Chapter 31 – Thiago #2
“You don’t want to be here.” My thumb traces the line of her jaw. “And you definitely don’t want to spend the rest of the evening explaining to your mom why this huge motherfucker came looking for her daughter.”
She cracks a smile, and some of the worry in my chest eases as she fists the front of my shirt and shakes her head.
“You’re ridiculous. And too damn full of yourself.”
“Yet here you are smiling.”
“Fine,” she breathes, suppressing a laugh. “I guess you can buy me dinner.”
Her eyes stay on me as I pull up to the entrance, like she’s still on the fence about coming with me. She hesitates again, her hand on the door handle, before glancing back through the glass. Maybe she’s reassuring her mother that everything’s all right.
Remi is twenty-two and fiercely independent, but the Cains are close. Their circle is small, their loyalty absolute, and anyone who threatens one of them tends to have a short life expectancy.
Which makes Remi willingly climbing into my truck all the more dangerous.
“Déjà vu,” she says as we pull away from the curb. “Where to?”
“There’s a spot I know just outside the city. Sometimes when I need to clear my head, I go there. I found it one day after…” I let the sentence trail off.
Remi waits, giving me a chance to finish before I feel her attention shift my way.
I can’t exactly tell her I ended up there the night after the cemetery.
That I sat by that lake for hours, questioning everything I thought I believed, and seriously considered getting in my truck and driving back to Texas.
“After a tough shift,” I say instead.
A few seconds of silence pass.
“That bad?”
Worse.
“Something like that.”
“And what makes you think I need to clear my head?”
We stop at a red light, and I turn to her. The glow from the brake lights ahead washes over her face, catching the angles of her cheekbones and the curve of her mouth.
I’ll never get over how beautiful she is. But beneath it, I can still see the sadness in her eyes.
“Remi, were you crying?”
Her jaw flexes as soon as I ask the question. I reach for the hand resting in her lap, and she lets me take it.
“It’s not what you think,” she mutters. “I just...I always get like this when she leaves. Valentina. It’s stupid, I know, but—”
“It’s not.”
She goes quiet.
“You love her,” I say. “You miss her.”
Her fingers tighten around mine, and she looks out the window.
The rest of the drive passes in silence. I give her the space she seems to need, and at one point, I swear she dozes off beside me.
For the first time, I let myself consider what would happen if I didn’t finish the assignment.
Helios won’t simply forget about Remi Cain because I decide I can’t go through with it.
They’ll replace me with someone who doesn’t know her.
Someone who won’t give a fuck about the woman behind the name in a file.
I hate the thought, but the reality is worse. Either I finish the assignment or someone else will.
By the time we reach the lake, the knot in my chest has only tightened. Remi doesn’t wait for me. The second I park the truck, she unbuckles and climbs out. I follow her down the wooden ramp to the pier, giving her a few feet of space as she moves toward the edge.
Nobody else is around. The water stretches into the darkness, moonlight breaking across the surface in ribbons of silver while a handful of lamps cast soft pools of light over the weathered dock.
The world feels quiet out here. Remi draws a deep breath beside me.
When she slips a hand into her pocket, I know exactly what she’s reaching for. I slide mine over her wrist before she can pull out her ring. She stills but doesn’t resist when I ease her hand free and weave our fingers together.
At first, I’m the one holding on, but a few seconds later, her grip tightens around mine.
“It’s pretty,” she finally says, looking out over the water.
“Very,” I agree, even though I’m looking at her.
“Thiago, I’m sorry if my mom came off a bit…”
“Intimidating?”
She chuckles and shrugs. “Yeah. She’s a little overprotective, especially after everything.”
Remi pauses, catching herself before she says too much and wanders into a part of her life she hasn’t shared with me, one I shouldn’t already know.
“The tattoo shop?” I offer, giving her an out.
She nods. “And getting arrested. Well, she doesn’t know about that yet. None of them do, actually. But I know it’s coming. I’m just not ready to deal with the lectures and all that shit.”
“Understandable. But it’s only a matter of time before that mugshot makes the rounds. The precinct took it down, but you know the internet is forever.”
“Oh God,” she says with a laugh. “I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“You know there’s an investigation into who leaked that photo.”
“I mean, it’s a damn good shot.”
“That it is.”
Remi turns to me, her smile lighting up her face. “Thank you for what you did. For being a corrupt-as-fuck cop and using your connections to get me off.”
My laughter carries across the lake. “I’m glad my criminal behavior is appreciated.”
“It is.”
Her smile lingers as she squeezes my hand, completely unaware of how fucking undeserved that gratitude is. She thinks I broke a few rules for her.
If only it were that simple.