Chapter 4

“That was delicious.I don’t think I could eat another bite.” Teresa nudged the bowl to the middle of the table.

“Glad you liked it.” Angelo leaned back and swallowed the rest of his water. He’d switched to that after he’d finished a glass of wine.

The whole evening had been enjoyable, considering the way it’d started out. She didn’t want to focus on that or recall why she’d called Angelo. The memory had the delicious pasta she’d just consumed roiling around in her stomach.

How had doing her job turned into this…nightmare?

This wasn’t the first time she’d been in danger. Teresa’s job as an undercover investigative journalist generally put her into precarious positions. Usually, she had the backing of her boss and the company to protect her.

Not this time.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” Angelo’s soft question slammed the door on her thoughts.

Although, it wasn’t fully closed because the time had come to explain why she was now sitting across the table from him when she hadn’t seen him in a long time.

“How I got here.”

He watched her quietly, not asking her to elaborate, just…waiting.

Many times, in her job, she’d played the waiting game. It’d been easy just to remain quiet. Now with the boot on the other foot, Teresa willed herself not to shift in her chair.

Not show her unease with the way Angelo was watching her.

He wasn’t the enemy. She needed to pin that to her brain.

He wasn’t the bad guy in all of this. He wasn’t the person she was trying to bring down.

Angelo was the person she’d gone to. The one she’d sought out for help because she didn’t know who she could trust.

“Do you need help cleaning up?” Teresa asked, instead of saying what she really should.

“As you watched me cook, and no doubt noticed I cleaned up as I went along, I only need to put our bowls in the dishwasher. You can watch me do that if you like.”

Huh?

Totally not the response she was expecting. Why didn’t he push her to talk?

Maybe Angelo was lulling her into a false sense of security. Making her think that everything was good, and he wasn’t going to press—then he’d go in for the kill.

God, why am I overthinking this? I never overthink.

It hadn’t taken her too long to call Angelo when she’d remembered he worked for a security company.

It’d taken her all of three-point-five seconds to call him. Teresa hadn’t allowed herself time to wonder if it was a bad idea. Someone had been breaking in, and she didn’t trust the cops.

“Here. This might help you.” Angelo placed a teacup in front of her.

The scent of peppermint hit her. Lost in her inner ramblings, she’d missed him getting up from the table and making her a drink.

Angelo drank herbal tea!

Surprise at this little piece of information washed over her. Strong black coffee seemed more his type of thing to drink. Peppermint tea—not so much.

“Thanks.” Teresa lifted the cup and inhaled deeply, enjoying the way the almost menthol scent cleared her mind. “But how is this going to help?”

“It might help settle your mind so you can focus on what you need to.”

It shouldn’t surprise her that he could tell her mind was traveling in twenty different directions. No doubt as part of his SEAL training, he’d been given skills on how to read people’s body language. How to extract information or tell if someone was lying.

“Maybe it will.” She took a small sip.

“Come on, let’s go back to the living room. Then you can tell me what you’ve spent the last ten minutes thinking about.”

Angelo was so casual, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. As if he hadn’t rushed to her place at a moment’s notice when she’d called him out of the blue.

Why am I making such a big deal about all this?

He only wanted information, something she should’ve given to him way earlier than now.

Teresa grabbed her tea, following Angelo into his living room. She took a seat on the couch, fully expecting him to take a seat opposite her. Instead, he sat down beside her, his citrus scent teasing her nostrils.

How had she not noticed this before?

They’d been close to each other when they were tending to Phillip.

She gasped. “Oh my God, Phillip! We told him we’d come to the hospital.” She rushed to her feet and scanned for her purse.

Angelo grabbed her hand and pulled her back down, until she plopped back down on the soft cushion.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“Tre, it’s late. If they admitted him, we wouldn’t be able to see him tonight anyway. Nor, if we call, will they give us any information as we aren’t related to him.”

Nothing he said was wrong. In fact, it made sense, but still, she’d told her neighbor, the man who’d risked his life to stop whoever it was from breaking into her place, that she’d see him.

“I don’t care. I made a promise.” Teresa lifted her chin, daring him to question her.

A small smile played at his lips before he shook his head and reached into his pocket. Never breaking eye contact, he spoke into his phone. “Call Cass.”

There was a beat of silence before he started speaking again.

“No emergency, and I’m sorry for waking you, but I need you to see if you can get into county records and find out the status of a Phillip.” Angelo covered his hand over the bottom of his phone. “Tre, what’s Phillip’s last name?”

Teresa couldn’t speak. Nothing was forming when she opened her mouth. He was asking someone to hack into the hospital’s records? That was so wrong. “You can’t do this,” she hissed. “Hang up now.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “I’m getting the information you wanted.”

“Illegally.” Anger swirled inside of her. Maybe he wasn’t the person she’d thought he was if he could so callously ask someone to do something like that.

How could she trust him to help her if he could do this?

What was she going to do now?

Angelo watchedthe play of emotions cross Teresa’s face. Anger was foremost, but it was better than the vacant, lost look she’d sported earlier.

“Angelo? Are you still there?” Cass’s weary tone had him focusing back on the call.

“Yeah. Don’t worry, and I’m sorry I woke you. I should’ve thought before I called.” The second he’d heard her groggy voice, he’d felt awful calling when he’d known she hadn’t been feeling the best when she’d left work.

“It’s all good. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She disconnected before he could say his own farewell.

Had asking Cass to use her skills to find out about Phillip been unethical?

For sure, but Angelo didn’t want Teresa leaving his place, not tonight anyway—which he was well aware would bring an argument from her, but he’d handle it when it happened.

Right now, he wanted to get to the bottom of the reason why a woman he hadn’t seen in years had called him.

There had been a moment after they’d eaten when he’d assumed she’d unburden herself. Instead, she’d changed the subject, and Angelo had let her. Even though she hadn’t come out and said it, he’d seen the flash of betrayal cross her face while he’d been talking to Cass. It’d been that look that had him questioning why he was making that call.

If he wanted her to talk to him, she had to trust him. Angelo requesting Cass to do something unethical—perhaps illegal—wasn’t going to help.

“Cass isn’t going to hack into the hospital’s database.” He didn’t need to explain it, considering she could tell that he’d ended the call.

“Thank you. So we’re going down there now?” Teresa asked.

“No.” Angelo held up his hand when she opened her mouth to argue. “What we’re going to do is have a conversation. You can’t put it off any longer. You need to tell me what the hell is going on and why you called me. If after we’ve had our conversation, if it’s not too late, then perhaps we’ll go to the hospital.”

As if Teresa could sense that he wasn’t going to budge or be enticed into changing his mind, she nodded. “Okay.”

At last.

“You can trust me. I won’t ignore what you tell me. I’m here to help.” Angelo watched her.

Would she believe him, or had he done too much damage with his phone call?

He’d made the call because he hadn’t gotten a good vibe from Phillip. The way he’d looked at Teresa, as if she hung the moon, hadn’t sat right with him.

However, the man had suffered an injury in his effort to protect his neighbor, so Angelo shouldn’t be mad.

He might’ve told Teresa that after their talk, he’d consider taking her to see her neighbor, but no matter what the time, he’d drive her to County Hospital to see if they could see the man. If he’d been admitted, of course. He may have been examined and released already.

Finally Teresa nodded, and he blew out a breath. “I know you will. It’s just…hard.”

“Take your time. If you have to tell me things out of order, that’s fine. Do you mind if I take notes?”

“No, that’s fine.”

“I’ll be right back.” Angelo headed to the small alcove in his entryway where he stored things. He grabbed the company tablet.

Teresa’s head was rested on the back of the couch. Her eyes were shut, and for the first time since she’d opened the door to him, she looked relaxed.

The last thing he wanted to do was disturb her. He was fighting against the instinct to cover her with a blanket and let her sleep.

The right thing to do would be just that, but Angelo couldn’t let her sleep. He needed answers.

He’d been more than generous in giving her time to tell him of her own accord. The time had run out. He needed to push this yearning to lock her in a little bubble to keep her safe out of his mind and get to the bottom of her being in his home.

Get to the bottom of why she’d called him.

“Teresa, it’s time to talk.” Angelo sat down with his tablet.

Teresa’s eyes flicked open, and she nodded. “It is.”