Gina looks around the bar as if searching for the correct answer.
“Please, Gina. Do it for Lexi. I can make her happy. I’ll marry her if she wants. I would never hurt her. And if she hears me out and still wants nothing to do with me, I promise I’ll walk away and never bother either one of you again.”
I can see Gina crumbling.
“I know you want what’s best for her. That’s all I want, too. Even if that means a life without me. I just need to explain myself to her. Will you give me that chance? To try to make amends?”
“She said you’d be persuasive.” Gina still gazes past me, into the throng of people.
“If you don’t want to tell me where she’s living, call her and ask her to come down here. You can have your bouncers kick me out if she’s uncomfortable.”
Gina shakes her head. “She’s not afraid of you. She just doesn’t want to take you back.”
“I think she does,” I counter softly.
Gina meets my eye. She purses her lips. “Maybe you’re right,” she agrees.
I hold my breath.
She sighs. “She’s in Las Vegas,” she says. “She started that new job, and they sent her there to observe a workshop.”
“Where in Las Vegas?” I will get on a plane tonight. I don’t give a shit about the Feds or the IRS or any of it. The only thing that matters is seeing Lexi. Making her see what she means to me.
Gina shakes her head. “I don’t know where she’s saying in Vegas, but she flies back tomorrow morning. She’s staying with me until she finds a place to live.”
I don’t want to wait until tomorrow, but I’m also not going to make any more demands when I just got Gina to soften. I hand her my phone. “Text me your address? I’ll be respectful. I promise.”
She nibbles her lip for a moment then takes my phone and enters her address in a text. “I sent it to myself, so you have my number. Text first, okay?”
I slide a hundred dollar bill across the bar. I’m not paying her for the information, but she definitely deserves a tip now. “Thank you.”
As I walk out, my hands tighten into fists of determination. Lexi comes back tomorrow. One more day, and I’ll see her again.
Hold her again, as if there is a God.
I need to figure out what I can do to prove she meant everything to me.
ChapterTwenty-One
Lexi
I sit at a table in a small room facing two FBI agents who picked me up from the airport when I landed in Newark. My stomach’s in knots. My mouth dry.
“We’d like information on Bobby Manghini,” Agent Sully says.
I break out in a cold sweat. This is what Bobby was trying to protect me from when he told me not to call him at his home or office. Stupid me, I made myself a target.
Goosebumps raise on my arms as I think about all the warnings Bobby gave me about ensuring my safety. Was he worried about the Feds getting to me, or what his family members might do if they think I know something and might talk? Either way, this isn’t good.
“Sorry, but we broke up.”
“Yes, we know. That’s why we believe you may be of some assistance to us,” McGalister says.
I shake my head.
“You can start by telling us everything you know about his contracts with the city,” she says.
“I don’t know anything about his business—he always kept things separate.”