She seemed to find her voice finally, or she’d been coming up with the right words to appease me. “What? I never slept with Jimmy; what kind of girl do you take me for?”
I pushed her back so that I could see into her eyes to gauge the truth of her words.
“You’re telling me the truth? He never, had you?” She shook her head and actually looked a bit appalled. “Was there anyone else?” I squeezed her neck until she shook her head and said no. I felt better after hearing that, lighter and more at ease, but it only lasted a few seconds. “Fine, I still need to repay him for all the things you said he did for you and my kids while I wasn’t around.”
Yeah, and I want to see this hump who thought he had the right. Maybe I’m losing my mind. Who knows, this is all new to me. One minute it doesn’t matter, and the next, I want his blood in my teeth. When Matthew called with the news that they’d picked this guy up walking in her neighborhood, I’d been at the point where I was starting to believe she was playing games.
I’d even started believing that the hacker, aka Mancini, was running game on me, and she was in on it. In short, I was beginning to think the guy didn’t exist. Now, the part about Mancini, knowing that he’s a schemer like me, a strategist if you will, I got to thinking about the way his mind might work. He must be watching me but from where?
It only took a short foray into my spy network to find out that the house across from hers had been rented out to some production company in the last few days. If Mancini was behind that, he’s really good because I’d dug through layers and couldn’t find anything leading back to him.
I was still not sold, though, but I so wanted to believe that it was a hoax of his making, that there really hadn’t been another man in my woman’s bed or watching over my kids. Getting to bond with them when I couldn’t. I’d been going from one extreme to the next. Did he exist, was he part of a scheme, or was she really engaged to someone else?
So, to go from convincing myself that he wasn’t real to getting a call saying they’d picked up some stranger in the neighborhood that I had them watching had me back on that seesaw again. She did follow me to the door this time, but I ignored her. I’d asked the guys to take the guy they picked up to the warehouse. I know, very cliché. But fiction is most often based on truth.
I kept calm as I drove myself to the location, with the rest of the ninja turtles following behind me. I didn’t want anyone with me less noise to deal with, plus I needed the fifteen minutes or so it was going to take to get there to get my head straight and calm down.
A year ago, two years ago, I wouldn’t have doubted her word, and I still don’t to some degree, but this is too important just to let slide. She didn’t say she wasn’t engaged to this hump, only that she hadn’t slept with him. Still, I can’t get the way she’d lit up for me out of my head. If someone else saw her like that, I don’t think I could take it.
“Shit!” I had to pull over and open the door to suck some air in. Denver came strolling over with a look of concern.
“Are you doing okay?” I held out my hand to keep him back. It felt like if he got too close, he’d suck up all my air. I need space. It was close, but I didn’t throw up; I just fought back the nausea and waited for my stomach to calm down before getting back in the car.
I was in a state of Zen by the time I reached my destination and walked in. Matthew and Marcus were standing over him as he sat on a chair between the two of them. “Leave!” They didn’t question, just turned for the door and left.
“Who are you?” He eyed me up and down as I took him in. Not bad-looking, expensive watch nice shoes. If this guy ever saw the Alaskan outback, I’ll eat my shoes. No matter, he didn’t seem scared for someone who’d just been dragged into a warehouse, so maybe he’s not as soft as he looks.
“You’ll find out soon enough. Tell me about you and Gianna.” I found another chair and pulled it around in front of him so that we sat face to face.
“What’s to tell? She’s, my girl.” He started to grin until he got a good look at my face. I saw the first sign of apprehension in his eyes when I stared him down.