I stayed away from the college for the rest of the week, though I spent every afternoon sitting in the bistro listening to Ginger play the violin.
We secured the information for the cheating cases, and Mrs.
Stewart finally paid up for our services.
Everyone knew the twins usually hung out at a specific spot on the beach; I was with them today when a well-dressed, middle-aged woman walked toward us.
She clearly didn’t belong in the boys’ neighborhood, so she didn’t recognize us.
She looked visibly shaken.
“I’m looking for Leo,” the woman told Mike.
“They told me he’d be here.”
“I’m Leo,” Leo said, while I handed the woman my denim jacket to sit on.
“My daughter is missing,” she said.
“And they said you guys could help.”
“Tell me everything,” I said.
The woman explained that her eighteen-year-old daughter had come out to her and her husband.
Her husband had kicked the girl out—practically pushed her out the door—and she hadn’t come home since.
It had been two days.
“We’ll find her,” I said.
“But if she doesn’t want to be found, we won’t tell you where she is.
We’ll only tell you she’s safe.”
The woman spilled every detail about her daughter while Mike recorded her story on his phone.
“Anything is fine with me,” the woman said.
“I’ll divorce my husband if I have to, though he already regrets what he did.”
She pulled a stack of cash from her bag and tried to hand it over, but I shoved it back inside.
“That’s a lot of money,” I warned.
“You shouldn’t be walking around with that much cash.”
“My daughter is worth everything.”
Leo told her our fee, and at my signal, Mike walked her home.
People don’t carry that kind of money around here, and the local punks wouldn’t touch Mike—if they did, they’d lose any chance of future cooperation with us.
I finally got to drive my beauty to family lunch over the weekend.
That junker was constantly getting on my nerves.
Destiny was still clinging to my brother; this wasn’t going to end well.
“I’m very glad we managed to agree on the prenuptial agreement,” Father said at lunch, smiling.
“We have no objections to you, my dear,” he told Destiny, “but an old businessman like myself has to be cautious.”
“Of course,” Destiny smiled, shooting me a scathing look.
The wedding wasn’t going to happen anyway.
“What about you, Benjamin?” Father continued.
“Met anyone?”
“No, but I’m keeping my eyes open.”
“If you’d like, I can introduce you to a lovely girl,” Mom said.
Ben just sighed.
I was just glad to be so much younger and the established black sheep of the family.
On Monday, I went back to my classes and sat down at Ginger’s table for lunch.
The three friends shot me questioning looks.
“I’d like to apologize,” I said.
“You too, Dom,” I added.
“And I’d like to sit here, if that’s okay.”
“Go ahead,” Anna said with a smile.
“You got Ginger home safe, so you can stay.”
I started eating in silence while they discussed today’s deadline for the internship.
I considered asking Benjamin for a favor to get them hired, but I changed my mind.
I pulled the novel from my bag and handed it to Ginger.
She had freshly manicured, neutral-toned nails; she’d always been a nail-biter before.
“I finished it,” I said.
“Just give it back whenever you’re done.”
“If I open it, is something going to fall out?” she asked, smiling.
“No, it’s empty,” I grinned.
“They were put to good use.”
Mostly by Leo, but that didn’t matter now.
“What was in it?” Anna asked.
“A dead bug?”
“No,” Ginger replied.
“Just some of Cas’s small things.”
“I wouldn’t call them small,” I remarked.
Ginger ignored the comment as they packed up for class.
I headed out with them.
“You don’t show up every day,” Ginger noted, walking beside me in the hallway.
She stepped to the side so she could look up at me without breaking her neck.
“I don’t like this school,” I said.
“It’s dead boring, but my father expects me to be here.”
“Should we study with you?” Anna asked kindly.
“Let it go, Anna,” Ginger said.
“That’s a bit too ‘Mother Teresa’ for him.”
“I’d appreciate it, but I don’t need anything better than a C,” I replied.
“You don’t have much ambition,” Ginger laughed.
“But we’ll figure something out.”