I felt him chuckle.
Resting my chin on his chest, I asked, “You did think I was crazy, didn’t you?”
“No.”
“I didn’t make a very good first impression that night.”
“That night wasn’t your first impression.”
“What do you mean?”
“The first time I saw you was a picture in Cam’s wallet. He lent me money and when he opened his wallet I saw you. All hair and limbs but it was the smile on your face. You were fucking glowing and all you were doing was getting your picture taken. My home life was shit and there’s this picture of you so happy. I wondered for weeks what could make someone that radiant? Then Cam invited me to dinner. I said yes because I wanted to see you. I wanted to see if you were really as vivacious as that picture made you seem. I had never met anyone like you.”
“I didn’t know that.” I loved knowing this.
“Cutting my meatball...I fell a little bit in love with you that night.”
He touched my cheek to wipe the tear that rolled down it. “The day you stepped in when I was getting taunted. Do you remember that?”
He answered by mirroring what he had done that day and took a curl between his fingers.
“I fell a little in love with you after your silent rescue.”
“I wasn’t going to enlist. I had been looking for a job closer to you at NYU, but my plans changed the day of the graduation party after a call from my mother.”
She was dead, she couldn’t hurt him any more, and still dread moved through me. Her fucking legacy. “What happened?”
“It was a typical call, trying to get me to do shit for her by being a manipulative bitch. But it was the comment she made about my feelings for you. She twisted what I felt, had me questioning if what I felt was healthy or the sick shit she called love. The idea that one day you and I would end the way my parents did. I never wanted to see that day.”
My heart ached. “That’s why you didn’t just leave, you ended us.”
“Leaving you was the hardest thing I have ever done. I didn’t know at the time that it would be so long before our lives finally got back in sync.”
“And now? You have been very determined to avoid just this.”
“I’m only fucking human and you’re right, there aren’t enough cookies in the world.” He stroked my cheek. “What were you smiling at in that picture?”
I knew the exact one he spoke of and I wanted to lie because it was a profound moment for him, but the reality was far from profound. “You’re going to be very disappointed.”
“How so?”
“Mom had made her coconut cake and she had called to say it was done right before Dad took the picture.”
He dipped his chin down, I tipped mine back and we just stared for a beat or two before he laughed, a deep rich sound that was glorious to hear.
“I’m not disappointed at all, that sounds exactly like you.” His smile faded and his voice pitched deeper. “One look and I was a goner.”
I woke in the middle of the night to Damian’s mouth on my neck, his hand between my legs. He moved over me and framed my face with his hands as he joined us, slowly, almost lazily, and so very sweetly. We moved together finding that perfect rhythm, and after, he wrapped me in his arms.
“I need to talk to you about Guy Harnett.”
All the sweet feelings fled and my body went cold. He wanted to talk about Guy? “Why?”
“Cam has been following the money, something your dad started. Money from dummy accounts set up for Salvatore Federico to pay off the low-level enforcers and informants he has around the city. One of Salvatore’s moles is Miguel Dobbs. We know he acted as hired muscle for Salvatore, we also know he recruited from within his precinct.”
“You’re saying he recruited Uncle Guy.”
“He’s not on the books, like some of the others, but a look at his financials shows he is floating more money than he reports to the IRS.”
I needed to move, I jerked from his hold, pulled his t-shirt on and started to pace. Uncle Guy was dirty. Dad’s friend, his partner was dirty. I didn’t know what I felt more of; rage, betrayal or gut deep sadness. Uncle, he was no fucking uncle to me. “How did you see his financials?”
“Not important.”
I snapped my head in his direction. He was out of bed and had pulled on his jeans, but he stayed on the other side of the room because he knew I needed space. “Illegally. That will impact the case when it goes to trial”
“Not if the arrests aren’t made off the illegally obtained information and at this point Cam is focused on the cops he can prove were taking bribes, which includes Dobbs. Here is the interesting part. Salvatore cut ties with Dobbs as soon as he learned of Cam’s investigation.”