Page 109 of Forced Proximity
Leaving me to greet them when they got out of the car.
“Who are you?”
I didn’t beat around the bush, mostly because there was no point in telling her I was just a friend of Dru’s when I wasn’t.
I was way more than a friend.
Would continue to be way more to her if things kept going like they were.
I held out my hand to Roman and said, “I’m Finnian Reins, Dru’s boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?” Julie asked. “You’re dating someone?”
“Yes.” Dru finally spoke for the first time in a while. “Mom, Dad. We need to talk.”
“What did she do now?” Julie groaned.
So they knew that their daughter had the proclivity to cause trouble.
At least there was that.
They didn’t quite know the extent of the trouble that she’d found herself in this time, though.
“I…” Dru trailed off.
When she couldn’t pick it back up again, I went ahead and explained what I knew.
“What do you know about your other daughter’s ex-fiancé?”
“Eugene?” Roman asked. “He’s some lobbyist and is gone a lot. Why?”
I rubbed at my neck, feeling the tension continue to build.
These last few weeks hadn’t been kind to me.
And my leg gave a throb, reminding me that I’d been impaled in that time, too.
“We found out that Eugene was living with your daughter here. Then when he went to DC, he was living with your sister, Jennifer,” I said. “Dru found out, told Daniella, and then left them to it to fight it out. Last week, Daniella came to Dru’s place, but I wouldn’t let her in because Dru was exhausted. She followed us home somehow, or got my information, I don’t know. Then she showed up at my door this morning with Jennifer and Eugene.”
“Oh, shit.” Julie pinched the bridge of her nose, the bangles on her wrist falling practically to her elbow, causing them to clink together as she did. “What happened next?”
I started to open my mouth to say exactly what happened, but Dru beat me to it.
“Eugene pulled out a gun and killed Jennifer and Daniella on Finnian’s front porch,” Dru explained robotically. “Then he killed himself.”
There was a stunned moment of silence before both Julie and Roman cried out.
“What?”
“He did what?” Roman cried.
“They’re both dead,” Dru confirmed, still in a wearisome voice. “I’ve been calling you for hours.”
Julie swallowed hard as tears started to trail down her cheeks. “I thought you were calling to complain about something else Daniella did.”
That made me angry.
“Well, she certainly did something,” she grumbled darkly. “She started to date a psychopath, then that psychopath killed her.”
