Free 28 Seconds: A House of Valentine Novella by Elizabeth Blair

sipping his drink. “They loved your mother.”
    As if that answered everything. I shook my head and decided drinking was a much better avenue than conversation.
    “So it’s not just tequila you love,” he said. “Any alcohol will suffice?”
    “These days? Yes.”
    “You can’t drown away the truth, Ariana.”
    “A drug dealer is not allowed to give me advice on substance abuse. Do not lecture me.”
    He nodded. “We develop and traffick not deal, but fair enough.”
    “You were so angry.”
    “I’d apologize but I did warn you about my temper.”
    “It’s not that,” I said, shaking my head. “I still don’t understand why.”
    “It never occurred to me that your mother had been drugging you. I assumed someone else, someone not a Valentine, had been in your life.”
    “My mother did not-”
    “Ariana.”
    “She wouldn’t have,” I protested.
    “You can’t have it both ways. Either there was someone in your lives, with regular access to you for over a decade and you are lying about it, or it was Teresa.”
    “You think I’m lying to you?”
    “No, Ariana, I don’t,” he said, his voice patient and soothing. “I think you’ve lost your mother and you desperately want to believe that she had no dark side.”
    “My mom was a good person.”
    “Yes, she was, but everyone has a dark side. That she used that to protect you? It’s nothing to get defensive about.”
    Tony and Al were back, moving to clean up the mess Cole had made. I watched them for a moment, mixed emotions raging through me. “But how could she without me knowing? I mean, the history, scientific stuff we talked about at dinner. I loved science and it was just conversation… something we had in common but to recognize them? It’s not as if I sat down at a table and she fed me drugs. ”
    He gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “That is something we’ll try and figure out.”
    “And the money. My mom was working as a pharmacy tech with a GED. The money you guys are talking about was way, way out of her league.”
    Cole hesitated, long enough for me to turn to look at him. But when he opened his mouth to reply, Tony was quick to cut him off.
    “How do you two feel about dinner? Wine, music, my homemade red sauce?”
    Al smiled. “Kristina would love to meet you.”
    “His wife,” Cole provided. “She seven months pregnant and loves anything that gets her out of the house. Al has her going stir crazy.”
    “Yeah,” he grinned, “locking her away like someone else I know.”
    “Point taken,” Cole grumbled and glanced at me. “You up for company?”
    I nodded, aggravated by the whole veiled attempt to steer me onto another subject. “One last night of freedom before my father arrives, hm? Can’t wait for that.”
    Cole shot a quizzical glance to the men.
    Tony nodded. “We just got word. He’ll touchdown around eight tomorrow morning.”
    “How did you know that?”
    I shrugged.
    “Ariana.”
    I huffed and pointed through the doorway where the access panel was in full view. “I saw them changing the alarm codes. You didn’t tell them to, I didn’t tell them to, so…”
    “That only leaves your father.” Cole’s voice held an emotion I didn’t recognize and I glanced his way. The men were having some non-verbal sparring match and I sighed, taking a drink to try and ignore them.
    “There is something else,” Al mumbled. His arm waved to the pile of shattered vials. “Her ability-”
    But Cole was already nodding. “Is invaluable. I know. Get another six men on the perimeter and one on each door.”
    “I’m going to the beach,” I announced to no one in particular.
    “No-” Al started to protest.
    “I’m going to the beach,” I repeated, pushing away from the table. “You do whatever you have to do.”
    “Such a spitfire,” Tony chuckled.
    I was already heading upstairs when the response finally came. It was cold, furious, and not the least bit amused.
    “Call in another