I tried to move around Jonah and go to Luca. It was in my nature to help someone in need and he clearly was destroyed over what he did, even a year later.
Jonah locked me to his side.
“What is it going to take, Jonah? I’ve apologized over and over. I’ve sought help. I lost the only woman I ever loved. I haven’t had my birthday or holidays with my family in a year. And now Helen’s dead. I need to make amends, brother. I need you in my life. I love you. I want to be here for you, during this. What more do you need?” His shoulders sagged and I was surprised he didn’t fall to his knees and beg for his brother’s forgiveness.
“Time. I need more time,” Jonah answered flatly. “Especially now.”
Luca licked his lips, sniffed, and nodded. “You shouldn’t be dealing with this alone.”
“I’m not. I’ve got Simone. And Ryan.”
“Ryan. Your brother by choice.” He let out a harsh breath. “Got it. He’s perfect, and I’m the piece of shit alcoholic. I get it. I bought that. Deserve it even.”
“Yeah, you do,” Jonah added.
Luca continued. “It doesn’t change how much it hurts, brother.” He put his hand in his back pocket, opened his wallet, and pulled out a business card. He looked at me and held it up between two fingers. “Please call me if either of you needs anything. And I mean anything.” He set the card down on the table in front of us. “Simone, I wish we were meeting under better circumstances. I can see by the way he’s holding onto you and shielding you from me, how much you mean to him. One day I hope to get to know you too.”
Jonah’s arms tightened on me. I stayed right where I was, not moving an inch or reaching out my hand to shake his. Especially since there was a very real possibility of a job with Luca and his father in the near future. Jonah was my priority, even though anyone could see how very much this man missed his brother and wanted to make amends. It was also obvious that Jonah was not ready to accept his apology or offer forgiveness.
Time would have to heal these wounds.
Luca offered a brief nod to Quinn and then to my sister before spinning around and leaving the same way he came.
Jonah turned to me and I lifted my hands to his shoulders. “You okay?”
He shook his head. “No, but I will be.”
I nodded.
“Okay. Well, we’re going to get moving on Operation Relocate My Family. Simone, please for the love of God, check in with us daily. It’s more important now than ever before.”
“Sorry, SoSo. I will, I promise.”
She gave me a hug and then looked at Jonah for a moment and made a decision. She hugged him too. That was huge. My sister only hugged people she genuinely cared for. I was the touchy feely one in our duo.
“Take care of my sister. She’s the most important person in the world to me.” She pointed to him. “I’m counting on you.”
He gave a soft smile just to her. “She’s important to me too. I’ll protect her with my life.”
Swoon.
I went over to Quinn and he hugged me for a long time. “I’m glad you’re alive and I don’t have to kill you for making me deal with a frightened and angry SoSo.”
I laughed. “Will you put me back on the chocolate almond butter clusters gift list for Christmas?” I puffed out my bottom lip and batted my eyelashes.
He grinned and smacked my cheek affectionately. “We’ll see how you do with checking in over the next week.”
“Come on! That’s not fair. You know I’m crappy at touching base. It’s like you’re setting me up for failure.” I crossed my arms and tapped my foot dramatically.
He shrugged. “If you want the clusters, you’ll check in. Simple as that. I want a happy and focused Senator, not a freaking out, often grouchy, and sometimes bitchy SoSo who’s worried about her only living blood relative. Life’s about choices, Simone. Make good ones.”
I lifted my head to the ceiling and groaned. “Now you’re being mean. Fine! But I better get a double batch!”
He winked, hooked his arm with Sonia’s, and led her toward the door. She was already head down, eyes on her phone typing away. Work-a-holic. Still, he was right. I knew that my safety and ability to breathe were Sonia’s biggest weaknesses. Anyone trying to wound her would only have to bruise me. That’s all it would take.
“Love you, SoSo, and love you, Quinn. Good luck with the fam!” I called out as they were leaving then turned to Jonah. “That was a pretty intense smack down with your brother, baby…”
Jonah clenched his teeth and shook his head. “We’re not talking about him. Not right now. Maybe not ever.”
And of course, when I was about to grill him, his phone rang, Ryan’s name appearing on the screen.
“Saved by the bell.”
He smirked. “Mind getting us some pizza?”
“Oooh! I forgot.” My mouth started to water, and my belly took notice. “Though no more whiskey. You’re switching to beer.”
“Sounds good.”
Jonah answered the phone while I set about getting me and my hot FBI guy some food.
“What now?”
Jonah and I spent the rest of the day vegging, eating, and watching mindless TV. Every hour or so he’d get a call from Ryan with an update. So far, we had Helen’s last known whereabouts. Turned out she’d met some friends at a bar. Her phone’s GPS stopped there. The authorities found the broken device smashed and tossed in the field adjacent to the poolhall. Jonah gave Ryan a list of friends of theirs to find out whether she’d met up with any of them. When they narrowed down the names to a few she’d been with that night, they guessed she’d left around eleven in the evening. Based on the timing from when she left Jonah’s parents to the time she met up with her friends, those friends were the last to see her alive. The FBI’s best guess was that she was followed from Jonah’s parents’ house to the bar. The killer must have waited for her to exit the establishment alone before he struck. Her car was still parked in the back near a dumpster.
No one heard or saw anything. The pool hall had cameras, but the car was parked out of the line of sight of the cameras.
The FBI and most especially Jonah seemed to be most interested in the autopsy results. Jonah had called Helen’s parents and spent a good hour talking to them. He offered to handle her remains and thankfully they declined. Though it would be a while before they could lay Helen to rest properly since she was part of an ongoing murder investigation.
Me, I was fretting about work, waiting for my boss at Tracks to call me back. I’d informed the on-site manager about what was going on. I asked for a week or two off in order to give the FBI time to find their man, and she said she would relay it to Owen and have him call me back. He owned the bar but wasn’t known for being the nicest guy. He paid a fair wage and didn’t hit on the women who worked for him, but he didn’t have any emotional connection to his staff nor was he cool about sick days and time off. He had the ‘work your ass off for what you want’ mentality. Which I totally understood. That’s all I’d ever been doing since I secured a work permit at fifteen. I just knew he wasn’t going to be cool about me needing the time away regardless of the severity of the situation.