Page 37 of Saving Bonnie

“No.”

“It’s only going to get worse the longer you wait.”

“Hell, I can’t bring myself to tell her…to hurt her,” he confesses.

Iris has changed him. Dante’s a long way from the selfish bastard I’ve called a friend for years. “I understand.”

“As Montoya says, the time will come.”

“Truth.”

Taking a deep breath, he continues. “I want to apologize, man.” He exhales loudly. “I shouldn’t have put you at the church. I didn’t think you’d be stuck there with nowhere to go for so many days.”

Yeah, the bench was no damn picnic. But I’ve had shittier places to deal with. Here, I had AC, a bathroom, and food.

“Actually, I was surprised at the assignment. I expected to cover Iris.” Though him being tied to a woman is new territory. He must have wanted to be the one to look after her.

“Yeah. Uh, about that…”

Instinct kicks in, and I’m preparing for another gut punch. “What did you do?”

“Nah, man. Nothing like that,” he assures me. “I like Bonnie.” His tone ends on a high note, like there’s more coming.

I lean in, tightening my grip on the steering wheel. Inside, I’m at the edge of screaming for him to finish what he’s going to say.

“I thought you might, too.”

I’m stunned to silence. What. The. Hell.

“This is going over the line, I know. And I was pissed when Montoya did it to me, but hear me out,” he adds in a rush.

I take the turn into the private airstrip without slowing down.

“I assume you’ve had some time around her since you’re in the building. You’ve seen it, right? Sometimes she gets this look,” he explains with excitement. “I’d swear I’m looking at you in her sidelong glare.”

The image of her comes to mind easily enough as I pull into a parking space.

“She’s like a female version of you.”

My gut twists. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“But you know what I mean.”

Damn him for always being so sure he can make a statement.

“Yeah.” My voice is sharper than I intended. “Maybe.”

“Well, I guess I should have talked to you about it instead of insisting you watch her place.”

There’s a hollow below my throat that’s getting bigger. This must be something regular friends might do. But we’ve never been typical friends. Though we’ve never been regular boss and employee, either.

“You okay?”

How do I answer if I want to go hang off the side of a cliff by my fingertips because of a woman? No, I can’t lie to myself. What I really need to purge this is deeper and darker.

“I’m cool.” Considering I’m about to take one of his planes, I should probably explain what I’m doing. “In fact, I’m going after a guy that ripped her off.”

“She got held up?” His voice takes on a hard edge.

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