I looked down. I couldn’t stop myself. There were men watching them. Carter had sent them. I didn’t know about the rest, but Ben wasn’t as crazy as she thought. As I slid out of the booth, I mustered up a smile. “On that sanitary note, I think I’m going to head home.”

“Tomorrow?”

I stopped, caught by the earnest hope on her face, and nodded. “Yeah. You know, let’s do something fun. Maybe a night at Octave?”

Her eyes lit up. “Serious?”

“Serious. We’ll have our own box too.”

“Is your man going to be there?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea. He tries to come if he’s not busy.”

“So you’re saying it could be just the two of us, in our own private box?”

“Is that a problem?”

“Nope. Just means I can get wasted and not worry about looking like a fool.”

When his phone rang, Carter inwardly sighed. It wasn’t the ring he wanted to hear. He picked up his phone, “Gene?”

“You have a problem.”

He didn’t blink or react. It was how he assumed the conversation would start. “With what?”

“Our cops called. All of them said the same thing, your woman’s roommate was found an hour ago.”

He held back his grimace. He already knew it wasn’t good news. “She’s dead.”

“Yep, beaten and strangled. Cops think the boyfriend did it, that one you said would be a problem.”

“They know why?” Emma would want to know. She’d want to understand and then she’d blame herself.

“A butcher knife was taken to her stomach. They think she was pregnant and the prick didn’t like who the father was.”

Dunvan.

Carter sighed. “Okay. Thanks for letting me know.”

“The boyfriend’s still missing. Cops are canvassing the neighborhood for him, but right now they only think he was a crackhead. You know what’ll happen if he’s taken into custody.”

“Crackhead?” But Carter knew that’s what Franco had done. Get them hooked and they belong to you forever.

“Yeah,” the older man sounded wary. “They were using an abandoned apartment in a warehouse. It looked like a usual crackhead’s place. You know what’s all there.”

Carter nodded to himself. “Find the boyfriend before the cops do.”

“What are you going to say to your woman?”

He never hesitated. “I’m going to tell her that her roommate died from a miscarriage and bled out.”

“That’s it?”

“She doesn’t need to know the rest. She’ll know the friend she tried to protect is dead anyway.”

“Listen to you. You’re going soft on us, Carter. Pretty soon you’re going to be having emotions and shit like that.”

“What would you feel, Gene? If the situation were reversed and it was your woman?” he asked, suddenly exhausted. He was stalling. He knew it and he asked the question anyway.

The other man laughed into the phone. “Fuck. I don’t got no feelings, not after this long in the business. I’m surprised you do.”

Did he? An image of Emma’s heart-shaped face appeared in his mind and anger rushed to him. The damn boyfriend. The prick could hurt her. After all he’d done to keep her from harm, and now this. He murmured into his phone, “I’ve got enough feeling to know what I’d like to do to that boyfriend of her roommate’s.”

“I hear you. I’ll be missing you around these parts.”

“I won’t.”

Gene chuckled, low and gravelly, “Bye friend.”

Carter’s goodbye was a command, “Find the boyfriend.” When he hung up, there was no regret or doubt. Carter punched in the number for her driver and told him to bring her home as soon as possible. When that call was done, he stood and left his office. He knew he would pretty-up the conversation as much as he could, but for the first time in a long time, he was scared. He wasn’t used to being scared of anything, but that’s all he’d been with Emma since she came back into his life. Terrified.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Mike waited beside the car next to the curb. I took two steps when I heard my name being called. Theresa was outside the hotel with her hand in the air. When she saw that I was waiting, she hurried over. “Hi! I bet you’re shocked to see me like this.”

To say the least.

My tone was cool, but I was curious. “What’s up, Theresa?”

She nodded with her cheeks puffed out. “Okay. Here I go.” A deep breath. “I’ve been a bitch. I know I have. I’m really sorry. I have no excuses. I really don’t, but the idea of what he did and the whole story about what you did really had me confused.”

“It wasn’t a story.”

“I know it wasn’t. Trust me, Noah’s hounded me for days when he found out that I’ve been less than friendly to you.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re doing this because of Noah?”

“No, no! I don’t do anything because of Noah. Life would probably be easier if I did, but I’m too stubborn and thick-headed. I’m doing this because it’s taken this long for me to realize that I was wrong. If you did what you did, why you said, then you don’t deserve going to jail and I understand why you couldn’t come forward. I wouldn’t have the courage to stay here and try to have a normal life after that. I get it. I do. I really do.” She grimaced. “And now I’m babbling. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for not being a friend. There’s no excuse. I should’ve said this stuff to you a long time ago, not wait until a month later because I was embarrassed.”