“So”—George narrowed his eyes at Lucas—“how do you know my daughter again?”
“I was one of her suspects in a case,” he said. That seemed to jolt Sofia out of her trance, and she jerked her head to him, the look on her face incredulous. “What? I’m not going to lie to your father and grandfather.”
“Is this true, Sofia?” Giorgios eyed Lucas warily.
She took a big gulp of wine. “Former suspect. He’s been eliminated from the list.” Placing the glass on the table, she stood up. “It’s late, and you know how the subway service is at this time of night. I should get going.”
“You can stay over, Sofia,” George offered. “Your bedroom is always ready for you.”
“I know, Papa.” She smiled fondly at him. “But I have stuff to do tomorrow, and if I stay tonight, I’ll end up staying all day tomorrow and I’ll never leave.”
“You be careful on the subway,” Giorgios said. “You know how dangerous it is at night.”
“I’ll be fine,” she assured him.
“I can take you home,” Lucas offered. “My car’s waiting outside.” As some point when he’d started working in the kitchen, he sent off a quick message to Reyes to tell him to park the car and get his own dinner.
“No. No way,” she said in a vehement tone. “I’d rather walk.”
“What?” Giorgios exclaimed in a baffled tone. “It’s late, and this gallant young man is offering you a ride in his car.”
“You’ll be home in twenty minutes,” her father assured her. Then he turned to Lucas with a dark glint in his eyes. “Right? You’ll take her straight home?”
“I promise.” He placed his hand over his heart. “On my grandmother’s grave.”
“See? And we know he is a good, hardworking boy,” Giorgios said. “He’ll drive you straight home.”
Sofia shot him a murderous look. “Fine,” she relented. “Just a ride home.”
“Just a ride home,” he echoed.
They all said their goodbyes and grabbed their coats. The two older men stayed inside to lock up and do some last-minute checks and urged the two of them to head outside.
Lucas opened the door and gestured for her to go first. The car was already outside on the curb and Reyes stepped out of the driver’s side and opened the door.
“I thought you were driving,” she said, eyeing Reyes.
“Disappointed? I know you’ve seen some of my driving skills.”
She ignored his comment and went inside the car. He instructed Reyes to drop off Sofia at her home plus one other thing, then stepped into the car. It didn’t escape his notice that she had squeezed herself all the way to the other end of the backseat.
“Do you need my address?” she asked, turning to him.
“No.”
“Of course not,” she said grimly, then crossed her arms over her chest.
Throughout the ride, Sofia seemed determined to look anywhere else—outside, the roof of the car, even the back of Reyes’s head—except at him. Which suited Lucas just fine because that meant he could stare at her.
Seated against the window, her ankles crossed and hands on her lap with only the streetlights outside lighting her figure, Sofia looked like a serene goddess. He realized that although he knew more about her now, she still remained a mystery to him. However, he did like that they both had such similar backgrounds: immigrant grandparents who were restaurant owners. He bet she’d probably worked at Giorgios’s Taverna since she was a teenager, which showed in her confident and efficient movements around the dining room. Obviously, she was hardworking and competent, and he thought of his own mother. She would probably love Sofia, being so much like herself. Not that Frankie Anderson would even get a chance to meet her, he told himself.
They finally crossed the bridge into Manhattan, and the car headed to the Lower East side, then after winding down through the deserted streets of Midtown, slowed down to a stop in front of a brick building on Fifth Street in the East Village.
“Thanks for the ride.” She reached for the handle and pulled. The door didn’t open, so she tried it again. After doing it a third time, she turned to him. “There’s something wrong with your car door.”
“No, there isn’t.” Aside from giving him Sofia’s address earlier, he had also instructed Reyes to turn on the automatic child lock.
It took her only half a second to realize what was going on. “You did this on purpose?” She jiggled the door handle again. “You asshole! Let me out! This is kidnapping.” She turned her rage at Reyes. “Open this door now! Or I’ll have you arrested.” He answered by raising the barrier between the front and back seats which only enraged her more.
“We’re here outside your building,” he reminded her gently. “And I promise to let you out, after we talk.”
She slumped back in her seat, scowling like a petulant child. “Do I have a choice?”
“No.”
After a brief silence, she whipped her head toward him. “Fine. Talk.”
Again, she was looking at a spot above his shoulder which irritated him because short of forcing her eyeballs to move, he couldn’t make her meet his gaze. He sighed. “Sofia, I need to apologize for what happened in your captain’s office. It wasn’t my intention to humiliate you.”
“Oh yeah? If coming into my boss’s office with his boss, telling him you had an alibi all this time and then making me look like an idiot wasn’t your intention, what was?”
He wasn’t sure himself. After all this time, he should have come up with a better excuse. “You’re right,” he admitted. “I wanted to put you in your place. And I’m very sorry for my actions and that they hurt you.” Swallowing his pride, he continued. “But I didn’t think Aarons would take it so far. I just wanted you to back off and stop
