The surrender we both make to the moment settles something in my soul. Things are going to be okay ... eventually. They have to be. Unfortunately, like all great things, the kiss is over too quickly, but probably not fast enough for Dominic, judging by the furious look on his face when I turn around.
“How long?” His eyes cut from me to Griffin.
“A couple of weeks,” I answer.
At the same time, Griffin grunts, “Five long years. For your ungrateful ass.”
I press my lips together to hide the smile trying to lift them. Rushing to explain the latest turn of events, I say, “For me, it’s a couple of weeks with this whole ring fiasco, and Griffin helping me with it.”
The mention of what brought us all here tonight is another cold-water damper and kills my smile.
“What’re you doing with that?” my brother asks. Dominic is a doer. He needs a mission, and I think for a long time, I’ve been his number-one mission. Protect Penny. Not that I needed his protection. And he thought he was doing that by fighting Griffin. I don’t think he’s done with that mission, but sensing he’s losing the battle, he’s retreating to fight again and win the war. He won’t, but I’ll gladly take the momentary reprieve of focusing on another mission where I could use his help.
“Hiding?” I suggest unhelpfully.
“Yeah, no. That’s not good enough,” Dominic declares.
“Well, I’m open to suggestions. What’cha got?”
But Dominic doesn’t look to me. He turns to Griffin. “What have you been doing?”
Griffin grabs a hold of the back of his neck and cuts his eyes toward me. His voice is rough in that way that says he’s ashamed of something when he finally says, “There’s a little more to the story that you don’t know yet.”
“Oh yeah, Johnny K said he’d call Griffin if he found out anything about the mugger. He’s supposed to be scouring the dark underbelly of the city to see if he can suss out any intel, but more likely, he scammed Griffin out of a thousand dollars.” I report that as if I’m summarizing the latestLaw & Orderepisode, with all the dramatic retelling I can muster.
“Johnny K? Who’s that?” Dominic asks.
I almost clap in excitement because he asked Griffin, not me. See? They’re talking again like the bestie bros they’ve always been. I knew Dom couldn’t stay mad that long. Well, I hoped. And it seems like I was right!
“Sketchy pawnshop-owner-slash-stolen-goods-fence we talked to about the ring and thief,” Griffin answers.
“You took my baby sister to some dangerous hole-in-the-wall pawnshop?” Dom rumbles. Well shit, that didn’t last long, because he’s quickly ramping back up.
I hold up a finger. “To point, Johnny K’s was fancy, and Griffin didn’t take me anywhere. I was going there based on Mad Dog’s recommendation. He’s the super-helpful but kinda scary fence I talked to first on my own without telling Griffin, and when it went a teeny-tiny bit sideways—” Dom’s eyes widen and he opens his mouth like he’s going to cut me off, so I keep on chattering away, not even pausing to breathe in the hopes that he won’t interrupt. “I smartly called Griffin for reinforcements. So no, he didn’ttakeme. Hewent with mebecause I asked him to. If he’d said no, or tried to stop me, I would’ve gone without him, and there’s no telling where I’d be now ...” I trail off, playing up the danger factor to get my brother to realize that Griffin did right by me, and he should be thanking Griffin, not blaming him.
“Seriously? Why the fuck do you even care about this ring that much?” Dom finally asks. “It sucks it was stolen, but can’t you just design another one?”
My jaw falls open as I glare at my brother. “You did not just tell me to make another one, as if each piece I make isn’t one of my precious babies.” He rolls his eyes, acting like I’m being dramatic, and maybe I am, but my work is important to me. “Yeah, if you couldn’t play hockey anymore, you could just get another job. It’d be no big deal, right?”
“That’s not the same thing and you know it.”
“It’s exactly the same thing!” I protest. “Plus, that ring was special. It was gorgeous and I had so many ideas for it. And it was really expensive. Redesigning it was going to take my work to the next level.”
But all Dominic hears is the money issue. “I’ll pay for it. Whatever it cost, and you can just walk away. Tell those guys it’s gone and be done with it.”
“Believe me, I tried to pay for it,” Griffin tells Dominic, commiserating over my refusal to take his money.
I want them to reconnect, but not over my annoying tendencies.
“Griffin tried. Talia tried. But I’m paying it off myself. Because it’s not about the money. It’s about what’s right.”
“It’s not that cut and dry,” Griffin says quietly. He has a weird look on his face that I can’t place. The closest thing I can relate it to is ... regret. After an audible deep breath, he starts pacing. Oh shit. He seems to pace when he’s about to drop a bomb, and I already don’t think I like this. “There’s more to the ring, more to the guys.”
“What do you mean?” Dominic asks slowly, like he can sense something’s wrong. And he probably can because, despite tonight’s demonstration to the contrary, Dominic is usually a good friend and likely knows his bestie’s tells too.
Griffin sends me a remorseful look and then licks his lip before saying, “When it first got stolen, I went into that antique shop to see if I could find out anything about the ring. I thought I could just buy another one. That’s when I saw those guys talking to the owner.”
“Carolynn,” I fill in helpfully.
