had been too cool under mine, her lips too thin. Too not...still, she’d clung to me and each attempt I’d made to make her stop had only made her cling tighter. It had been like being suffocated and for a few bleak, black minutes, I’d flashed back to the year I’d spent in the dark.
The world had realigned itself when she slid her tongue along my lips and said, “I can give you so much more than she can…”
I’d stopped trying to be gentle at that point and had shoved her away from me, staring at her in disgust. “You can’t give me what you don’t have, Penelope.”
She’d said nothing else, just watched me with a triumphant expression on her face. That look made sense now.
She’d set this up.
Both of them had.
And now Aleena thought...
I shot upright.
Geoffrey. He’d said he knew where she was going.
“I can’t make her talk to you, Dominic.”
Molly glanced at me and then back over her shoulder. Some short, squat woman with a stern face and square jaw was glancing at us. A new boss? I don’t know. Didn’t care.
She sighed, “Look, she’s pretty…”
I dumped the pictures down on the table and Molly’s gaze flicked to them. Judging by the expression on her face, Aleena had told her about them. Not surprising. What I was surprised about, however, was that Molly hadn’t punched me when I’d walked in. I had the feeling that if I’d shown up at Molly’s apartment, I might not have been so lucky.
“Penelope set it up,” I said bluntly. “I think she set it all up, including when Joshua decided to get too hands-on, too pushy, making me get involved. I think Joshua acted like he was so drunk, he could barely move. Otherwise, how, not even an hour later, was he sober enough to go to her place and apologize? Clear-headed enough to see us and take pictures? Then get digital stills from the pictures? And he waited until this morning to show her?”
Molly’s mouth went tight as she pushed through each picture, but she shook her head. “Even if I believe you, I can’t make her talk to you.”
“Try.”
Her eyes moved from the pictures to me, and they softened.
She believed me.
“I can try. But that’s it.”
10
Aleena
“A fancy dinner out isn’t my idea of a pep-talk.” Grimacing, I looked down at the sweatshirt I’d pulled on to combat the cool drizzle that had settled over the city this evening. I rather liked it. It matched my mood. I gave Molly a baleful look, although the fact that my eyes were red-rimmed and my clothes looked like something from a thrift store probably made me look less than threatening.
“Oh, this isn’t a pep-talk.” She gave me a cheerful look that made me want to drown her in the nearest puddle. Cheerfully.
“Then what is it?” I reached for the cranberry vodka I’d ordered. If I couldn’t drown myself in brownie batter ice cream, I was going with the next best alternative. Booze.
“An intervention.” She reached for her martini and settled back in the seat with a happy sigh.
Unlike me, Molly was totally dressed for this place, wearing a cute sea green dress that matched her eyes, her bright hair swept up into a crazy topknot that left loose tendrils falling down all around her face. She looked flirty and fun and adorably sexy.
I looked like a slob and that just made me more depressed. “I don’t want an intervention.”
I wanted Dominic. And I hated myself for it.
The smile on her face widened. “Oh, relax. You’ll feel better when it’s done.”
“No. I won’t.” I went to take another sip of my drink, but the drink didn’t make it halfway to my lips.
A familiar laugh drifted toward my ears and I froze, everything in me going cold.
That laugh.
Slowly, I put the glass back down. Better to do it now before I got up and found Penelope Rittenour, grabbed the elegant coif of her hair and slammed her pretty, perfect face into the nearest flat surface.
I was going to get over this.
I was going to get over him.
I was going to do it without killing either of them.
Elegant greenery provided the suggestion of privacy, although it wasn’t truly private. All I had to do was try, and I’d be able to see through the leaves and lattice work. Granted, I would look like an idiot. Still. I could see...I shook my head.
Carefully, I pulled the napkin from my lap and reached for my purse. “I don’t want to be here.” I made a move to stand up and Molly reached out and caught my arm.
“Sit.” She glared at me. Her fingers squeezed my arm with enough force to catch my attention and she didn’t let go.
“Hey!” I snapped. Jerking against her grip, I tried to twist away.
Molly was small, petite, bordering on delicate. I shouldn’t have had that much trouble breaking free from her grip.
The key word being shouldn’t.
She was a hell of a lot stronger than she looked.
“Sit.” When I narrowed my eyes at her, she stuck out her tongue at me. Then, with an arched eyebrow, she tilted her head to one side and said quietly, “You love the guy.”
It was pointless to deny it. “Well, I’m going to do whatever I can to change that.” Yeah, I loved him. I loved him so much it was choking me, killing me, squeezing the air out of my lungs. It was a gaping wound inside me now and nothing would ever fill it.
“Yeah. Good luck with that.” Her eyes softened and she shook her head. “Aleena, I’ve been in love. Maybe not the big L, which I think is what you’ve got going on. But even those little l break-ups hurt like…well, hell. It’s not as easy as that to just get over it. And if he’s the real thing, you’ll never get over him.” She paused and then added, “Besides, what happened… it’s not what you think.”
I would have laughed if I’d had the air to do it, but the pain was suffocating me, like a hand around my throat.. More than once since I’d seen those pictures, I’d found myself on the verge of passing out because I couldn’t breathe.
“Just how am I supposed to misinterpret what I saw? They were fucking pictures, Molly, not exactly open to interpretation.” I fought to keep my voice low. The last thing I needed was the humiliation of him finding me here. Of them both finding me here. Seeing me, especially dressed like this. It was like my worst nightmare come true.
“You’re wrong,” she said. “It was a setup. All of it. Now listen.”
She pressed a finger to her lips and it was as if the entire place had gotten the message. All but Penelope and her voice carried. Even the music was quieter. Noticeably so.
Molly placed her phone on the table in front of us and I watched as she tugged out a pair of ear buds, sliding the jack into place. She fiddled a moment and muttered, “This is so cloak and dagger. I love it.”
“What—?”
“Shh!” She pressed a finger to her lips again and then lifted up an ear bud.
I stared at it and she shoved it closer. There was no point in arguing with her. Sighing, I tucked it into my ear while she did the same with the one she held. A moment later, two familiar voices filled my ear. They were loud, clear and unmistakable.
Penelope’s voice grated on me and Dominic’s low murmur made me want to cry. Or hit something. My hands curled into tight little balls, nails biting into my palms. The word catfight had never sounded so appealing as it did then. I wanted to go over and scratch her eyes out. I w
anted to sink my hands in her hair and yank. I wanted to be as unladylike as possible and I wanted to hurt her. Hurt him, too. Hurt him like he’d hurt me.
“Dominic, I must say, I was surprised to hear from you.” She spoke in that low, almost raspy way I suspected she thought was appealing. It wasn’t, at least not to me, but then again, I wasn’t really her target audience. For all I knew, Dominic thought it was damn sexy. For all I knew, Dominic thought she was damn sexy.
He does, a snide voice inside my head sneered. You saw photographic evidence, remember?
“Surprised?” Dominic said.
My heart lurched at the sound of his voice and I curled my hands around the cushioned seat under me. It was better than hurting myself. I was hurting enough as it was.
“But of course.” Penelope’s voice lowered. “You know I’m seeing Joshua now. It’s too late for us, Dominic.”
Frowning, I shot Molly a glance. What was Penelope playing at? Molly shook her head and jabbed a finger at the phone, wordlessly telling me to keep listening.
I rolled my eyes and then turned to glare at the screen of greenery and latticework that blocked them from view. They were maybe ten feet away. Too close for me to really hear them without the help of Molly’s electronic eavesdropping. I was torn between wanting to see them and not wanting to. Both options made me feel sick to my stomach.
“Joshua…” Dominic’s laugh was humorless. “Yes, I think the both of you proved how serious you two are.”
“About last night, Joshua was drunk,” Penelope said. “He’s a good man. He didn’t mean anything. He—”
“I talked to him a couple hours ago. He told me everything. Including the ten thousand dollar debt you covered for him if he went along with your little scheme.”
I jerked and if Molly hadn’t caught my drink, it would have splattered across the fine white tablecloth. My heart started to gallop in my chest.
“I…Dominic.” She sounded brittle now. Less confident. Strained even. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”