Suspicious Minds (Fate #3) (22 page)

Fifteen

Lorenzo

The burritos Romero had picked up for Lorenzo and Vince
from Moreno’s were as good as ever. Lorenzo and Vince sat in the empty back training
room, eating theirs. It was where the lectures and state-mandated videos for
their armed security courses were normally held.

Romero, who’d been at the firing range with some of his new hires
for a few hours now, walked in just as Lorenzo poured more green sauce onto his
burrito. “You got the shrimp and steak, right?” Romero asked Lorenzo as he
approached them.

Lorenzo nodded as he chewed the delicious burrito. After wiping
his mouth, he was able to talk. “I don’t think I’ve had this one before, but it’s
damn good.”

“I got the
al carbon
burrito,” Vince said, wiping his lip
with a napkin. “This shit is good, but I don’t remember this hot sauce being so
spicy.” Vince grabbed his soda and took a good long drink.

“Speaking of spicy,” Romero said, grabbing a chair and the bag on
the table then straddling his chair as well. He eyed Lorenzo with a dumb smirk,
and instantly, Lorenzo knew where this was going. “When I first heard about you
and Livi, I thought maybe you were just, you know, hanging out with her. No big
deal. But you’re hanging out with the family now too. So I take it this is
getting serious?”

Lorenzo stuffed the last piece of burrito in his mouth, crumpling
the foil it’d come in and stood up. He nodded as he lobbed the foil ball into
the wastebasket in the corner of the room, smiling when it swooshed in
beautifully. Wiping his mouth, he turned back to Romero, who was now eating his
burrito but still eyeing Lorenzo.

“It’s
been
serious,” he said, walking to the desk behind
Vince. “I’m not in the habit of going out with anyone more than once if I’m not
serious.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Vince said with a mouth full then wiped his
mouth and turned to Romero. “Rosie really likes her too. She seems like a real
nice girl.

“She is. They all are. She and her siblings,” Romero said then
smiled still chewing. “And I’m not just saying that because they’re my cousins.
They went through some major shit.” He shook his head. “No one should ever have
to go through that shit, and yet they pulled through it all.”

Lorenzo had started scrolling through his phone when Romero’s
comment got his attention, and he glanced up at him, but Romero had just taken
another bite. He thought of Liv’s mom. The night Liv had first told him about
her parents passing in the same year she said she’d preferred to hold off until
another time to talk about her mother’s death. She said it was too heavy a
subject for that night. Ever since then Lorenzo’s cowardly ass had steered
clear from asking. It wasn’t just that he could do without hearing any details
of a possibly long torturous illness that ended in death for her mom. He just
figured if that’s what it was, he didn’t need to know the details, so he didn’t
see the point in making his sweet girl relive it. Now he wondered if there was
more to it.
No one should ever go through that?

“How’s she doing with that by the way?” Romero asked when he was
finally done chewing. “Her brothers never talk about it, but Uncle Lou told
Manny and Max the two younger ones had been in therapy for months afterward. I
think Livi and the older ones passed on the therapy.”

Lorenzo stared at Romero now, feeling stupid about how serious he
made it sound and yet here he didn’t even know how Liv’s mom had died.
Apparently it was pretty bad.

“She hasn’t talked about it,” Lorenzo said, perusing his phone
and frowning when he had nothing from Liv yet. “She started to once but then
said it was too heavy a topic to get into and she’d tell me more later, but she
hasn’t and I haven’t wanted to push.”

Vince had been eyeing them curiously, and Lorenzo was counting on
him asking Romero more about Liv’s mom until his phone rang. Vince pulled it
out of his holster and was quickly on his feet. “I’ll be back,” he said as he
headed to the door. “I gotta take this.”

It was almost six, and normally by now Lorenzo would have heard
from Liv, even if it was a short text saying she was on her way home. He
remembered her saying today’s last stop was a high-maintenance one. So he set
his phone down, figuring she’d just gotten caught up.

Romero stood up, crumpling up his trash. “So by serious with my
cousin you mean you’re
done
with your ex what’s-her-face, right?’

Trying not to frown, Lorenzo responded as vaguely as possible. “That’s
ancient history. I haven’t even talked to her in almost a year.”

Continuing to peer at him curiously, Romero surveyed him up and
down for a moment. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.” Lorenzo laughed now though he didn’t feel all that
humorous.

“But I thought you two were engaged and everything,” Romero said,
throwing his own trash in a nearby wastebasket. “I thought for sure by now you’d
be married with kids like your brother. It looked pretty serious to me anyway.”

“I thought it was,” Lorenzo said, glad he didn’t feel even an
ounce of the bitterness as he once had, and he knew it had everything to do
with Liv.

Just as Lorenzo was about to get into his brief explanation of
how Linda hadn’t been as serious as he was, Robbie, one of his newer employees,
rushed in the room.

“One of the new guys is having some kind of seizure.”

Both Romero and Lorenzo rushed out. It turned out the guy they
thought was having a seizure was diabetic and got a major case of the shakes
and cold sweats when his blood sugar got too low. Still, it was alarming enough
that someone had called 911. Lorenzo, Vince, and Romero dealt with the
unexpected excitement, and in the end, the guy calmed enough after having some
orange juice that he even seemed embarrassed by the whole thing.

With all the commotion, Lorenzo hadn’t even realized he’d left
his phone in the training room. It was nearly an hour later—way past seven even,
and he was sure by now he’d have heard from Liv. He let Vince and Romero know
he was out and headed back to get his phone, certain he’d have at least one if
not more missed texts or calls from Liv.

He had none.

A little alarmed, he hit speed dial immediately. When it went to
her voicemail, he hung up and checked his phone again. Maybe his phone had done
something weird as it did sometimes and she had texted him, only there was no
indicator. After double checking, he came up with nothing.

He was about to try her again when a text from Liv popped up on
his screen and he read it.

Having a bit of an issue. But no worries nothing bad. I’ll
talk to you about it in a few.

Normally, he wouldn’t think much of something like this, but his
gut said otherwise. Suddenly, the voicemail indicator popped up at the top of
the screen, and Lorenzo frowned, figuring the call and the text had come in at
the same time.

Anxious to see if by chance it had anything to do with Liv, he
hit voicemail. The moment it began he knew it wasn’t her. It was an emergency
temporary deployment assignment that needed to be filled ASAP. He hadn’t been
on one in a while, but anytime they said it was a two-weeks-or-less assignment,
he usually jumped on it. If he passed up too many, it didn’t look good, so he
preferred to pass up the longer ones, especially now that he couldn’t imagine
going longer than that without seeing Liv. It was just slightly later than he’d
normally meet up with her at the end of the day, and already he was feeling
antsy about it.

The voicemail said it would likely be a few days but they needed
an answer immediately because the deployment would happen in the next
twenty-four hours. Even a few days away from Liv would be hell, but it was
better than the usual two-to-six week deployments. So when he called back to
get the details, they explained it wasn’t mandatory because it wasn’t an
emergency deployment as he thought it might be since he’d be expected to leave
so quickly. They were giving him first dibs to come in and sub for a pilot who
fell ill just finishing up a two-week training exercise. Only a couple days remained
of the exercise, and they didn’t want to cancel it. It was a sweet deal because
it would still count as a full deployment, so he accepted immediately.

It wasn’t until after he’d hung up that he thought about it: something
that hadn’t so much as crossed his mind while he’d been on the phone. It was a
strange thought but a valid one. Maybe he should’ve discussed it with Liv. She
was
his girlfriend now. It’d make sense that he might want to check with her first
in case she had anything going on those days he’d be gone where she might need or
want him to be around.

The clock on the wall got his attention. It was almost eight now,
and still he hadn’t heard back from Liv. What the hell kind of an issue could
she be dealing with?

Waiting until way past eight, he decided he’d just take off and
wait for her to call at home. The unease crept through him as he drove home and
wondered if maybe he should just stop by her place on the way. But he decided
against it because it could be something with her siblings—some private family
issue she was dealing with. Romero’s words about her two younger ones needing
therapy came to him.

Suddenly he was pissed at himself for not having asked about her
mom again. It sounded pretty significant, and given the fact that her younger
siblings had needed therapy and she’d refused it, it stood to reason she might
benefit from talking about it. His coward ass should’ve manned up sooner.

He saw it almost as soon as he turned onto his block but didn’t
immediately put it together. The big van was parked out in front of his place. The
closer he got he realized it was Liv’s grooming van. This was a first, and it
alarmed him a bit, but he was relieved that he wouldn’t have to sit around and
wait to hear from her.

Pulling into his driveway, he could see she had the side door of
her van open, and she sat at the doorway, petting a small white dog. He’d never
heard of her keeping a client’s dog overnight, but that might not be unheard
of. Her
issue
could be as simple as maybe the owners taking off while she’d
groomed the dog and hadn’t gotten back so she’d been stuck waiting.

The second he put the car into park and pulled the keys from the
ignition his mind was off the dog and onto Liv. He jumped out of the car and
came around it toward the van. Liv looked up at him with a weak smile as she
petted the dog, which upon a closer examination appeared to be a puppy. A big
puppy.

“Meet King,” she said, scratching the pup under the chin. “He’s
my new baby.”

“You got a dog?” he asked a bit confused.

Alright, this made sense. She’d been caught up picking up a new
puppy. She probably could’ve said so and saved him any concern.

“He was kind of a surprise.” She picked up the dog, bringing his
face to hers, then nuzzled his head against her neck and cradled him. “Actually,
a big surprise.”

Lorenzo leaned in and kissed her then petted the pup’s head. “Is
this what kept you out late?”

Her eyes dropped immediately onto the dog, and she shook her
head. “Elton brought him to me. He and I had talked in the past about pets and
such.”

“He bought you a dog?”

She finally looked up at him. “He’s not just any dog, Lorenzo.”

Lorenzo stared at the dog, wondering what the fuck that meant but
trying his best to stay cool.

“He’s a Komondor pup. They’re extremely high maintenance, not to
mention rare in the States and very expensive.”

“And Elton got
you
one.
Why
?”

She shrugged, looking back down and running her fingers through
the pup’s fur. “I’d forgotten I even mentioned it, but I guess way back when he’d
come in during my training and made small talk it was one of the obvious questions
to ask. Did I have any pets? I told him about my brother’s Rottweiler named ‘D.O.G,’
but then in an effort to keep the conversation from veering into anything
personal or uncomfortable, I mentioned what my dream dog was.” She looked up
and met his eyes. “Being in this business, Elton knows people: breeders and
show dog trainers. That was the furthest thing from my mind when I mentioned it
to him way back, but apparently he knows someone who knows someone that breeds
Komondors. He said the lady who got him pick of the litter and a huge discount
owed him a favor. So according to him, he didn’t pay anywhere near as much as
one would normally spend on a dog like this. He said he was practically free.”

“So what?” Lorenzo asked, losing the battle to remain cool. “Does
this mean he
thinks
he’s back in? That his visits are gonna start up
again?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “He said he’d reserved the dog
months ago before King was even born. Elton just recently got the call that
this little guy was ready to go, so he brought him to me, but he did promise he
had no ulterior motives. He’s respecting my request that he stay away.”

While that calmed him some, the burning question remained. She
was normally done for the day about six. Six-thirty at the latest. It was close
to nine now. “Is he the
issue
you were dealing with all this time?”

“No,” she said then suddenly began to get up. “We need to talk.”

On her feet now, Liv leaned in, kissing him softly. As tense as
Lorenzo was still feeling, he couldn’t fight the urge to bring his arms around
her waist and pull her to him. The pup in her arms kept him from smothering her
body into his the way he wanted to, but he was at least able to feel one side
of her warm body against his. He kissed her longer, a little alarmed at how
much he’d missed seeing her at their usual hour. How the hell was he going to
manage several days away from her?

“Elton wasn’t the only one to drop by tonight,” she said against
his chest.