Page 71 of The Wrong Track
“I’m so afraid that you’re going to regret it. I’m so afraid that you’ll end up hating me,” I said. “That’s why I told you no. I’m so afraid.”
“Don’t be. It’s me, Tobin. The guy who always burns the hamburgers and likes to check your oil and tire pressure all the time.” His lips quirked in a half-smile.
But I was me. And I was so afraid of that, too.
“I would be a good father to Ella,” he told me. “I love her. What’s more important than that?”
Nothing. There was nothing more important than that fact.
“Please. Please don’t leave,” Tobin asked me.
And I had to choose Ella’s happiness. There was actually no choice; the answer was clear.
“We should get married,” I said, and now he really smiled.
∞
“Bill!” I saw his head turn as he looked around for the person who’d spoken. “It’s me, Remy,” I called as I got out of my car. “Hi.”
Tobin’s partner watched me walk toward him through the parking lot. “Tobin isn’t here,” Bill told me. “He should be at home.”
“He is. Well, no, he and his mom took Ella to baby yoga, but then I’m meeting him. I wanted to talk to you.”
His bushy eyebrows rose. “The two of us don’t need to get along,” he remarked.
“I know that.” I knew he’d never like me and I understood it. “I need some information because I think that Tobin’s not being honest with me about how I’m interfering with his job. I mean, he won’t tell me if marrying me is going to hurt his standing in this department. Is it? Is there anything I can do?”
Bill’s face didn’t change. “He talked to the chief of police about you. No one’s happy but no one’s objecting. Not out loud, anyway.”
“Christ. So it is going to be bad for him.”
Bill seemed to relent slightly. “If you keep it clean, you keep on the straight and narrow, it might be all right.”
“You know about me,” I said, and he nodded.
“I’ve read every arrest report. I know about the company you kept. I can fill in the blanks about your involvement in Kilian Rovina’s business.”
I hadn’t been involved in his business, but I didn’t argue. “That’s all over.”
“And you’re not doing anything now, are you?” he asked, but I couldn’t say no. And when I didn’t answer, he turned red with anger. “Fucking A, you are. What are you doing? What are you up to?”
I started to back up, to try to get away. This had been a bad idea, very bad, but I tried to calm down by reminding myself that he couldn’t do anything here in the parking lot of the police station. My eyes darted left and right, looking for which way to run. I was up to two and a half miles now when I went out by myself wearing Tobin’s watch, and I still wasn’t fast but I could outpace this guy for a while.
“Hey. It’s all right,” Bill said. He held up his hands, like he was showing that he didn’t have anything in them. “You and me need to talk, not fight. Correct? We’re both on Tobin’s side. We both want what’s best for him.”
I stayed aware but I nodded. “That’s why I’m here,” I said. “I want everything in his life to be smooth, and I’m not trying to mess it up for him.”
“Good. And if you do have a problem, it’s better to get ahead of things.”
I nodded and breathed in and out, still watching him. “If you read everything about me, then you know that Kilian left a lot of stuff at the townhouse he rented here.”
“His guns,” Bill filled in, and I nodded again.
“He might have left other things related to his business.”
“I think I understand what you’re talking about,” he answered.
“He put the guns in the townhouse but he might have hidden other things in other places. One place he liked was the library,” I stated.