“Fuck. Thanks.”
* * *
Bree
After driving the powerful Mustang for a week, the rental sedan was underwhelming at best.
The sky continued to darken along with her mood. With every mile, the feeling that she’d left something important behind grew.
Before long, the rain started, but it didn’t come alone. High winds and dime-sized hail made driving difficult, and after two near misses with tractor-trailers on the highway, Bree was a nervous wreck. By the time she came upon the next exit sign, she was driving at a crawl with her wipers at full speed and her hazard lights on. The large, brightly lit twenty-four-hour diner was a welcome sight for her sore eyes, and Bree decided to wait out the worst inside.
The place was busy and getting busier by the minute as other weary travelers had the same idea. She was shown to a small two-person table in the back and given a daily-specials menu.
She ordered soup and a sandwich, wanting to keep it light. She was already feeling the effects of a sleepless night and couldn’t afford to get lethargic with the remaining drive ahead of her. While she waited, she checked her phone and saw several notifications. One was a text alert from the airline, stating that her flight was delayed.
Of course it is, she thought miserably. Because what is flying without bad weather?
Another notification was a missed call from Nick’s number along with several texts.
Nick: Sorry I missed your texts.
Nick: Are you still around?
Nick: Call me when you get this. Please.
Bree stared at the messages and then put her phone facedown on the table while she decided how—and if—to respond. She was still feeling salty that he’d blown her off the night before and even more so that he hadn’t seen fit to reach out before she left.
Rain continued to come down in sheets outside the window. The television mounted above the diner’s counter was tuned to the weather. She glanced up at the bright reds and purples on the map, reading the closed captions as they streamed across the bottom of the screen. A front that was supposed to move through quickly had stalled and was now expected to dump more rain on the area than originally predicted. Flash-flood alerts continued to pop up, and drivers were now being asked to stay off the roads if possible.
The diner continued to fill as more people heeded the warnings. Bree heard one of the truckers say that there’d been a pileup on the interstate and that the road was closed until they could get it cleaned up.
A shiver went down Bree’s spine. If she hadn’t pulled off when she did, she might have been involved in the accident.
When the waitress came by a third time to ask if there was anything else, Bree took the hint and paid the check. Feeling tired and no longer in a hurry to get to the airport, she checked into the nearby budget motel. Once settled, she fired off a quick text to Toni, telling her about the weather situation and that she would get a later flight.
Then, she settled into bed, turned on the television, and promptly fell asleep.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Bree
The room was dark when Bree awoke, feeling not much better than before. Her nap had been restless, her mind refusing to rest until it worked things out. At the forefront of her thoughts: Nicholas Fumanti.
She pulled up his earlier texts, and with a heavy exhale, she hit the Call button. He picked up on the first ring, greeting her with an apology.
“Bree, I’m sorry I missed our breakfast today. I really wanted to see you.”
His voice felt like a warm hug. Nick wasn’t a bad guy. He just wasn’t. Her instincts couldn’t be that wrong.
“What happened?”
“I fell asleep,” he said miserably.
“Late night, huh?”
“Something like that.”
“You weren’t giving someone else a field trip, were you?” she asked half-jokingly. The thought of Nick providing a personal tour to anyone else made her chest feel as if it were filled with lead.
“What? No! Of course not.”
His denial was immediate and sounded sincere, but she wasn’t letting him off that easy, not with Lenny’s accusations rolling around in her head.
“So, just to be clear ... you don’t make a habit of taking women in the woods and seducing them?”
“No, I don’t. In fact ... you were the first.”
Her heart leaped, and the warmth intensified. No man had ever been able to elicit this kind of reaction. He could be lying, but her bullshit detector remained blissfully silent.
Which reminded her why she’d called him in the first place. “Why didn’t you tell me, Nick?”
“It never occurred to me to tell you I hadn’t,” he asked, sounding confused.
It took her a moment to realize they were on different pages. “No, I’m not talking about that.”
“Then, what are you talking about?”
Once again, doubt reared its ugly head. She wondered just how many things fell into the things he didn’t tell her but should have category and then realized what a loaded question that was. A man like Nick probably had plenty of closely guarded secrets. Bree decided to tackle one issue at a time, starting with the most important.
“Let’s start with who you are. Or more specifically, who your family is.”
Seconds ticked by in silence.
“Ah, that.” She could picture his hand rising to rub the back of his neck. “I never attempted to hide my identity from you.”
“You failed to mention that your parents are from two major organized crime families. Did you think I wouldn’t run at least a cursory background check on the people behind Sanctuary?”
“A cursory background check would have shown that I’m not part of that life anymore. I haven’t been for a long time. Surely, that’s something you can understand.”
Touché and bravo, she thought as a sense of relief washed over her. “It’s still relevant, don’t you think?”
Another pause, followed by an audible exhale. “To anyone else? No, it’s not. But you ... you’re right. I should have said something, especially since
