Fast Connection (Cyberlove #2) (23 page)

Duffy sighed. “I know. Believe me, I know.”

“That’s why she hates going to school. She skips a lot, but she keeps up with her classes. Hell, Dad, all she does is sneak up to her room and play video games. She’s not a bad kid. Just… not social.”

“So you think I shouldn’t punish her?” he challenged. “It wasn’t just a couple of days. She had thirty counted absences. A truancy officer came to the house. We’re lucky they’re not saying we’re negligent parents.”

“Oh. Damn.” With that information, I could now see why he’d slammed the grounded-hammer so hard. “Okay, well, the point is… she’s not having an easy time and it will only get worse for her if you lose the business and the damn house. If you won’t accept my help because of your pride, at least consider it to spare Adriana going through hell.”

Duffy released a low breath and sat up straight, his arms sliding against the table. I couldn’t tell if my words were having an effect on him until he gave the slightest of nods.

“I have money.” The start of the conversation was like déjà vu. Minus the shoving and punching. “I have about twenty thousand in my bank account. I was saving it to get the hell out of here, but…” I geared myself up for mocking. “After eight years of giving away pieces of myself to serve my country, I think I can use that cash to help my family.”

Duffy stared at me until the back of my neck grew warm and my shoulders stiffened. I looked away, swallowing hard, and tried to think of a plan C, but he finally spoke.

“You give me the money and I sign over half the business to you.”

My gaze flew to his. “Dad—”

“No.” He slapped his hand against the table. “You want to give me that much money? Then you get a stake. It don’t mean you gotta work there every day until you die, Dominic. It just means you own part of it.”

It also meant I was responsible for it if he got the shop into trouble again.

“If that’s what you want then there’s another condition,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“You take some advice on how to make changes in the shop. Changes that will maybe save you money and make some more. You can’t keep running it like it’s 1993.”

“And who’s gonna give me advice? You?” Duffy snorted. “You just got done telling me that you don’t know nothing about the business.”

“I don’t,” I admitted. “But I know someone who makes bank running his own business, and he might have some ideas.”

He went still. “You really think I’m gonna take business advice from your little boyfriend?”

“He’s almost forty,” I said. “And he’s been running his business since he got out of the army. Trust me—he has a house bigger than ours and he pays for it on his own. He knows what he’s doing when it comes to business.”

“Nicky, do you even know this guy?” Duffy’s brow furrowed. He leaned forward, shoulders hunching, and gave me the ferociously overprotective glare I’d only ever seen directed at Adriana. “You just got back and you’re already… wrapped up in this thing. How do you know you can trust him?”

It was a good question with a complicated answer. I’d known I could trust Luke from the moment I’d looked into his icy blue eyes. But it was more than that. Somehow, the messages we’d exchanged between infrequent hookups had built my trust in him. Out of nowhere, I’d confided in him and so far that gut instinct hadn’t been proven wrong.

But those facts were more than my father wanted to know, so I just smiled slightly.

“Because he’s a good man,” I said. “And I’m pretty much in love with him.”

Luke

“We might have overdone it.” I winced as a muscle in my lower back cramped up.

Dominic, of course, was no worse for wear after a couple hours of intense sex. After our joint shower, he’d ordered food and now sat cross-legged on the bed beside me, eating pizza. He held a piece to my lips with a raised eyebrow.

“Want some?”

“Nah.”

He shrugged and kept eating. “Maybe you should have paced yourself better instead of going hard on my ass as soon as I walked in the door.”

I laughed. “I didn’t want to waste time.”

“We got the whole weekend!”

“I know, but there are a lot of surfaces in this house I need to plow you on.”

He grinned and kissed me, tasting like pepperoni. “So romantic.”

I returned the smile and let my eyes feast on him for a few moments. He looked comfortable in my bed. Like he belonged there. He’d been more at home at my place for the past few weeks—since Thanksgiving, actually. And now I had him all to myself for two and a half days. It would be the first time he’d spent an entire weekend.

“So tell me what’s going on at home. You said you talked to your dad.”

“I’m gonna give him the money to pay back the rent and renovate the shop.” Dominic eyed me over his slice of pizza. “And he’s gonna sign over half the business.”

It was hard not to bolt upright out of bed. “Dominic, don’t—” He hadn’t asked my advice, I reminded myself of that, but I didn’t stop myself from forging ahead. “—don’t give up on the EMT thing. That’s what you want. Not to own the store. Don’t change your goals for him.”

“It’s not just for him. I can help them, so I’m going to.”

He didn’t say anything else, and I knew he was considering dropping the idea. My insides nearly shriveled with frustration. What hope did he have of getting out of that house any time soon if he gave Duffy all his money? It didn’t look good, but I kept it to myself. He could probably read my reservations all over my expression, anyway. But instead of harping on his father again, I just squeezed his thigh.

“You’re going to do great in those classes. And you’ll look hot in an EMT uniform.”

A tiny smile flicked the corner of his mouth. “I appreciate the encouragement. So far other people have just commented on how little money I’ll make.”

“Screw other people.”

“Basically.” Dominic nibbled on the crust of his pizza. “Look, I may seem like an idiot for sacrificing for my father, but it’s not just about him. It’s about my mother and Adriana too. And this is the only way I know how to help clean up the mess my parents created.”

The flush had deepened on his skin, and he’d gone back to avoiding eye contact every time he mentioned his parents.

“It sucks not having any control over the person who’s supposed to be your parent, who’s supposed to love you and watch out for you,” I said. “Not that this is the shitty childhood Olympics, but mine was no picnic. I told you a little bit already, but I didn’t know my dad. My mom was… not present. I lived with my grandfather and he was not pleased at dealing with a pissed-off little kid. He wasn’t affectionate. He wasn’t loving. I felt like a constant source of irritation my whole life. Didn’t help that we were poor. It was embarrassing as fuck, and I still hate talking about it.” I grabbed the pizza crust out of Dominic’s hand and shoved it in my mouth. After I swallowed, I said, “So don’t think you’re shocking me with tales of family woe in the Costigan household, okay? I didn’t grow up with a perfect family.”

Dominic nodded slowly and then flattened his body on top of mine. I grunted as I took his weight and stared up into his eyes.

He straddled me. “You’re doing that thing again.”

“What thing?” I asked, palming his bare ass.

“That thing where you confide in me to make me feel better.”

I smiled. “Well, yeah.”

“No one’s ever given enough of a damn to try to make me feel better about my father. My friends just knew him as the mean Irish dude who ran the bagel shop and probably knocked me around.”

I slid my hands up his back and into his hair. “I’m not one of your friends.”

“Definitely not,” he said, rocking against me.

I groaned. “Stop. I need more recovery time.” He pouted and I tugged his hair. “At least let me replenish my fluids.”

Sighing dramatically, he eased off of me. I swung my legs to the floor, stretching, when my cell rang. I glanced at it, seeing my ex-wife’s name. Nadia had the kids all weekend. “Hello?”

“Luke.”

Nadia’s tone instantly straightened my spine. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Micah. He’s missing.”

In an instant, I was twenty-seven years old again, getting a similar call from Nadia when she’d gone to pick up the twins from the sitter and had found them missing.

The same dread, the same anger, was threatening to choke me. My body went on autopilot. I spun around, searching for my jeans and pulling then on blindly. “Missing?” I croaked.

“He said he was going to his room. I just checked on him, and he’s gone. He took his cell, shoes, and book bag. He snuck out, Luke. Micah. Snuck. Out.”

This was not a stunt Micah pulled ever. “Goddamnit. Where’s Chelle?”

“She’s here. She said she has no idea where he went, but she did hear him talking to Adriana.”

Dominic must have heard his sister’s name through my phone speaker, because at once he was all action, pulling on his pants and grabbing his cell phone, dialing as he walked out of the bedroom.

“Okay, let me talk to Dominic and we’ll see if we can track them down. Just keep Chelle there and see if she can think of where Micah would go.”

Dominic’s urgent voice filtered down the hallway as he spoke into his phone.

I focused back on my conversation with Nadia. “I’d bet my truck he’s with Adriana.”

“Keep me in the loop.”

“Will do.”

As I stretched a shirt over my head, Dominic came charging back into the bedroom. “Adriana’s gone too.”

I ran my hands through my hair, trying to focus, willing my body to calm down. But Jesus, the flashbacks were hitting me hard. It didn’t matter Micah was a teenager now—he was still my son, my responsibility. He was still a kid. My blood was boiling. I needed to find those kids and ground them for the rest of their lives.

“Of course he’s with Adriana. Micah doesn’t do this kind of shit.”

Dominic paused as he smoothed down his shirt. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I grabbed my wallet off my table and shoved it in my pocket along with my phone. “He’s a good kid. He doesn’t sneak out.”

Dominic didn’t move. “So you assume it was Adriana’s idea since she’s a delinquent. Not your mathlete kid.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

What did I mean? I wasn’t so sure. All I knew was that this wasn’t like Micah. Because of Dominic, I’d been encouraging Micah’s relationship with Adriana lately, hoping he’d be a good influence, and now it was blowing up in my face. “Look, we don’t have time to argue. Do you have any idea where they’d be?”

He turned away from me, still dressing. “I guess we could check Clove Lakes. They go there all the time.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Why would they both sneak out just to go to the park? And why would he come all the way from Jersey to do it?”

“I have no fucking idea, Luke.” Dominic raked a hand through his messy hair and glared into space. After a moment, his eyes widened. “Wait, what’s today’s date?”

“December eleventh.”

“Holy shit.”

Dominic tapped some buttons on his phone then held it in front of me. I squinted at the screen. “FallenCon 2016. December 11-13, in Boston. For fans of…” My voice trailed off as my gaze darted up to meet Dominic’s. “No.”

“Yes. Micah told me about this on Thanksgiving. They both wanted to go, but Adriana couldn’t afford it… until my friend gave her free tickets. Except she’s grounded so my father wouldn’t let her go.”

My head was going to explode. “So they ran off to fucking Boston?”

“Seems like it.”

I pointed at him. “We’re going to Boston to bring them back.”

“I’d planned on it.”

“They’re underage in a strange city at a fucking convention…” I ended my sentence on a growl. “Where do they think they’re going to stay? I don’t understand why they thought this was a good idea.”

“They’re kids,” Dominic said. “That’s what they do. Not think ahead. Didn’t you do dumb shit when you were a teenager?”

“Of course I did dumb shit. Because no one cared whether I did it or not.”

“My parents do care. That’s why she was grounded. Doesn’t stop her from doing crazy shit.”

I spun around, trying to get my bearings. “Whatever you say, Dominic. I don’t really want to hear about your parents right now.”

“Wow. Okay then.”

How had we gone from the warm bed and post-orgasm afterglow to pissed off and glaring at each other? Tension was leaking out of our pores, but I was too fired up to do anything to fix it.

Dominic

A sea of headlights illuminated the dark interstate stretching before us, like a thousand glowing red lights telling us to stop and not go any further. And the longer we drove, the more convinced I was that this impromptu road trip was a terrible idea.

My stomach was in knots. My father’s fear and worry had manifested as the usual cursing and screaming through the phone as Luke grew steadily more impatient and angry at my side. I’d seen him intense before, but it was nothing like this. His entire body was coiled, his fingers white-knuckled on the steering wheel, and every word came out with like a sharp whip crack.

“Did she fucking pick up yet?”

“No. Her phone’s off.” I glanced at the screen again. She hadn’t even replied to my texts. “I just wish I knew for sure that they really went to the con. I’m going to feel like a jackass if we get to Boston only to find out they holed up at a friend’s house to watch a fucking livestream of the event.”

Luke’s gaze flew over to me. “I’m gonna really hope that’s not the case, Dominic.”

His warning tone put me on edge. “Look, I have no proof this is really where they went. I just strongly suspect it. And my boy Garrett said she’d reached out and thanked them for the tickets, so she definitely received them.”

Luke went back to glaring at the road. “I don’t understand why your friends are sending her tickets without asking you first.”

“Because they wanted to be nice,” I said sharply. “And people enter contests all the damn time to win tickets on the radio and online. It’s not like they’re some creeps trying to encourage teenagers to run away.”

He shook his head, and I went back to staring out the window. The traffic was insane. Getting to the con before the last event of the night ended was starting to seem unlikely, and all of a sudden I regretted putting my phone on silent earlier in the day to focus solely on Luke. If I hadn’t, I’d have received the worried calls from my parents hours ago. We could have been on the road already.