19. Trust Me. I’m a Thief
CHAPTER 19
Trust Me. I’m a Thief
Nikki
Valentina sat across from me, with her big innocent brown eyes, pouty lips, and rosy cheeks. She sipped her wine and glanced down at her hands. I made her uncomfortable. She really didn’t know how beautiful she was, didn’t understand how or why Derek was putty in her hands.
“I heard you’re getting married. Congratulations,” I said in Spanish.
When we were little, Mom and Dad had thought it would confuse Lisa and me if they taught us two languages at the same time. They’d chosen English over Portuguese. Their mistake had been assuming they’d have time to teach us a second language.
I didn’t know a lick of Portuguese as a result, but every time I heard someone speak it, the hole in my chest got bigger. I picked up Spanish from boyfriend number two back in college. That sweet man paid for two whole semesters before I had to break up with him.
“Thank you.” Valentina relaxed her shoulders and offered me a genuine smile. “We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you. That’s why I wanted to see you. You left Tucson so suddenly. I never got to thank you.”
“No need to thank me.” I patted her hand. “I got you into that big mess to begin with. Believe me, I never meant to hurt you. I just really needed the money. I’m glad it worked out for you two.”
To my right, Henry raced up the stairs. I sat on my hands so I wouldn’t start smashing things. So he could trust Dom but not me?
“Yeah, it sure did.” Valentina peeked over her shoulder to find Derek staring at her.
Smiling at her drink, she shook her head a few times. Something told me that even if I hadn’t helped them, these two would’ve found a way to stay together.
“He loves you. Look at him.” I giggled. “He can barely stand to be this far away from you. Let’s go join the boys and put him out of his misery.” I winked.
“Okay.” She let out a laugh that made Derek adjust his belt.
When Henry returned, he gave Dom a meaningful look. Dom shrugged and turned to me. “We have to talk.”
“Please. Finish your business with Henry first. He went through a lot of effort to find his father’s will.” I flashed Henry a smile. “I can wait.”
Henry’s face went blank as the vein on his temple pulsed against his skin. Biting his lower lip, he fished the dirty envelope out of his back pocket. I’d been waiting for him to tell me about what he found in Tessa’s room. Obviously, he didn’t think he could trust a thief.
Last night at the manor, I’d seen him hide something when he exited the tunnel. To throw him off, I’d rushed to his mom’s bed, and instead managed to sidetrack the both of us. I swallowed, putting away the image of Henry between my legs .
“Mom hid the original. The will my uncle destroyed and replaced with an earlier will was a fake,” he said when Dom took the paper from him.
“I’ll take a look and let you know.” Dom winked at me and stuffed the papers inside the pocket of his suit jacket.
“So what’s this thing you need to tell me?” I asked him.
Derek cleared his throat and patted Dom’s arm. “We’ll wait for you in the car. It was good seeing you, Nikki.” He smiled at me, taking Valentina’s hand.
“It was nice meeting you.” Valentina waved at Henry.
“That bad?” I asked when Derek closed the door behind him.
Dom winced. “They moved Lisa’s parole hearing to today. I found out an hour before it started, almost missed it.”
“What?” The room swayed a little. “Why?”
“I don’t know. We were denied parole. She’s got another fifteen.” He pursed his lips.
I pressed a cold hand to my forehead, letting my tears trickle down my cheeks. This whole time I’d assumed she’d get out. Proving her innocence was going to be the cherry on top. She was supposed to come home. I failed her.
“I’m sorry, Nikki. We can keep trying. Were you able to find anything that can help her?” he asked.
“We found a note Mom left saying she knew Lisa was innocent. Would that help?” Henry put his arms around me.
Dom rubbed his jaw, shaking his head. “If your mom knows what happened that night, her testimony is the only thing that can help Lisa. We need to find your mom.”
“This isn’t fair. She didn’t kill anyone.” I swallowed. “How can they do this to her?
Can I see her?”
Dom nodded. “Yeah, I’ll call it in and text you. It’s not over, Nikki. We’ll keep at it, okay? ”
“Okay.” I pressed my cheek to Henry’s chest and let his warmth seep through my body.
“I’ll be in touch.” Dom squeezed my arm and left.
I stood in the middle of the lobby with Henry holding me tight. “I failed her. She trusted me with her freedom, and I failed her.”
My words were muffled by his shirt, now wet with my tears. All strength drained from me. I couldn’t even muster the energy to be angry— angry at Tessa for not doing more to save my sister, angry at myself for leaving Lisa when she needed me the most, just angry.
“This isn’t over yet. Lisa is innocent. There has to be evidence of it somewhere.” Henry ushered me to the sofa.
He lay on the sofa and cuddled me. “Can you try and eat?” I shook my head, and he stroked my hair. “Close your eyes, then.”
I did, but I couldn’t sleep. The day Henry’s dad was killed was on repeat in my head. Henry and I had been playing in the tunnels. There was a man, or the silhouette of a man, at the end of the tunnel. He hunched over, and then I saw bright stars. Henry pressed me against the wall. Was that real? Had I really seen that?
“Jonathan killed your dad, didn’t he?” My heart twisted in my chest.
“I think so.”
I brought my knees in, while my head rested in the nook of his neck and shoulder.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and his muscles tensed. “I’ve also considered the possibility that Mom killed Dad.” His voice quavered. I’d seen the doubt in his eyes before, at the manor and when we talked to the bartender. But this was the first time he’d actually said the words.
“It wasn’t her.” I kissed the stubble along his jawline .
“How do you know?”
“I just know. She loved your dad so much. I could see it in her eyes. She adored him.” I pressed my lips to his cheek.
He inhaled and blew out a breath. “Sleep,” he whispered, planting small kisses on the side of my face. I melted into him and completely relaxed as I drifted off to sleep.
I was in the tunnel. James’s face lay on the ground with his mouth slack, eyes empty, and blood everywhere. I flinched and snapped my eyes open. I lay on my bed with a blanket over me and a pillow under my head, but no Henry. Outside, the streetlights of Main Street glowed behind the curtains. How long had I been out? I sat up.
“How do you feel?” Henry asked from the other side of the room, staring at the wall covered with his dad’s pictures.
I stuffed a hand in my hair. The onset of a headache tapped on a nerve behind my eyes. “Like I got run over by a train. What time is it?”
“Midnight.” The mattress dipped when he sat next to me. “You’re starting to remember. Aren’t you? You were talking in your sleep.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, Henry. Lately, everywhere we turn, your uncle is there. Maybe I just want him to be guilty.”
“It can’t be a coincidence that we both see him in our dreams.”
“We both hate him.”
“True.” He braced his arms on his thighs and buried his head in his hands. “I don’t even know where to start.” He turned to face me. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the will.”
All we had was each other. Why couldn’t he trust me a little more? I wasn’t mad at him for not telling me about the will, though I wanted to know why he’d done it. Why did he tell Dom first? What was he afraid of?
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“I don’t know. You seemed so preoccupied with money. I didn’t want things to change between us.” He cradled my face.
I met his gaze. “Are you afraid to go from boyfriend to mark?”
He glanced at the wall behind me for a second. “No.”
“You want to know why I was mad at you earlier today?” I scooted away from him, so I could think clearly. I could still feel his body pressed against me, and his cock inside me. It was easier to think when he wasn’t so close. “You used sex to get something from me. You got me to agree to something I didn’t want. You gave me a taste of my own medicine, I suppose.” Something bubbled in my chest, filling the hole that my parents and Lisa had left behind. “No one has ever done that to me. No one has ever seen me for who I am, loved me for me. Even if I wanted to, there’s no conning you.”
He released a breath and let his head fall back. After a long while, he leaned over me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “I do love you, Nikki. But if you break my heart twice, I know I won’t survive it. Not this time.”
“I would never do that. You have to believe me. Trust in me.”
He kissed me, a slow and tender gesture that said, I trust you. He pulled away first, and caressed my cheek. “I’m sorry. I’m an asshole for even thinking you might be tempted to run away. You can take all the money. Just don’t leave me again.”
“Henry, I never left you.” I threw my arms around his neck and held him tight.
And then it hit me like a bucket of ice water. The implication of Henry playing this last card—the original will—was useless. I tensed in his arms.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Your uncle hired someone to rough you up when you asked about your mom. What do you think he’s going to do to you, or your mom, when he finds out you have the original will?”
He slid a finger across his jaw. “I thought about that. If something happens to Mom, Lisa will stay in jail for another fifteen years for a murder she didn’t commit.”
“I don’t care about your stupid money. As far as I know, the Cavalier fortune is the reason we’re all in this mess. All I care about is my family. Lisa and your mom’s lives are linked, just like ours were since the beginning.” I took his hand. “We need to find Tessa.”
“I know, but where do we start?”
This idea was crazy, but it was all we had. “Yesterday, when we robbed the bank…”
“There’s a sentence I never thought I’d hear you say.” Henry chuckled, shaking his head.
“I know. But listen, when we left the bank yesterday, I noticed a security camera over the entrance to the vault.”
“Fuck, Nikki. Why didn’t you tell me?” A red blotch appeared on his cheek.
I pointed at him. “This is why. I needed you to stay calm so we could get out of there.”
“How do we fix it?” He rubbed the creases on his forehead. Thieving was really not his thing.
“We don’t. I thought about calling Dom or doing the hack myself, but now I’m thinking this is our next play. If your uncle gets wind that we took what was in Tessa’s box, he might come after it. I mean, you and I thought Tessa might’ve hidden evidence in there. Maybe your uncle does too.” I shifted my body to sit next to him. “We left a long trail of clues at the bank. All we need to do is drop a hint and let your uncle follow the crumbs back to us.”
“You’re using yourself as bait again?” A deep scowl covered his forehead .
“No.” I took his face between my hands and smiled. “I’m using us as bait.”
“Other than putting you in danger again, what will this buy us?” He didn’t like the idea, but he was listening. That was progress.
I scoured my mind for ideas, but we had so little to go on. “He’ll come here looking for Tessa’s things. We can let him take our loot and then follow him. If he’s helping your mom?—”
“See? This is the part I don’t get. If he killed my dad, why is he helping Mom?”
“I don’t know.”
“What if Jonathan doesn’t take the bait? What if he doesn’t come here looking for Mom’s things?”
My pulse spiked at the realization that this plan didn’t have much of a shot, but I couldn’t let Henry lose hope. “Oh, he will come for her things. Trust me. I’m a thief.”