“Don’t worry too much. Jason Mosedale was sitting next to him. If there was anything going on, Jason would have noticed.”
Right. That actually did ease her mind. If anything was wrong, Jason would have handled it.
Dominic crossed to the driver’s side window and said something to Ahmad. He was probably telling him to go back to her house so they could check on her father.
“He said he can break a few speed limits,” Dominic said when he came back to the passenger side. He opened the door and took her arm to tug her toward it. “We can still make it.”
“I can’t. I need to go back. Something’s wrong, I can feel it.”
“You’re being absurd. Call someone. Call that fire chief. That’s what he gets paid for, isn’t it? Say you need a wellness check.”
“Don’t talk about him like he’s a servant,” she snapped. It grated on her nerves, that condescending tone he took.
“I’m just saying—”
She cut him off. “I get it. I’m calling him now. Just…go back over there.” She gestured for him to step away from her.
“Jesus,” he muttered under his breath.
She dialed Jason’s number but got his voice mail. Why was no one answering their phones? Should she call nine-one-one dispatch and ask whoever was on duty to do a wellness check on her father? It seemed excessive, considering that she had no evidence that her father was in any kind of trouble. Most likely things had unfolded exactly as she imagined—he’d driven home and gone straight to bed. His phone was probably plugged in and charging, set to “do not disturb.”
A wellness check might scare him. She’d heard horror stories of wellness checks gone wrong. Luckily, every firefighter in Lake Bittersweet knew her father. That probably wasn’t a huge concern, but there was always a risk.
Do not disturb. There was a way to get past it, she suddenly remembered. You had to call twice in a row. She called Jason again, twice. No answer. Then her father, twice. No answer. Then finally she called the home phone, just in case his cell phone was still dead. No answer.
“We’ve got to go back to my house, Dominic. I can’t get through to Jason and my dad’s not answering any of his phones.”
“Absolutely not,” Dominic said sharply. “Kendra, listen to yourself. You’re being paranoid. We just left Lake Bittersweet an hour ago. What could possibly have happened in that amount of time?”
“I don’t know. Anything. Everything.”
He gazed into her eyes with that familiar intensity that used to absolutely liquefy her. “Where’s my logical queen? Won’t you feel like a fool when you get back and everything’s fine, and we’ve missed our flight and I have to explain to Colin Atwood that my brilliant partner has a paranoid streak and can’t be relied on and they’d better find someone else to head up Explastica?”
“I don’t care about any of that!” she cried.
Their argument had drawn the attention of Ahmad, who popped his head over the top of the Honda. “Is there a problem?”
“Ahmad, I need to go back to where you picked us up. Will you take me?”
“Scratch that,” said Dominic. “We’re not doing that. Get in the fucking car. Ahmad, we’re staying on track.”
“I’m not getting in that car unless you go where I tell you.” Kendra fixed Ahmad with a firm stare.
The poor driver gripped the frame of his Honda in a kind of panic. “I don’t know the rules. Will I get in trouble? I don’t know what to do.”
“I’m the one who booked you, so you answer to me,” said Dominic. “She’ll be fine, she’s just being hysterical.”
“Dominic, I swear to fucking God, if we don’t get to my father’s house in the next five minutes, I will not get on that plane with you. I will never go to London. I will never sell. You can tell Colin Atwood to go fuck himself.”
“We have to sell.”
For a flash, she caught rage and panic on his handsome face. Then it was gone. “This is your chance, too, Kendra. You can start new with a chunk of cash. I know you, you’ll love it in London. It’s fast-paced, high-stress, high-stakes. It’s everything you’ve always wanted.”
The quickly suppressed desperation in his voice told her there was more he wasn’t telling her. But it didn’t matter anymore. Because finally, for good, she was done with Dominic Robb.
“You think you know me so well, but you don’t. Because you never came to meet my father and therefore you have no idea how important he is to me. You only know one thing about me, that I want to succeed. And you use it to manipulate me.”
God, it was liberating to say these things out loud. Finally, she was speaking her mind to Dominic. Being herself. Living up to her favorite Eartha Kitt quote.
Did she owe Jason for that? She couldn’t think about him right now, she had to get home.
“Can you just get in the fucking car, Kendra?” Dominic yelled. “I’m done with this shit.”
“Good, because I’m done too. I’m calling my own Uber.” She whipped out her phone. “And shouldn’t you be saying ‘bloody’ car, you fake-ass grifter?”
Just then her phone rang. It was Jason. Her heart racing a mile a minute, she accepted the call.
“Sorry I didn’t pick up before. I’m with Alvin. We just got to the hospital. He’s in the exam room right now. I don’t know what’s going on yet, but he seemed disoriented so I insisted that he get checked out. He didn’t want me to bother you, but I knew you’d want to know.”
Twenty-Nine
“I’ll call you right back,” said Kendra tensely, then ended the call.
In the waiting room at the Braddock hospital, Jason stared at his phone. Had he done the right thing?
“She’s on her way to London, let her be,” Alvin kept saying. “I feel fine.”
But he was so confused that he hadn’t remembered some of the information on the check-in form. Jason had played the fire chief card and convinced the charge nurse to overlook a few details until he could track down a family member.
After that, Jason gave Alvin a choice. He could either call his wife Ruth, who was still in Arkansas, or Kendra. But someone from his family had to be notified. As the nurse guided him toward an exam room, Alvin had given in and told Jason to call Kendra first.
It hadn’t been easy to dial her number. She was in the process of ditching him, after all. But Alvin’s health was more important than any relationship drama. She would be furious if something was going on with Alvin and no one told her. And if the worst happened, she’d be devastated.
So far, he hadn’t gotten much information from the medical staff. But he’d seen enough medical emergencies to know that this was more than dehydration or exhaustion. Stroke? Something worse? They’d know soon.
His phone rang. Kendra.
“Are you in Braddock?” she asked tensely.
“Yeah. He’s in an exam room right now. It might be nothing. Do you want me to just keep you posted?”
“No, I’m coming. I just have to wait for another Uber. Dominic left.”