I’d never seen that look before, and certainly not directed at me. “You look just like your father when you set your jaw like that,” she said quietly. The soft look only lasted a few seconds before it faded. “It’s about time you asserted yourself,” she said, giving me a sharp nod. “I will refrain from interfering in matters between you and Darcy. As for the man—”
I cut her off again, breaking my own record. “I’m not willing to give him up. I know it’s early and it’s possible that things won’t work out between us, but that will be for Neto and I todetermine.” I swallowed, my bravery almost extinguished. “I’d like for you to meet him. I’ll make dinner this week and invite him.”
And my mother shocked me for the second time that day as she said, “Fine. There’s someone I’d like you to meet as well. I’ve been seeing someone.”
Neto squeezed my hand, pulling me back to the present moment. I squeezed his, too. “All this time I’ve been trying to please my mom with my compliance, but it wasn’t until I defied her that I earned a measure of her respect. It’s going to take a while for us to work through this. She won’t handle my independence well. But I asserted myself and she respected it.”
“That was not a small thing, standing up to your mother. You should be proud of yourself.”
I was tempted to hurry to the end of my speech but I wanted to do this right, so I carefully placed the certificate in my bag and pulled the collar of my shirt down over my very tender shoulder. “Here’s the second thing I wanted to show you.”
“¡No manches!You got a tattoo!” He very gently ran his thumb across my skin next to the wispy feather outlined in black, sending a happy shiver down my spine. “I love it.”
“It’s to remind me that I belong to myself. That my choices aremineto make. They always were, even if I convinced myself otherwise. And I made a very bad choice recently.”
“Oh?” He continued to stroke my shoulder with his guitar-callused thumb, but he raised his gaze from my tattoo to my eyes.
“I let my fear of my mother’s disapproval get in the way of what I really want, which is to be with you. And I’m terrified that I ruined everything.” A tear slipped down my cheek and onto my bare shoulder.
“No,mi amor.” He brought his lips to my shoulder and kissed away the tear, then wiped the wetness from my cheek. “You didn’t ruin anything.”
“I’m so sorry, Neto. Please forgive me.”
He scooped me up and pulled me onto his lap where he wrapped me in a huge bear hug. I buried my face in the crook of his shoulder and let him hold me. “Anne, there’s nothing to forgive. I know this was hard for you.”
“You were right to call me out. I was scared by how much I wanted you, scared of my mother’s disapproval, scared that if I told you how I felt about you that you’d get spooked and leave me for one of the hundreds of girls that are obsessed with you.”
He shook his head. “You’re the only one I want.”
I may have earned a five-minute penalty, but I spent much longer than that in the box with Neto, my fingers buried in his curls and his lips on mine.
“I think I’m falling in love with you, Neto,” I murmured onto his lips.
He smiled. “I wish I could take you to the recording studio so I could hear you say that to me again and again,mi amor. Because I’ve already fallen.”
I sat up straight, his words bringing the other thing I needed to tell him back to the forefront of my mind. “I found a cassette tape that was left at the concert hall, and if I’m not mistaken, it will lead us to Paolo’s killer.”
Chapter 15
Netodroveusinhis sleek sports car. The concert hall was dark as I opened the lobby door with my key. We strode purposefully through the space, our feet loud against the marble tile. I was eager to confirm my theory, but I paused in front of the Grey Doors poster. I wasn’t in such a hurry that I wanted to forgo my ritual. This time, though, instead of kissing the poster, I kissed the real Ernesto Garcia softly on the lips.
When we reached the practice rooms, I went to the one where the police had interrogated me. Sure enough, the small tape recorder I had seen was still sitting on the table, its owner unable to retrieve it without a key.
I popped the cassette tape from the coat pocket into the old recorder and pushed play. Just as I’d expected,Carol of the Bellsfilled my ears, the same few lines repeating over and over.
“Who’s playing?” Neto asked.
“James. I thought he was in the room next to me, that he was practicing his part. I thought it was odd that he kept making the same mistake over and over again. Now I understand. Herecorded himself playing so everyone would think he was in the room, then snuck out to kill Paolo.”
“But why would he give you the tape?”
“He didn’t. He hid it in a coat pocket, maybe mistaking it for his own coat.”
Neto took a deep breath. “Do we go to the police?”
“Yes, but this isn’t enough to prove that it was him. We need to get him to admit it. I’m going to call him and see if he’ll meet me here.”
“There’s no way I’m sitting this one out.”
