Shaking my head, I laughed.
“No shit?” Eva said, now curious. “Really? Cuz I had to actually lie to get the fuck out of there.”
“Is he still calling?” Patricia asked.
“Texted me three times this morning. Left him on seen,” Eva said, then quickly took her phone in her hands.
“Trust me, baby, give him a chance,” Hunter said with a wink. “I know what I’m talking about. You’ll thank me later.”
Eva chewed on her lip for a bit. “But he’s so annoying.”
“Who cares about annoying? Just think about his ego, girl,” Patricia said, making me laugh again. Hunter practically forced us to listen to Beyonce’s Ego for two weeks straight when he was with some guy about a year ago, and now Patricia liked to refer to dicks as egos. It made her feel better.
“Yeah,” Eva said, a grin spreading on her face slowly. “Fuck, yeah. I’m getting laid tonight.”
“Mommy issues are the best issues,” Hunter told her. “And you’re paying for my lunch today for the advice. It doesn’t come for free.”
“Yeah, right,” Eva said, flipping him off, but her attention was on her phone already. She was texting furiously.
They kept going—mostly Hunter teasing her while she tried to focus on texting that guy, but I zoned out three seconds in. Because my mind kept going to last night—to Dominic. How he’d fought, and how he’d walked away, just like that.Don’t tell anyone, Teddybear.Freaking wolf-ass.
He owed me some answers, damn it. This wasn’t fair. If he was going to make melieto the Chief again, he needed to tell me why I was doing it.
Maybe that’s why, before I knew it, I put my jacket on and grabbed my purse.
“Where you going?” Patricia asked. “It’s not lunch break yet.”
“I need to go check out a lead real quick. It’s probably nothing.” And now I was lying to my friends—again—too.
“Want me to come with?” Hunter said.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll be back in time for lunch,” I said, and without another look their way, I walked toward the doors, more frustrated by the second. He wanted me to lie for him? Fine. But he was going to explain to me exactly why he was making me a liar.
I parkedthe ODP car right in front of the three-story house. In daylight, it looked bigger, cleaner, not scary in the least like it had seemed to me two nights ago. Or maybe it had just been Derek’s driving that had freaked me out.
Taking in a deep breath, I reminded myself again that I had the right to be here.
“He owes me answers,” I whispered to the street, eyes locked on the closed door of the house. Chances were, Dominic wasn’t even here. He hadn’t been for the past two weeks, according to Derek.
Shit. Now I felt stupid for having driven all the way here. Maybe I should have just called him…
Yeah, right. Like he was going to pick up the phone when he saw my number. He’d refused to even look at me that day at the office. He definitely didn’t want to talk to me over the phone.
“But I want to talk to him.” And that was enough. He’d have no choice but to answer…
A bloody battle went on in my head, half of me insisting I should go up there and knock on that door, the other half begging me to get back in the car and leave. He wouldn’t be here. He didn’t want to talk to me. He—
The door of the house opened, and Derek stepped out, brows knitted together, his eyes on me.
Then, he smiled and raised a hand.
“Hi, Teddy!”
Oh, God.
Swallowing hard, I forced a smile on my face, too. “Hey.”
This was it. I couldn’t back down now. It was just Derek. I could ask him if he’d heard from Dominic, and when he said no, I’d be on my way, hopefully feeling a bit better that I’d made an effort at least.