Page 124 of Say I Do

I waited for him to finish talking. There wasn’t much else to do. He wasn’t pouring me a drink.

“I was a cop.”

My instincts kicked the moment the P popped on Tex’s lips. I pushed up on the stool and brought the knife out. The silver blade stabbed into the bar near his hand. I grabbed ahold of him, but to anyone looking at us, it just looked like we were getting close and personal over the bar.

“What?”

“I’m not anymore. I quit.” His gaze was locked with mine.

“For Enzo?”

“He was part of it.” Tex looked down at the knife before meeting my gaze. There was a challenge there, as if he’d been on the end of a knife before. “I left because it wasn’t what I really wanted.”

“What do you want?”

Tex shrugged. “I’m figuring it out, and Enzo is cool with that.”

“Benito knows?”

Tex’s eyes widened. “You’re worried I’ll turn them in?”

My stomach flipped. I wanted to hate him, but it wasn’t possible anymore.

“Yeah, he knows. He hated me for it, but he’s getting over it,” Tex said as he pushed at my hand. “Put the knife away before someone sees.”

I removed it and let him go.

“How did you get that in here anyway? They pat people down.”

I shrugged. I could barely remember going to get fitted for the tux and dress. I had an outfit change, and if it was left to Benito’s mom, I’d have five more. Getting Gabriela down to two had been a bitch. Recalling how I’d gotten into Blu was damn near impossible when my mind was clouded.

“What’s that?” Tex asked, gesturing to the diary papers.

I picked them up, and bile burned the back of my throat. I opened them without thinking and read over the scribbled writing again.E.I still hadn’t figured out who that was. My mind came to a screeching halt as I looked over the detective’s name again.

The detective’s name in the diary notes kept nagging me. I had sworn I’d heard it somewhere before.

I glanced up at Tex, my head spinning from the alcohol. “What’s your last name?”

“Caster, why?”

My breath hitched. E was Enzo, and B was Benito. “Was...” Words failed me, and instead, I turned the paper toward him. Tex stopped short of pouring me another drink. His blue eyes moved from side to side as he read over the first page.

“The diary entries.” He reached for them, and I pulled them back. “How did you get those?”

Do I keep it to myself or let him in?I’d let Benito in, and I saw how well that went. I swallowed around the ball in my throat.

Tex shook his head as if he changed his mind on knowing. “Doesn’t matter where. I— It doesn’t matter to me anymore, but holy shit, I was wondering where they’d gone.”

“Who do they belong to?”

Tex looked at me and then at the pieces of paper. “Benito hasn’t told you?” He pushed his fingers through his jet-black hair. “I don’t know if we should talk about this.”

I need to know.

“You were the detective?”

Tex’s head tilted. I moved to the next page and pointed to where Detective Caster was mentioned.

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