Page 98 of Lie With Me

“It’s fine, I know the owner.” I’m not sure Carmela will be pleased that I’m barging in, but I don’t care. She’s always been a bit frosty, but I just chalk it up to the fact that she is protective over Valentina, and we have that in common, so I appreciate that about her.

Her head snaps up from her computer, a pair of blue light glasses perched at the end of her nose. “Tripp? What areyoudoing here?”

“Do you know where she is?”

“Valentina?” She pulls her glasses off her nose and looks at me like I’ve grown another head.

“Yes, Valentina! Who else would I be coming here looking for?” I snap back. She opens her mouth torespond but stops as Ginny and Jackson appear behind me.

“Did you find her?” Ginny asks.

“Baby, you need to calm down. The stress isn’t good for the baby,” Jackson soothes quietly.

“None of you know where she is?” Carmela sits back in her chair, appraising us like we’re suddenly a threat.

“Something tells meyoudo.” There’s an edge to my voice, a warning that I’m about to lose my temper.

“I find it interesting that she didn’t trust you enough to tell you.” She points at Ginny. “You, I understand. She told me not to say anything to you because of the baby, but you.” She points at me. “You, I expected to know by now.”

“Know what, Carmela?” Jackson asks between clenched teeth. Anything that stresses out Ginny is going to piss him off, and right now, Carmela’s little speech is doing precisely that. Ginny is shaking, her lips trembling as she tries to keep her tears at bay.

“Her mother died yesterday. She went home,” Carmela explains.

My eyes close slowly as I release air through my nose.

As if yesterday wasn’t hard enough, trust her mother to make it worse.

I should be ashamed of my thoughts, but I’m not. I’m angry. Raging on the inside at how fucking stupid I am that I fucked up so badly, she felt she couldn’t tell me.

“Do you know wherehomeis? In all the years we’ve known each other, she’s never said,” Ginny squeaks.

“She’s never told me, either. I’m sorry.” Carmela leans forward, placing her elbows on her desk as she rubs her temples. “She was supposed to keep in touch, but her phone has been off since last night.”

“She once said she was from ‘nowhere’,” I offer helplessly.

“That’s not a real place,” Carmela deadpans.

“No shit,” I snap. She glares at me in return. Any inkling that this woman doesn’t like me has just been solidified in my head.

“I can’t even track her because her phone is off,” Ginny says worriedly.

“It should show you the last known location.” Carmela frowns as if we all should have thought of that ourselves.

Honestly, I feel fucking stupid that we didn’t.

Ginny swears and pulls up Valentina’s name. I hold my breath while I wait. “There. It shows her somewhere near Pittsburgh.”

Jackson huffs a laugh just before I ask him, “Can you get your jet ready? It will be faster than commercial.”

Relief floods my senses, only to be squashed as he shakes his head and rubs his forehead. “No, I can’t.”

“Why?” I bite back, pulling my phone from my pocket to see when the next flight to Pittsburgh is.

“Because your mother asked me if she could useit earlier this afternoon. I didn’t think anything of it. She said she had business to deal with,” he explains.

“Where the fuck did she go?” My mother never does any sort of business on Sundays. And what could she possibly have to do after her part in blowing up my life?

She’s been calling you repeatedly. Maybe you should have picked up the phone.

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