“Well, fuck.”Alicia harrumphed and joined Grace on the couch.
His phone vibrated with a text message.
Vivian: Well, fuck.
He concurred with Alicia and Vivian.Their sentiment summed things up, didn’t it?He tapped his molars.He hated being surprised.
“Do we need to dust for prints?Call the cops?”Alicia asked.“Get a restraining order?”
“It’s not against the law to send someone a letter,” he pointed out.
“It’s obviously a threat.Only a moron would miss that.”
“Let’s not forget.”Grace’s unsteady voice barely registered above a whisper.“Itisagainst the law to fake your own death.”
True enough.“Let’s set the faked death issue aside and deal with it later.”
For that, he didn’t have answers.She hadn’t done it fraudulently, and the feds had been involved in her initial plans to disappear.So long as they weren’t still upset about her leaving them high and dry without testifying—something that would have been infinitely easier for them to swallow before Marino had been released early from prison—all would be okay.Either way, not a problem for today.
He stared at the ceiling as if hidden answers could be found there.After a few seconds and no answers, Callum rubbed a hand over his face and admitted, “I have no idea about the intricacies of restraining orders when the…”victimwasn’t the right word for this conversation, “…when someone is supposed to be six feet under.”
“That complicates matters,” Alicia agreed.
“But Titan has lawyers.We have people who know people.Important, well-connected people.”
Grace frowned.“That sounds too much like Dominic’s network.Well-connected like the Mafia.”
He turned to her.“Obviously, Grace, we’re not the Mafia.We can look into it quietly.Before the grocery store, had you ever thought that he or his people had found you?”
She shook her head.“When he was first arrested, I was certain he was tracking me.His goons knew where I was and what I was doing, and his lawyers would pass cryptic messages to mine.On the surface, they were fine, but I always understood the deeper meaning.”
“Which was?”
Her shoulders scrunched.“Stay home.Be quiet.Do what I was told.Which was to do nothing.”Her breath shook.“I’m positive he knew when I met with the federal marshals.”
“How?”
“I don’t remember exactly.Relayed messages with hidden meanings.I tried to explain it to my attorneys, to the feds, but I couldn’t prove it.”
“They thought you were being paranoid.”
She nodded.“Even if I were, who was I kidding?I knew Dominic’s reach.If he wasn’t already keeping tabs on me and my family, he would have started before I testified.”
The more Grace talked, the more Callum could see the multiplying effect Dominic had on her.Callum saw why Hayden had agreed to Grace’s fake death.
He paced the living room.He didn’t know everything yet.“I know there was some…” Guilt thickened the blood in his veins.“… strife in your marriage.Your divorce proceedings didn’t go into detail, but—”
“You read it?”Grace flushed.The embarrassed pink colored her cheeks.She shuffled her feet and dug her toe onto the pink area rug that lay over the dark wood floors.“I thought that was sealed.”
“I read a summary.”
“Yeah, there was some strife.”
“Can you give me any more than that?”
“Why?”Alicia snapped.
“I’ve obviously missed a whole lot of what’s happened.”A truth that would probably always haunt him.“I’ve been caught off guard, and if you give me some background, maybe I’ll have better footing.”
