Chapter 176

The day after Bianchi was arrested, Andrew and I ate dinner at the mansion. We had pot roast, steamed carrots and broccoli, and pumpkin pie to celebrate the crime boss’s imprisonment. With Bianchi off the streets—at least until his trial—I could breathe a sigh of relief.

Mostly.

There was still one loose end that I could not ignore. Neither Bianchi nor his sniper had fingered Bob as a co-conspirator, and Mr. Barone’s word alone was not enough to arrest him without severe repercussions.

Andrew kept insisting that he and the cops would find a way to tie Bob to the crime, either through physical evidence, a paper trail, or through a confession from Bianchi or his sniper. I wanted to believe him, but nothing had worked so far, and his bag of tricks could not be endless. The time we had definitely was not.

As long as he was running free, Bob could try for my life again, and I could not have that.

I knew what needed to be done to guarantee my safety. Someone had to put Bob behind bars, even if it was only temporary. Then we could figure out a more permanent solution without diverting so many resources to protecting me from hits.

To do that, though, I had to get help, help from someone that might not want to hear from me—and whom Andrew certainly would not be happy to have me in contact with again. He would understand, though. He had to.

My life depended on it.

I picked at my pot roast, trying to figure out how to bring up what I needed to say to Andrew. I had hardly eaten anything the entire course of the dinner, only a few steamed carrots and a couple bites of roast. I could feel Andrew’s eyes on me, even while he pretended to work on his phone, so I knew that my mood had not gone unnoticed.

“What’s on your mind?” Andrew asked, setting his phone aside.

My eyes flicked up to meet his.

“What are you talking about?”

“I know you, Crystal. I can tell when something is on your mind.”

He reached across the table and grabbed my hand, running his thumb over the back soothingly.

“So, tell me, what’s wrong?”

I sighed and put my fork down.

“It’s about Bob.”

Andrew stiffened, but he nodded for me to continue.

“I need to resume my case against him, the one about our previous company together. Mr. Brown might not be alive to deliver his testimony, but the evidence against Bob is strong otherwise. I need to strike while the iron is hot.”

Andrew cleared his throat.

“Why do you think that?”

I blinked in confusion. It seemed obvious to me, so it should be obvious to someone as perceptive as Andrew. I explained anyway.

“With Bianchi in jail, he’s now the main threat against me. If I’m going to be safe, he needs to be put away for something—anything—and quickly.”

“I’m sure that we will get Bianchi to crack—”

“But what if you don’t?” I could hear that my voice had become desperate, but I did not care. “I need to call Noah and see if he will pick up the case again.”

Andrew’s eyes seemed to widen, but they returned to normal so quickly that I wasn’t sure if it had actually happened or if I had imagined it.

“Are you sure that he will be willing to work the case after what happened to the accountant…Mr. Brown?” he asked, taking a sip of his cabernet sauvignon. “If I remember correctly, he was not exactly very helpful when you were caught up in that situation.”

I cringed, both at the bitterness in Andrew’s tone and the truth in his words.

“Yeah, well, you were the only one really willing to believe me at that point,” I said, as though that would exonerate Noah of being one of many people to think that I had killed Mr. Brown. “And anyway, the charges were dropped. He might be willing to work with me again, knowing that.”

“What if he isn’t? What then?”

I picked up a piece of broccoli, then tossed it back down onto my plate.

“Then I’ll try to convince him to change his mind…or I’ll have to find another lawyer to take on the case.”

Andrew drank long from his wine glass before sighing.

“You’re really not going to drop this, are you?”

I looked up at Andrew from under my eyelashes.

“No, of course not. This is a matter of life or death for me, Andrew. Don’t you understand that?”

Andrew set down his glass and rubbed his eyes with his index finger and thumb.

“Yes, my love, I do. I just don’t think that this is the path that you should go down.”

I leapt to my feet and put my hands on my hips.

“Why? Why do you not want me to pursue this case suddenly? You were supportive of me before.”

Andrew ran his hand through his hair, and his foot began to twitch. He was clearly agitated, but I could not tell what was on his mind.

“Truth be told, it’s not that I don’t want you to pursue the case.”

“Then what is it?”

“I…I don’t want you to work with Noah.”

My eyes narrowed, and I crossed my arms over my chest.

“You don’t want me to work with Noah?”

Andrew stood up, towering over me. My heart skipped a beat, but I did not back down.

“Yes! Is it so hard to believe that I don’t want my girlfriend to work with the man who once proposed to her?”

I did not respond for a moment. His answer made sense. I certainly wouldn’t want Andrew to be working with one of his former Lunas, if they were still alive…

At the same time, something did not feel quite right about what he said. He had been objecting to the idea of me picking up the case against Bob before I even mentioned Noah. Why would that have been, if the entire issue was over Noah?

“So, that’s all that this is about?” I asked carefully. “You don’t want me to see Noah?”

Andrew nodded, but his eyes did not meet mine. He was lying.

In that moment, I made a decision that I knew I was going to regret, but it was the only way to end this without starting a fight that night. I could only hope that it would not blow up in my face later.

“All right, then I won’t meet with Noah,” I said. I reached up and gently touched Andrew’s cheek. “I’m sorry.”

Andrew took hold of my hand and brought it to his lips. He kissed the knuckles.

“Thank you.” He nuzzled his face against my hand. “I just need you to trust that I will handle the Bob situation, like I handled Bianchi.”

I squeezed Andrew’s hand as I flashed back to attempted hit outside of the bar, to Lily’s terrified reaction and how she had not contacted me since.

“I trust you,” I said, “with my life.”

But we could all use a little extra security.