“I assumed Ballistic would have told you,” he said, looking at me as I tried not to laugh.
“He did!” she shouted. “I knew as soon as he knew, becausehecalled to tell me. One of you little fuckers should have done it! Put her on the damn phone.”
He handed it over without argument, then went into the bathroom and shut the door.
“Hey Rosa,” I sat down on the bed
“Oh thank Jesus. You have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice, honey. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Rosa, I promise. It could have been worse but there was someone there who helped.”
“Randy told me.”
“If you know all of this, why were you yelling at Hudson?”
“Cos he’s an insensitive, selfish asshole.”
“Tell me how you really feel,” I lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. I made sure he was still in the bathroom with the door closed. “He told me he loved me.”
“About damn time. You say it back?”
“Yeah. I did.”
“Good. You belong here, with us. I know you needed to leave that night, you couldn’t have stayed and it was good for you to follow your dreams, I just wish you hadn’t left under those circumstances.”
“That’s all in the past.”
“Is it though?”
I thought about it, my life back there, Declan, all of it. There was nothing fulfilling about my life. Rosa was right, I’d took that chance and achieved my goals. Now, what I wanted was different.
"Yes. Once all this shit is over, I'll get my own place.”
She laughed. Loudly. “Girl, if you think he is letting that happen you’re out of your mind.”
“I just decided I’m staying, you think we’re going to jump right in at the deep end?”
“He built that house for a reason.”
“Rosa,” I sighed heavily, quickly checking the door again. “If none of this had happened, I doubt I would have seen him again.”
“Don’t be so sure. He just needed to get his shit together.”
“We’ll never know now. How’s Connor?” I asked, changing the subject. “Warren told me you found him. That must have been so awful, Rosa, I’m sorry youhad to see that.”
“At least I got there in time,” she answered quietly. “I did everything I could for him but finding out you were missing too… Shit, honey that was real hard to take.”
“Well, we don’t need to dwell on that anymore, we need to focus on taking Danica down.”
Rosa’s throaty laugh filled my ear. “Just like that asshole Reinhart.”
“Yeah, the list is growing,” I blew out a breath. “I haven’t had chance to catch up with anyone about that, what’s happening with him?”
“I don’t think there have been any charges against him. Cassie said the reporter is angling to get women to come forward and actually pursue a civil suit against him.”
That didn’t really help. I wanted him behind bars for what he had done, but I understood the law and the statute of limitations meant he could potentially get away with it. I tried not to let that get me down. I had more important things to worry about and whoever this mystery reporter friend of Warren’s was, I trusted she could take care of it.
“I do know his business is in real trouble. I have a contact in an accountants firm who may or may not work for the asshole. Whomayormay nothave told me without the Curtis contract, he won’t be able to pay off some of the creditors who’ve been after the company for the last couple of years.”
