Page 110 of Lethal Vengeance
The phone rings, and I pull it out of my pocket. It’s Zane. I reluctantly answer. “I know what you’re going to say…”
“Is Quinn with you?”
I immediately drop some money on the table and head out to the parking lot. “No. I dropped her off two hours ago.” Dread settles in my stomach. “I said some things to her. Pushed her. This is my fault.”
“We’ll discuss it later. One of the cars is missing. Can you track it from your location?”
I tap the speaker button. “Which one?”
“Cruz’ Mustang.”
“Hold on,” I say, tapping into the app for the vehicles. I’d installed trackers on all of them. Sometimes I wish I could inject everyone with trackers, or at least my family. “The car’s at South Pointe Park Pier. I’m two hours out.”
“Go home,” he insists. “I’ll find her.”
With a heavy heart, I hit the road.
48
ZANE
She’s sitting on the beach, staring out over the water. Her knees drawn up with her arms around them, she looks tiny. Vulnerable. The opposite of the tiny force I’m used to seeing. Is this because of whatever has been bothering or something Sterling said earlier?
With a heavy sigh, I sit down beside her.
She tenses when she sees me. “Zane.”
I cock my head to the side. “What made you choose Cruz’ car?”
“It’s the only one I recognized,” she says dryly.
“Raider loves European sports cars,” I agree with a laugh.
“Did everything go okay with the birth certificate today?”
Her face crumples. “No. I didn’t know how much she loved Gabriel until today.”
With those words, it all comes spilling out. The words Armando said to her when he was dying. Her search for video footage of Sophia and Julio. Her confusion about their relationship. The overwhelming guilt of having killed Julio and leaving Gabriel without a father. The terror of how he’s going to feel about her when he grows up.
Tears are flowing steadily down her face. She goes through her conversation with Margot. “She’s right. I’m angry with Sophia. And that makes me feel like shit. I don’t want to be angry at her.”
I look out at sunset breaking on the water. “So, don’t. At nineteen, I didn’t know my head from my ass half the time. I’m not sure I knew what it meant to be an adult until I was thirty. And yet, the US government gave me a uniform, weapon, and a rank.” I shake my head, thinking back to the gangly, brash kid of my past. “She was nineteen and in love for the first time.”
“What do you think about Julio?” she asks, biting her lip.
I look her in the eye and give her the truth. “Even if he wasn’t directly responsible for Sophia’s death, he knew what would happen if he brought her into his world. And when Armando brutally killed the woman he loved so much, he did nothing. At the very least, he could have taken Gabriel and left. He had money and resources.”
The lines between her brow smooths. “Margot said Gabriel was better off without him as a father. Coming from her background, it’s certainly a bold statement.” She flashes a wry smile. “But I don’t know how to tell him about the past. I’m afraid he’ll hate me. It’s why I’ve been so afraid to keep him.”
“All you can do is tell him your version,” I tell her. “I’m not sure you’re ever going to know everything about your sister. That was her story. But you can tell Gabriel the stories you do know.”
“How do you feel about Gabriel?” she asks, studying my face.
I can’t hold back the smile that spreads across my face. “He’s remarkable. Smart, funny, a terrible singer, and loving. He adapts quickly, easily accepting people and situations. And the sheer joy he brings to four bachelors has been remarkable.”
“How do you feel about me? I know how the other three feel, but you never give me the slightest clue whether you even like me,” she asks, a blush stealing across her cheeks.
Swallowing hard, I realize she’s not the only one who has to take a step forward. “I feel things I shouldn’t feel. I’ll be forty-three years old next month. Almost ten years older than you. I’m at a different stage in life, and I don’t want to get involved with someone who isn’t serious about a relationship.
