My fingertips run up and down her spine, awakening my skin further. “I just wanted a weekend without any hassle. A weekend just for us. Why is that so hard?”
“You already gave me everything and more yesterday. I had the best time with you, but your work and employees are just as important. Helena can look after the kids while we head back to Seattle. And don’t worry, the goodness will always overrule the bad.”
“You’re an angel.” I look up and find her with a placid smile. “My golden angel.”
I see the new confidence in her and I adore it. I love how much we’ve both grown and strengthened during the toughest period of our life. Our vulnerabilities coming to light have led us to this moment. There is nobody else I want to go through this with but with my Valencia.
“We’ll do just that.” My lips brush against hers when her hips rock forward. It makes my entire world spin. “But first make me forget, darling. Make me forget every single thing around us—”
Ding-dong.
The doorbell breaks my train of thought.
What the hell is going on?
I can tell by Valencia’s wide eyes and my own peculating thoughts that we already know who’s at our front door… Is this the moment our family has been waiting for, for the past seven months?
I kiss her and tell her to stay in the bed while I rush to slip on my boxers, slacks and creased dress shirt. There’s another ring of the doorbell as I’m jogging to the front door, flicking on the lights on my way.
Two officers meet my gaze on the other side of the door.
Finally, some answers.
But then it all stops for me…because the officer on the left looks familiar. Those deep-set beady eyes that stare into my soul. I swear I’ve seen him somewhere before, but I cannot pinpoint where.
“Officers, what is going on? Do you have any leads? Are we going to the warehouse?”
The officer on the left shakes his head and inches closer to me. While I’m the one looking down at him, there’s something about him I don’t like…judgement.
He flashes me his badge. “No, Mr. Giannotti. The only place you’re going right now is to the police department for questioning over the suspected arson of Notti Design’s warehouse.”
What?
My brows furrow. “Questioning? Why for questioning?”
“Mr. Giannotti…” The officer scoffs with an arrogant shake to the head. “You already know what’s going on. You know.”
“Know what exactly?” I glance to the other officer who’s taken a backseat to the conversation and instead rakes his gaze from my security guard, to the house and then back to me. “Look, could you kindly tell me what is going on? I just woke up to news that my warehouse is up in flames!”
“We have reason to believe you were in fact involved in the suspected arson, Mr. Giannotti. As I previously stated, we’re going down to the police department for questioning.”
“You think I did this? I didn’t do anything! I was asleep with my wife!”
“That will all be further determined down at the department. Now, are you going to cooperate with us, or are we going to call backup?” He steps closer, trapping me in a whiff of torturing tobacco. His stare burns straight through me, so deep it makes me remember my father. “And trust me, you don’t want me to call backup….not when that wife of yours is right there.”
I note the presence of Valencia behind me and all of a sudden everything clicks.
This officer…he used to be my father’s right-hand man—Craig Jones. It’s been over fourteen years since I saw him last. What is he trying to do to me? Pin me for a crime I didn’t do in order to get back at me for his corrupt closest friend being dead…?
Try me, bastard.
I’m saved by Sergeant Flynn who steps into the small interrogation room after a solid fifteen minutes of being wrongfully questioned by Officer Craig Jones. My father’s friend had been asking me the same few questions and spun them around with hopes I would break. Deep down he probably has some type of suspicion about me after my father’s death. But it doesn’t concern me and neither do any of his questions regarding my warehouse because I’m fucking innocent.
Craig takes his send off with a death glare and I uncross my arms over my chest when Sergeant Flynn steps in. After much fewer questions, he establishes I wasn’t involved in the suspected arson and that I am telling the truth, prompting the pending investigation to go forth.
It is brought to my attention that firefighters have been battling the inferno at the Notti Design Warehouse for the past hour. Bryce, Kayla, Lance and Marcus have all been critically injured. Apparently, an email sent from my account urged them there for an early morning team meeting and once they were all inside, doors were locked and an inferno ignited.
When Valencia and I arrive at Notti Design’s warehouse, the scene is much more dire than I imagined. Firetrucks, police cars, and the press are warming everywhere. The fire is easing, but dark ash and burned merchandise line every step. This clean-up bill will be in the millions, more with all the décor perished, but I don’t care about the money, all I care about is everybody being alive and safe.
All I need to know is that they’ll all be okay.
We enter the burn unit at the hospital and walk through to the first room the lady at the desk directed us to. This entire situation is surreal, accompanied by a sinking feeling in my gut.
Valencia rushes to pull Kayla into an embrace. Thankfully she’s stable and only suffers from a few minor burns to her legs. She was the first person the
