Page 20 of Chaotic Curse
Both Vinnie and Robin listen with wide eyes as I tell them about the first two cryptic messages—the threatening Valentine’s Day card and the box of poisoned chocolates—I received.
“Why didn’t you tell me about those?”Vinnie demands.“You know I have surveillance.”
“I didn’t want to worry you.You’re already doing so much for me, putting me through culinary school, getting me away from my father.”I swallow.“Having him…taken care of.”
Robin’s eyes go even wider.“Clearly there’s a lot I don’t know here.”
Vinnie sighs.“I’ll explain it all to you.Or Raven can.But first, Daniela, we need to figure out what to do about this.”
I gulp.“That’s not the worst of it.Yesterday, after you left the courthouse, someone came out and gave me a teddy bear.Said it was left for me.”
“What?”Vinnie says through gritted teeth.
“Yeah.It turned out there was a grenade in it.”
Vinnie threads his hand through his hair, his jaw rigid.“Oh my God.I heard about that.I was already on the road, and it came through the news.I figured you were gone.You said you were going to do some shopping in town.”
“That was a little white lie.I wanted to call Hawk.I wanted to be with him.To celebrate the end of our marriage.So we could…”
Vinnie doesn’t seem to care about the fact that Hawk and I made love.“Daniela.You should’ve called me.When you’re in trouble, you call me.Now what happened?”
“I’m fine, as you can see, and I had to stay for a while to look through all the personnel files of the people who work at the courthouse to see if I recognized the man who gave me the teddy bear.But I couldn’t.He wasn’t an employee.He was just disguised as one.”
“So someone knew you’d be there,” Vinnie says.
“Yeah.”
“I made the arrangements to have our divorce finalized with the judge in question,” Vinnie says.“It’s a judge who has worked with my family for years, who I trust?—”
He stops midsentence.
“What?What is it?”Robin demands.
“A judge who worked with my grandfather.”
“So you think the judge…” Robin begins.
“Could be,” Vinnie says.“It wasn’t even on the docket.They squeezed me in.Kept it off record.”
“Well, someone knew,” Robin says.
I sit, listening, chills creeping over me.“I’m okay,” I say again, though my voice trembles a bit.
“This is not acceptable,” Vinnie says.“You could’ve been killed.I’ll fucking have that judge removed from the bench.That’s the least of what I’m going to do to him.”
“No, Vinnie, please,” I say.“That’s not the way to do things.That’s how your grandfather did things.Howmyfather did things.Please don’t go off halfcocked.”
“He’s not going to get away with this.The valentine, the candy… Maybe we could say those were just silly pranks.But a fucking grenade?”He slams his hand down on the table.“No one fucks with my family, Daniela.You’re now my family, just as much as Raven is.”
“I agree,” Robin says.“If you make Hawk happy, then you’re my family as well.And I’ll tell you something else, too.”
“What’s that?”Vinnie asks.
“I’m a veterinarian.”She holds up a finger.“I know that doesn’t seem like anything relevant to this conversation, but there have been times when I’ve had a sick animal and other vets haven’t been able to figure out what’s going on.But I always can.Because I research, and I eliminate, and I use everything available to me.And when I’ve eliminated every possibility—every single one—I’m left with something improbable that always turns out to be the right answer.”She grins.“What I’ve learned from all of that is that every mystery can be solved.And I promise you that I will help you figure this out.For you, Daniela.And for Hawk.”
7
HAWK
