Page 32 of The Moments You Were Mine

The pain in my chest grew, and my lungs screamed.

“He made a call,” Harris continued, “to Ace Turner’s lawyer, who also happens to be the lawyer for a well-known drug dealer. They’ll post his bail because they won’t want him turning on them to save his own ass. I want you to be careful once he’s out, and call me personally if you have any issues with him or Ace.”

He shoved a card in my hand and opened the door for Kenya and me.

An entire group of people waited for me on the other side. But the only face I really saw was Dad’s. With brows scrunched in concern, lips compressed, he looked exhausted, as if he’d been in the lobby all night, which I was sure he had been. I ran, and he caught me, holding on tight. I pressed my face into his suit jacket, the smell of him taking me back to my childhood. To moments when I’d been happy at his side.

I broke, tears streaming down my face as sobs racked me.

Once, a long time ago, both Parker and Dad had each sworn I’d never have to face anything terrible on my own again, and Dad had done his best to honor that today. He’d ensured I had someone at my side, but I’d wished it had been him sitting in the interrogation room with me instead of a lawyer I didn’t know.

“Kenya?” Dad’s voice rumbled through his chest, vibrating my cheek as he held me tight.

“She’s free to go. They’re pressing charges against JJ.”

I fought hard to get ahold of the tears, but they wouldn’t stop coming.

“What happened in there?” he demanded.

“Fallon is my client, so I’ll leave it up to her what she wants to share,” Kenya said briskly.

“Thank you.” Sadie cut off the snarl of protest from my father, and it was that—the way Sadie so calmly handled him and all of us—that finally pulled me back together. When I stepped away from Dad’s embrace, it was to see her shaking Kenya’s hand.

My stepmom was one of the first people I’d ever known who loved me not out of duty and obligation but for who I was. She’d always had my best interest at heart, whereas my mother’s love had always come with a side of baggage, and Dad’s had come with repeated abandonment. Part of the reason we’d mended our relationships in the last ten years was due to Sadie and her family showing us what love really meant. The Hatleys did love right.

“Take care of yourself, Fallon,” Kenya said with a pat on my shoulder. “And if you need anything, just call.” She added her card to the one Detective Harris had given me.

I was watching her walk out the door when my dad growled, “Puzo. What the hell are you doing here?”

My gaze jerked to the man who’d joined us. Lorenzo Puzo wore a custom-made suit and had satin black hair, a high forehead, and a prominent Italian nose. But it was his eyes, almost as dark as his hair, that drew your gaze, holding you captive and reminding you that he was part of one of the original crime families who’d built Las Vegas.

“I was in town on business and heard there was some trouble,” Lorenzo replied, and the dark tenor of his voice sent another chill down my spine.

When Dad had first moved to Sin City in his twenties, he’d stumbled into some of the Puzo family’s criminal activities, and he’d almost been killed for turning the evidence over to the FBI. After Lorenzo had taken over the family business, he’d supposedly done his best to legitimize it, causing a feud that still existed.

It was the dark side of the Puzos who’d come for Dad ten years ago in revenge, murdering Spencer and attacking Sadie and me at her bar. Even though his cousin Theresa had ended up dead, Lorenzo had been trying to help my family ever since as some sort of penance.

But seeing Lorenzo always brought me back to that day. To the fear and death. And after everything that happened last night, it felt amplified by a thousand. My heart raced, and my palms turned sweaty as his cold eyes settled on me.

“Are you okay, Fallon?” Lorenzo asked.

“Don’t respond to that,” Dad grunted, but I couldn’t have answered if I’d wanted to. My throat had closed all over again.The smell of blood surrounded me. My vision turned spotty.

Mom rolled over in her wheelchair. Her eyes darted between us as if a war was going to break out. Even though Dad and Lorenzo had called an uneasy truce, it still didn’t mean they liked each other.

“Rafe,” Mom’s voice drew Dad’s eyes to her. “Let’s focus on Fallon.”

It was the shakiness in Mom’s voice that drew me back from the edge. I’d been conditioned to react to it. I’d had years of experience holding her up. Years of being the stable one in our relationship. Today wouldn’t be the day that changed.

I cleared my throat and lied. “I’m okay.”

I wasn’t. But I’d wait until I was alone before I licked my wounds further and stabbed myself with remorse. Before I let myself think about the apartment JJ had put in my name or the baby furniture he’d bought.

“They found drugs and cash in our apartment,” I told them. “But I couldn’t have taken them because I wasn’t even in San Diego the day they went missing. JJ has been spending money like he’s won the lottery lately, and he’s been hanging out with Ace Turner. So…I don’t know.” I rubbed my forehead. “Maybe Ace convinced him to take the drugs and sell them as a way out of debt?”

Dad hissed, “What the fuck?” just as Lorenzo asked, “What kind of drugs?”

Dad reacted immediately to Lorenzo’s question. “Why the hell do you care? Are you involved in this?”