He barely glanced up. “Of course. Have fun.” After a split second, he rose and gave her a quick kiss. Too quick. She bit back tears again and got the hell out of the apartment.
The Red Dog Saloon was a half hour walk, and normally she’d have taken the tram, but Angela needed the time to think. She had to clear her head before she was face to face with Lesli, because if she showed up looking this distracted or uncertain, her BFF would ask too many questions that Angela wasn’t ready to answer. She’d done nothing wrong, and was likely blowing Dominic’s odd behavior this morning out of proportion. She couldn’t talk to him with Viggo there, so she had to put this on the back burner until she could be alone with him and find out what was going on.
****
Dominic sighed loudly once he heard Angela leave. “Man, what the fuck am I going to do here? She noticed something was off. I can’t hide it from her.”
“She is so damn pretty. Why didn’t you warn me how fucking pretty she is?”
“What? Fuck you, Viggo. I did warn you. We’re not talking about her looks.” He pointed toward the screen. “What do I do about this? She almost saw what you’d found.”
“Well I didn’t expect her to come walking into the kitchen. You told me she’d sleep until ten or eleven.”
“She usually does on weekends.”
Viggo ate the last of his bacon. “I wish I knew what to tell you. You really only have two choices. Tell her what you found on Frank Rossi, and what you suspect is the truth, or shut the fuck up about it for the rest of your life and hope like hell that Frank never comes looking for his daughter or his wife.”
Dominic ran his hands through his hair and stared at the page on Viggo’s laptop screen. “How the hell did you get this, anyway?”
Viggo chuckled. “I can’t tell you all my secrets. Let’s just say I know a woman who knows a guy who knows another woman who came across a piece of data that was lost in the mess after The Madeline Project went rogue, and she hung onto it. Then when I asked my contacts, including this man, if he had any information on a certain government website, he asked the woman, and she sent this document to him. Then he sent it to me, and we’ll just leave it at that.”
Dominic shook his head. Some things were better not to know too much about. “So this is at least six years out of date?”
Viggo nodded. “Yes, but they’re both on the list. They were moved from San Francisco to CentralWest in 2018, and her mother still resides at the same address.”
“We shouldn’t have this. I mean look at all the info on the others.”
“Like you said, it’s at least six years out of date. Besides, I’m not looking at the others. I’m only looking at Marilyn LoPresti Rossi, aka Marilyn Teresa Davidson, and her daughter, Angela. They’re the right age to match up with the photo of Frank and a pregnant woman you found, and they hail from Chicago originally. It says that on here, too. They moved to San Francisco when Angela was eight, and were moved underground to CentralWest in 2118.”
Dominic took a seat next to Viggo, where he’d been sitting with the man, poring over every piece of information they could find online, since five in the morning. “This is what she meant when she told me it had to do with her mother, and she wished she could find her some peace. Her reactions have been too apparent and too…” Too what? “Terrified. She was terrified, Viggo. I saw it in her eyes.”
“You said it was a brief glimpse only that you caught. Maybe all she knows is that she had to move and she hasn’t seen her father or her uncles since?”
He shook his head. “Every day of her life since then she’d have had it drummed into her head not to breathe a word of this to anyone. Even so, at eight years old I’d have been asking a lot of questions about why I had to pretend to be someone else.”
He nodded again. “Yes, that’s true, but an intelligent mother who was used to living in a crime family would have figured out something to tell her daughter to keep her safe without scaring the shit out of her. She’s twenty-six years old now. She’s been living with this for eighteen years. She’s had a lot of time to learn how to hide it.”
“She hasn’t hidden it all that well. She’s hidden herself, which in turn has kept anyone from getting close enough to start asking questions.”
“Until now.” Viggo’s voice was quiet, but Dominic already knew he hadn’t kept his feelings for Angela a secret from his friend. “Until she met a man she had strong feelings for. Or have you failed to notice how she looks at you?”
“I’ve noticed.”
“Do you have the same feelings for her?”
Dominic cleared his throat. It was pointless to try to hide anything from Viggo. “I’m in love with her.”
“Fuck me sideways. You really are in deep shit.”
“No kidding.” We all have things in our past we wish weren’t there, but they can’t hurt us. Not if we don’t let them. That’s what he’d said to her, and she had pushed him to explain, almost as if she suspected he’d figured out her secret. But what she couldn’t know was that he was hiding a secret of his own. “What should I do? Should I tell her the truth about my past? Maybe if I do, she’ll tell me she’s in witness protection?”
Viggo shook his head. “She won’t tell you. Keeping it secret has been part of her existence for eighteen years. She knows if she tells you, they’ll have to move her, or she’ll have to leave the program. They both will.”
“Even if I come clean?”
“If you come clean she’ll realize who you are. What family you’re part of. They’re the ones looking for her and her mother. You two have to keep your secrets. Both of you. Fall in love if you must. Hell, marry the girl. I would. Fuck it. She’s beautiful. But you can’t ever let her know who you really are, and she’s not going to tell you her real name.” Viggo pointed toward the screen. “She can’t. You could both wind up dead, and she knows it.”
Dominic stared at his friend as the simple truth of what he said finally sank in. “You’re right. We’ll both end up dead.”
“Yes, you will. Then your company will fall apart because once your true identity leaks out, the feds will be all over it. Even if you get the chance before you die to tell them that you walked out rather than participate in the attempted hit on the Rossi brothers, they won’t care that the money you used to start it is legitimately yours, and wasn’t acquired by illegal means. It will mean the end of Greco Communications, and of Dominic Greco, aka Antonio Trapani, not to mention the end of Angela and her mother.”
“So I have to keep my mouth shut and pretend I don’t know who she is, too.”
“What other viable options do you see?”
Dominic stared at the screen on his laptop, and then he closed it softly. “None. Because I love this girl, and I want her in my life. Her past is her past, and she didn’t create it. Her father did. She can’t go back and change it, and I can’t change mine, but I can still control my future. I want her in it.”
Chapter Fifteen
Angela and Lesli decided to walk around town for a while before getting something to eat. She texted Dominic to let him know she’d be out late with Lesli after all, and he didn’t even protest. Now she really knew something was going on, and she didn’t like it.
They arrived at the Red Dog Saloon about six, and both were starving by then. Angela shoved another onion ring into her mouth and then washed it down with a large sip of her margarita. She’d likely have to take the tram back to Dominic’s apartment because she’d be quite drunk by the time she headed back. Assuming she could find it. Right now, she didn’t care. She only wanted to drown her worry in tequila and greasy food.
Lesli drained her own drink and poured another glass from the pitcher, which was almost empty now. They’d already talked about Angela’s new job and her new teammates, but Lesli wanted to hear about Dominic. “So tell me about the sex. And don’t lie to me and say you haven’t fucked him yet.”
“I’ve fucked him in every room in the apartment, and in m
y office at work.”
Lesli laughed loudly and high-fived Angela.
“It was fucking awesome. His dick is big, he knows how to use it, and he knows what to do with his tongue and his fingers, too.” She still had enough wits about her to lean closer for this next part. “He has all these toys. He’s paddled me and blindfolded me. He hasn’t tied me up yet, but I want him to. He said that’s next.”
Lesli’s face changed just that quickly. “Angela, are you all right with that? I mean you’ve known the guy what … three weeks.”
“I trust him.”
“Already?”
She took another long sip of her drink. “Yes. Completely.”
“Okay. I know you’re not stupid enough to let anyone hurt you, but you’re not very experienced. He’s forty-one, and he’s a player.”
“No, he’s not a player. That’s where we both were wrong. He told me about this woman he dated five years ago who tried to hurt him and his company, and that he hasn’t had a serious relationship since then. He got burned badly.”
“And then he hired you and suddenly he’s okay again? He doesn’t know you any better than you know him.”
“Background checks.” Even as she said it, chills ran down her spine, but not from the memories of her erotic sexual encounters with Dominic. How deeply had he been able to look into her past? He had unlimited resources. What if those resources included access to the DOJ sites or the WITSEC files?
No. She’d been assured years ago when she’d asked those same questions that no one could get that information.
But that was before she’d earned a degree in IT. If you knew where to look, and you had the right skills, any site could be hacked into. Hadn’t that been proven in 2117 when people they were still searching for seven years later had infiltrated The Madeline Project?
“All right. I trust your judgment.” Lesli took her hand. “But you’re my BFF and you know I’m only a phone call away.”
“I know you are. Thank you. That’s why I love you.”
Lesli gave her hand a squeeze. “I love you, too. Just be sure this is what you want, okay?” Lesli snagged the rest of the onion rings, watching Angela’s face carefully as she ate them. “You’re really into this guy, aren’t you?”
“I really am.” She felt a warm glow inside just being able to say it out loud to someone.
“I’ve never seen you this way over anyone.”
“That’s because I’ve never met anyone like Dominic.”
Lesli raised her glass, and Angela followed suit. “Then I’m happy for you. Here’s to men with big dicks who know how to fuck.”
Angela laughed, and then she clinked glasses with Lesli. “I’ll drink to that!”
****
Angela was lost, and it was dark outside. Fake dark, but still dark. She and Lesli had stayed at the Red Dog for over three hours. Way past the time Angela had planned on being out. There were streetlights, but they didn’t cast enough of a glow for her to read the damn screen on her Internet phone. Then again, that might be because she couldn’t see shit. Under normal circumstances, she could read the screen just fine, even at night.
Everything was blurry, and she was afraid now. She’d never done anything like this. She’d never gotten this drunk and then tried to get home alone. Why hadn’t she made sure to catch the last tram of the night? Why hadn’t she taken Lesli up on her offer to call her brother and walk them each home? Lesli lived closer to the Red Dog than Dominic did, and she was already home. Angela had received the text an hour ago.
Everything she’d tried to bury for the past three weeks came rushing back now in the lonely darkness. She found a bench and sat, trying to fight the rising panic, but each shadow was an unknown phantom who had chased her for eighteen years, and every sound was suspect.
So few people ventured outside this late at night, even on a weekend. Unofficially, there was a curfew, and it was meant to keep crime down, which it did. She wouldn’t be arrested if found outside at night, but she would be taken home. She didn’t want that to happen. She’d die of embarrassment if Dominic answered the door to find the cops standing there with her, and she didn’t want to call them and admit she was drunk.
There was no one around to ask help from, and she wasn’t sure she could do it anyway. She’d never trusted strangers, and right now she was afraid even to approach one. As tears ran down her cheeks, she pictured Dominic’s face. She should call him. He could use the tracker in her phone to find her. He’d come if she asked him to, but then she recalled how distant and even cold his behavior had been earlier, and she began to cry again.
Why was he upset with her? How was she supposed to ask him for help in this state? He’d be even more upset when he found her drunk and out at night alone, with no fucking clue where she was.
Her phone rang and it startled her so much she yelped and nearly dropped it. Was he a mind reader? “Dominic … hi. I need your help.” The words just tumbled out, but as soon as they did she felt a huge sense of relief.
“What’s wrong? Where are you?’ His voice, so full of concern for her, touched her heart. Maybe she had imagined his odd mood earlier and everything was all right?
“I don’t know. I got turned around trying to find your apartment in the dark.”
She heard his sigh into the phone, but it wasn’t one of annoyance. Rather, he sounded relieved that she was only lost, not hurt. “Okay. Just relax. Stay on the phone. I’m tracking you now.”
Angela smiled. She’d been right about him. He was her knight in shining armor, and he wasn’t angry with her.
“I have you. Stay there. I’m on the way. I should reach you in less than ten minutes.”
“All right. Thank you.”
“Everything else is okay, right?” Now his voice was filled with panic, and she wondered why. The overwhelming suspicion that he knew her secret cast a shadow over the relief that he was on his way to find her.
“Yes. I just feel foolish for getting lost.”
“It happens easily in the dark. I’m on my way, Angela.”
“All right.”
She disconnected the call but hung onto her phone as if it was a lifeline while she let her mind wander back to her dilemma. If only there was someone she could ask for advice, but what would any reasonable person tell her? It really was simple. If she told him, she’d have to move or leave the program, and her mother would only have the same two choices. She knew her mother would never leave. Or at least she thought she wouldn’t. They’d never discussed it.
Maybe the person she should talk to about this was her mom?
Angela was sobering up in a hurry now, which was good. She didn’t want Dominic to see her like this. As she waited for him, she went over every possible scenario in her mind of how her mother might react to the news that she was in love, and she wanted to tell the man the truth about her past.
By the time she spotted Dominic, walking purposefully toward her, she’d made the decision to speak with her mother as soon as possible. A huge weight lifted, and she rose to hug him tightly. “Thank you. I feel like such a dolt.”
He released the embrace and cupped her face gently. “How much did you have to drink?”
Sheesh. “Can’t get anything past you, can I?”
“Angela, I can smell it on you, and your eyes are bloodshot. Even in this dim light I can see that.”
His voice was soft but without any trace of anger. She let out the breath she’d been holding. “More than I should have.”
“All right. The important thing is you’re safe now, but seriously, I don’t want you doing this again. What if something had happened to you? What if I hadn’t been this close?”
“Everything you say is true, and I’m sorry. I really am sorry.” The tears slipped down her cheeks again before she could stop them, and that softened his gaze.
He pulled her close and stroked her hair. “I know you are. I shouldn’t lecture you. I have no right to. If anything ever happened to you,
I don’t know what I’d do.”
She buried her face against his shirt, her pulse racing. The alarm in his voice was evident. One or two little questions surely couldn’t hurt. That way she might pick up a clue as to what he’d found.
She was trying to formulate a question without giving away anything about her WITSEC status when his body stiffened. Angela lifted her face toward him and then followed Dominic’s gaze toward the corner of a building across the street. The figure of a man stood still, in shadow, but it was obvious he watched them. She had no clue who he was, but it was clear that Dominic recognized the man.
When she opened her mouth to speak, Dominic covered it with his hand. Sweat broke out along her hairline as she realized how damp his palm was. He was afraid. She’d never seen Dominic fearful of anyone, and that terrified her more than who this man might be.
He leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Turn around and walk with me. If I tell you to run, you run. Nod if you understand. Do not speak.”
Angela froze. The only thing that finally made her nod was his hand on her shoulder, squeezing hard. Her legs wouldn’t move. Dominic turned her around and placed an arm across her shoulder as he walked with her, but she nearly tripped over her own feet before her shoes struck the pavement with a normal rhythm.
Her entire body shook. She wanted desperately to glance over her shoulder to see if the man was following them, but knew if she did and saw him doing so, she’d be too terrified to run. She could barely breathe as it was.
Her stupid mistake had put them both in danger. She was sure of it. If anything happened to Dominic it would be her fault.
****
Dominic hoped like hell it was merely the stress of discovering who Angela was, and having to track her down just now that was making him hallucinate. Even as the doubt tried to worm its way in, he knew he hadn’t seen a phantom. He’d know the shape of that head and that stance anywhere. The man watching them was his cousin, Gene Trapani. He was certain of it. Apparently the man hadn’t disappeared off the face of the earth, because here he was in CentralWest!
The Price of Secrecy Page 11
