Page 6 of Blood Money
When he snapped his mouth shut and his jaw clenched, I knew I’d struck a nerve.
Incredulous, I sat forward to look him in the eye. “Did you strike out?”
He shot me a glare. “Of course not.”
“Then why are you in such a shitty mood?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he muttered and turned his head away to stare out the window. By then, there was nothing to see except for the tops of the clouds, so I knew he was using it as an avoidance tactic. Leaning farther forward, I tried to get him to look at me.
“Then why are you so pissy?” I curiously demanded.
“I’m not pissy.”
I snorted in disagreement.
“I’m not. I’m just irritated because she was gone when I woke up.”
Stunned, I fell back into my seat. My mouth gaped. “Wait. You mean to tell me you brought her to your cabin, she hauled ass while you were sleeping, and you’remadabout that?”
Gabriel was the stereotypical “love ’em and leave ’em” kinda guy. The only woman he’d ever let stay with him was Autumn, and that was due to extenuating circumstances. Sure, they were supposed to get married, but I knew damn well he didn’t love her as more than a good friend. It worked out because she was now happily married to our long-lost cousin and popping out babies.
“I’m not mad,” he argued. “I was hoping for another round before we left, that’s all.”
With a raised brow, I gave him a calculating stare. “You liked her.”
“Jesus, are we in grade school now?” he grumbled, and I grinned.
“You do. So call her when we get back and go see her again,” I said with a shrug. Hell, that was an easy fix. Even if he didn’t get her number, we had unlimited resources with which to find her.
“I don’t know her name. Just Lee, and I’m not sure that’s actually her name. I don’t know where she’s from.” He turned to look me in the eye. “I don’t have anything to go on to find her.”
I blew out a frustrated breath because I felt for him. He was never like this, which meant there was something about this Lee girl.
Damn, that sucks. Poor bastard.
Deciding to leave him to his thoughts, I put my AirPods back in and dozed off.
It seemed like I’d barely closed my eyes, and then we were landing. The second I took my phone off Airplane Mode, it was blowing up.
“Christ almighty, who the fuck is messaging you?” Gabriel asked as we got our carry-ons down from the overhead bins.
“Catalano,” I mumbled absently as I read through all of his messages.
“Everything okay?”
“No. Mrs. Romano is in the hospital.”
“SomeNights”—fun.
Present Day….
My phone rang as I was finishing the last of the cookies for the order I had due in the morning. Glancing over at the screen, I saw it was my mom. She would be okay if I called her back. It quit ringing, and I returned to my task.
Except obviously she wasn’t, because my phone rang again.
Setting my piping bag to the side, I blew an errant curl out of my face. Frustrated, I scooped up my phone. “Mom, I’m trying to finish this order that’s due tomorrow. What’s so important?”
My mother’s sniffles had my spine straightening, and my brows pinched in worry. “Mom?”