Page 48 of Second Dance
His friend, heavy-set with greasy hair slicked against his skull, held up his phone. The screen’s glow made his face look corpse-pale. He gave a low whistle. “Look at this here. Alexander Garcia. Net worth north of a billion.”
Darren swayed slightly as he rose to his feet, beer sloshing over his fingers. “Shoot, I wonder what a judge would say about all this. Fourteen years of missed birthdays. Fourteen Christmases. First steps, first words—all stolen from me.” His smile was razor-thin. “That’s worth something, don’t you think? Maybe keep it out of the courts. You do the right thing. Payment for stealing my child.”
“I didn’t steal her from you,” Alex said, sounding eerily calm. “You left Mattie and the kids without a backward glance. You left a pregnant woman and her toddler. Alone and broke.”
“Who’s to say that’s what really happened?” Darren asked. “Mattie’s in the ground, so she can’t really do much, can she? Maybe she kept them from me. Poisoned them against me.”
Bella whimpered.
“You denied she was even yours,” Alex said.
Darren shrugged. “Did I now? How would you ever prove that?”
“We’re going home,” Alex said. “You come after her or me or money, I’ll make sure you pay for it.”
Darren’s laugh was mean and hollow. “Go ahead, take her. But you’ll be hearing from me real soon.” He gestured toward the phone. “Child abandonment. Parental alienation. There are laws, and I know people who know how to use them.”
The heavy-set man lifted his phone higher, red recording light winking. “Smile pretty for the camera, now. I want to make sure we have evidence of you threatening Bella’s real father.”
Alex’s voice dropped to something lethal. “You want to show a judge footage of you drunk around a minor you abandoned?”
The phone man chuckled, still recording. “Doesn’t matter. The internet loves to hate a billionaire.”
Something in me snapped. Before Alex could take the bait, I moved. Years of Pilates and dance kicked in and I shot forward, twisted at the waist, and brought my leg up in a sharp arc. My foot connected with the man’s wrist, sending the phone flying. It smacked against the dirt and, before he could even lunge for it, I brought my heel down hard. The crack of shattering glass and plastic gave me more satisfaction than it should have.
“Oops,” I said coolly, straightening as his face went red with rage. “Guess you won’t be posting that.”
Darren’s two friends surged half out of their chairs, but Darren barked a laugh, holding up his beer like a referee calling a foul. “Easy, boys. Let them go. We’re in the right here, and the courts will agree.”
“You don’t want to come after me or my daughter,” Alex said. “Trust me. It won’t end well for you.”
We escorted a trembling Bella to the car. Alex opened the back and got her settled, even fastening her seatbelt for her like she was six instead of fourteen before getting into the front passenger’s seat.
Darren called out, voice thick with glee. “Thanks for that little show, sweetheart. Courts love it when you destroyevidence. Tampering, obstruction. I can spin it six ways from Sunday.”
“I dare you to try,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Oh, I will, honey. I will,” Darren called out to me as I slipped into the driver’s seat.
I backed the car up quickly, squashing several empty beer cans under the tires, before heading out of there as fast as I could without endangering our lives.
The road curled north, the ocean flashing silver and blue on our left, but I barely noticed the view. My hands were back on the steering wheel, every muscle still wired from the encounter at the trailer. Beside me, Alex sat rigid, one arm braced against the door, his eyes hollow.
In the back seat, Bella looked small, pale, and fragile. My heart softened. She was just a little girl who missed her mother.
“I’m sorry,” Bella whispered, head bowed.
Alex twisted in his seat to look at her, his face stricken. “Bella, what you did is—unbelievably stupid.”
“I didn’t know it would be like that.” Her voice broke and tears tumbled down her cheeks. “I thought maybe he’d care. Maybe he’d want to know me. But he didn’t even …” She let out a sob. “He didn’t even ask how Mom died. The minute I mentioned, you know, about your company, they started looking you up on the phone and realized you’re rich. I’m sorry, Dad. I’ve messed everything up.”
“You scared the hell out of me. Turning off your phone like that? Bella, really?”
“How did you find me?” Bella asked.
“We asked in town,” Alex said. “Thank God for bartenders.”
Bella wiped her face with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. “I should never have turned off my phone, but I could see that you were following me. I just wanted a chance to see him without you telling me no.”
