Eric recited the plan like he was reading the back of the barf bag on an airplane.
“What is it?” she asked, sensing his unease.
Eric glanced over his shoulder before saying, “If you say you trust him, then I trust him. But if you have any doubts. Any at all, Dri, tell me now.”
“Vega’s harmless,” she said, “and you’re the one trying to prolong ties, making Dom eyes at his daughter.”
“That’s not—” He looked at her, eyebrows raising. “I’m not making Dom eyes at Daniela.”
Adria crossed her arms. “Is that so? Telling her what to eat for breakfast, and what she should wear?”
Eric pursed his lips in a way that she knew he was suppressing a smile.
“What is it with her, anyway?” she asked, curious. Eric always went for seasoned players at the club. And from what Adria could tell, Daniela was vanilla. Or at least Danielathoughtshe was vanilla.
Eric cracked his knuckles. “There isn’t anything to get. She is Vega’s daughter and a potential way to get your mother back, that’s all.”
“Eric, you are a grown man. Please don’t lie to me. If you don’t want to talk about it, just say that.”
“Okay, I don’t want to talk about it,” he said, a soft smile on his face.
“Oh my God, YOU LIKE HER,” Adria exclaimed into the garden.
Eric acted like she had struck him. Hands in the air, his face was pleading. “Shhh, I didn’t say that.”
Adria bounced in her seat, but lowered her voice. “No, of course not. Can’t say where I got the idea.”
Eric’s expression turned serious. “And no, I wasn’t talking about Vega, I am talking about X.”
Adria stilled.
“I trust X,” she said automatically.
Eric stared at her. His eyes burning into her.
Waving her hand, she said, “I’ve been talking to him since I was eighteen.”
Eric nodded. “It would be normal to have doubts.”
She hated the soft tone he was taking with her. Like she was a child about to be told her goldfish died.
“My mother trusts him,” she said, pushing her chin out.
Her mother had given X the recording of her voice. Telling Adria how happy she was to see that she had graduated from high school. She would have never done that if X had nefarious intentions.
“You haven’t heard from her in thirty years,” Eric said.
Eric was right.
The recording X had sent her was the only one she had.
“What are you saying?” she said, an edge creeping into her voice.
The kindness in Eric’s eyes made what he was about to say almost impossible to hear.
“I think you need to be prepared for the possibility that she is no longer alive.”
If anyone else but Eric had said this to her, she would have had their balls.
