“Fine.” He leaned against the hall wall with no plans to budge from the looks of it. “You were with him in New York.”
“He’s the head chef of the restaurant, and we’re considering a second location. Of course he went.”
“You’re a horrible liar.” He pushed away from the wall, and I stumbled back a nervous step.
There was something in his eyes that triggered me to hold my hands up defensively, like I’d never once done during our marriage. “Someone had to let me in today. I lost my key fob, can you get me a new one?”
I stared at him for a moment as a memory from the attack last week resurfaced. “Key fob,” I said under my breath. And then another thought crossed my mind. “Who told you about the attack? I never did ask you.”
I knew it was Alice’s handiwork to set Thomas up, but in all the chaos, I never stopped to wonder how she’d managed to let Thomas know. I doubted she played an old-school game of telephone, leaking the attack to someone at the restaurant, hoping it’d get back to Thomas.
Now he was the one taking a defensive step back. “I don’t remember.”
You’re even worse of a liar. But then it hit me, and I realized Enzo’s loose-end feeling was about Thomas, and he hadn’t wanted to say anything to me without proof. “What’d you do?” I rasped.
“No clue what you’re talking about.” His voice was dead. Flat. A sharp contrast to the worried look in his eyes.
“I defended you. Told him you’d never do it. It was out of character,” I went on, knowing I was right. No doubt in my mind now. “Why? You don’t love me, that’s not it.”
He tore his hands through his hair, shot a look toward my bedroom, and then started that way.
“What are you doing?” I went after him, trying to yank his arm to stop him, but he didn’t face me until he was inside.
“He doesn’t know. Not yet,” he muttered, jerking his arm free from my touch. “I wouldn’t be alone with you if he did.”
“Thomas.” I shook my head as he paced alongside my bed, tears in my eyes at the fact my daughter’s father would betray us by being involved. Cheating was one thing; this was something else altogether.
When I’d only thought he’d been pissed and hired the wrong people to beat up Enzo, even that had been hard for me to believe. But knowingly help the mafia? No.
“Talk to me. If you’re thinking about doing something rash, remember you have a daughter down the hall. You’re still her father,” I calmly said, trying to maintain control of the situation. Talk him off any type of cliff of crazy. And hope I could do it before Enzo did show up and tear the man apart.
Thomas stopped walking and faced me, and he was barely recognizable to me right now.
“Maybe you hate Enzo.” I shook my head. “But that’s not why you helped them, and you did, didn’t you?”
His hands landed on his hips, and now his boldness facing Enzo the day before the attack when he picked up Chiara made sense. He thought his time with him was short-lived because he’d been privy to Alice’s plan.
“Your mother never had a heart attack, did she?” I took cautious steps closer. “Please talk to me.” I showed my palms, letting him know I wasn’t a threat. And hoped like hell he wasn’t one to me, either. Not with his daughter down the hall, at least.
“Money.” He shook his head. “Why else would I do it? I lost my shirt in the stock market last month, and the next thing I knew, I was being offered a chance to deal with my cash-flow situation.”
Money. That I believed as an excuse. Not love for me.
“I figured if they wanted to beat the guy up, he probably deserved it,” he rushed out. “I need to get out of here before he shows up.” He came my way, and I blocked him.
“Beat him up?” I cried, my hands on his chest. “No, Thomas. They planned to kill him!”
“Move,” he barked out, and he snatched my wrists and flung me away, but he’d done it with too much force, and I slammed into the dresser headfirst.
On my knees, breathing hard, a metallic taste filled my mouth. I wasn’t sure where the blood was coming from, but I pivoted to look over at him staring down at me.
“Fuck. Shit,” Thomas hissed. “That was an accident.” He took a knee, and I reeled my hand back and slapped him.
THIRTY-FOUR
Enzo
“Alice must’ve had someone tamper with the footage,” I told Constantine over the line after hacking the security cameras at my apartment building. “It’s been erased.”