She'd left me.

She'd just walked out the door without an explanation at all and ditched me. I don't even know how she got home because I drove. She probably called an Uber or something. Normally I can't shake a woman they get so clingy. I have never had one abruptly cut me loose before and I didn't know how to feel about it.

Okay yes I did, I was curious as hell. There was nothing I could do about it though, I was still "on target," which was what Gabe and I used as a code phrase for "work shit." I really had come tonight for a reason, and having my date dump me at the beginning of the evening didn’t change that, I still had a job to do. My job tonight was to take notes on what was being auctioned off, who it belonged to, and who purchased the goods. It was a total recon mission and honestly pretty smart. Chaz Malone liked to keep his fingers on what current “needs” were. He liked to be the one to fulfill those needs, be it drugs, prostitution, stolen goods, whatever. He had his fingers in a lot of pies. It all boiled down to money. People who didn’t have money and needed it were willing to let go of things to get it. People who had a lot of money and wanted things, were willing to pay any price to obtain their goods. Chaz liked to be able to procure the goods, as well as receive the money. So tonight was research.

I had not expected to see Vanessa here tonight but seeing her at this event made my stomach twitch. I know she didn’t have extra money to play around with, her whole life was working the restaurant with Nonna. That must mean something of hers was up for auction. I had come here tonight to be a quiet observer, just another couple in the crowd, drinking expensive mixed drinks and marveling at the goods for sale. Instead I got dumped for reasons unknown to me, and I was pretty sure I was going to be watching a family heirloom get auctioned off to the highest bidder.

What kind of money trouble are you in? I asked the question silently, aiming it at Vanessa’s back as she sat at a table closer to the front of the room. She didn’t as much as twitch in response. I didn’t have long to wait, the first item up for bid sent me into a slow burn, the flames of rage turning my thoughts to ash until I was seconds away from blowing my cover.

Nonna’s wedding set. A custom two-karat diamond solitaire with a diamond-speckled band that was made in Italy. The story passed down was that my grandfather worked three jobs for two years to buy that wedding set, and she was so fed up with him being too busy to spend time with her that she almost told him no when he asked her to marry him. It was a pear-shaped diamond, and the band was made to wrap around the stone, two rings that were definitely made to be worn with each other. I recognized them immediately. I knew them from the years of seeing them on the gnarled fingers of my Nonna, only ever being taken off when she was washing dishes. She would place them in a small wooden box next to the kitchen sink while she was scrubbing, then when she was finished her rings would go right back on her finger. There was no way they would make their way to an auction house without her permission. There was no way.

And here I was, unable to express shock, unable to be angry, unable to even bid on the items myself. For what use did Dino the hired thug have for an antique wedding set – no matter how valuable? I couldn’t afford for Chaz to ask questions, especially if he knew to whom the items belonged. He had a real hard-on for causing trouble for the restaurant specifically, I didn’t need him looking into why I felt the need to spend an exorbitant amount of money on something they were selling.

But fuck me if it didn’t tear my guts out to watch Nonna’s wedding rings go to some bored rich collector for $25,000. I could tell by the way Vanessa sat rigid in her chair, shoulders in such a straight line they could have been used as a level to hang a picture frame. Deceptively unmoving, I could read the tension between her shoulder blades and as the auctioneer called out “sold” after the last bid was accepted, I saw the slight dip as she bowed her head. She may have been crying, but I wouldn’t know. She didn’t turn around and I couldn’t spare enough time to get any closer to her than I already had. What I could do was pay careful attention to who had bought those rings. To commit their name and face to memory. So that when I was done with this shit fuck job I had taken upon myself to complete, I would get those rings back. Even if I had to sell my soul to the highest bidder to get it. After all, that was pretty much what I was doing now.

I left after the last item was claimed. The rest of the night was boring and there was no need for me to stick around for the mingling and small talk. I didn’t give a shit about these people and I couldn’t get caught talking to Vanessa again unless I wanted to make good on Chaz’s plans and act like I was trying to pick her up. Which not only made me gag internally because she was my sister but made me remember the woman I had actually brought to the event.

Jeanette.

What is her deal?

Normally acting like nothing ruffled her feathers and working for Gabe who used to essentially be a mercenary secret agent she’d probably seen a shit ton, she sure had her feathers ruffled tonight. And by some pasty-faced kid barely out of college who spooked her by thinking she was someone else? It didn’t make any sense, and even though I couldn’t put my finger on why it bothered me, I was riddled with curiosity over why pretty little buttoned-up Jeanette Clary had gotten the shit scared out of her that she had to ditch me a party that I invited her to.

On the drive back to the shit stack hotel I was staying at on the East side of town I found Jeanette’s number in my cell phone and hit “call.” It was no surprise when she didn’t answer. Not because I thought she would ignore me, but because I had any number of different phones with different phone numbers that I was using at any given time. I didn’t bother leaving a message when her voicemail picked up but hung up and called the next best thing.

Gabe answered on the third ring.

“What?”

“Is that how you answer the phone, man? Aren’t you a professional?” Granted it was ten o’clock at night on a Friday but still, I could have been anyone.

“It’s how I answer the phone when it’s you. I have every number you have ever called me from saved under your name. There are like fifteen of them in there right now but they all show up Dino, so I say unto you again – what?”

Damn. Gabe was not messing around. He was a little younger than me, but he was very smart, even for a spoiled rich boy. I’d worked with him on a few projects when I was still a Federal employee, and even one after. I trusted him with most things, and even if I couldn’t trust him with my current job, I could at least ask him a few questions about Jeanette.

“What can you tell me about Jeanette?”

“Not a damn thing she doesn’t want you to know, why are you asking?”

“She ditched me at the event tonight and wouldn’t tell me why. She straight ghosted me, man. Looked pretty spooked but hell if I know what caused it. Has she called you tonight?”

There was silence on the other end of the phone, and I heard a squeaking like a front door opening and closing again. The footsteps pounding the stairs told me where Gabe was at – Angel’s apartment. For one, Gabe was too wealthy to have a squeaky front door, and two he didn’t have any stairs outside of a door. He must have been staying at Angel’s place, which was weird because she had been spending a lot of time at his huge house out in the woods from what I understood. But then again, what did I know?

I heard some more footsteps and it sounded like he was on concrete when I heard Gabe’s voice again. “Sorry,” Gabe said as he spoke into the receiver, “I had to go outside. I didn’t want to interrupt Angel. She’s been on a three-day writing binge and she needs to be in her apartment to do it. I stopped by to see her, but when she’s writing I’m not allowed to talk or move or breathe. It interrupts her flow. Tell me what happened and don’t leave anything out.”

So I told him everything I knew. Excluding of course, my sister, the reason I was there and the part about Jeanette noticing the changing color of my eyes. I would keep that part to myself thank you. So essentially, I could only tell him that she was mistaken for someone else and it scared her so bad she had to leave, or maybe the leaving was another form of punishment for the shitty way I spoke to her at the office. Kind of like that dress.

“And another thing,” I added as an afterthought, “That dress was a damn weapon. Did you help pick that out or did you just fund?” I didn’t say anything about how I wished I could take his credit card and shove it up his ass, or that I wanted to rip that dress right off of her as soon as I saw her.

I might or might not have heard muffled laughter on the other end of the line, before he replied, “You can thank Angel for that one. She has been pretty irritated with you as well since you told Jesse at Nasta’s that she had a bladder problem.”

“It was the first excuse I could think of to explain her running out on a set, and I saved her sorry side job, didn’t I?” Holy shit, she was never going to forgive me for that, was she?

“I don’t know, man, I know firsthand how long Angel can hold on to a grudge. I’m not getting her mad at me again, you guys are going to need to work that out for yourselves.” There was a short pause, like maybe Gabe wasn’t going to say anything else but decided against it, then he spoke again. “About Jeanette…”

“Yeah?”

“Why do you want to know about her?”

What did he mean why? What did it matter?

“Um, because she ditched me and looked like she saw a ghost. I’m a little worried about her, man.”

“I’ll check on her but seriously, let it go. Jeanette is so much smarter than you or anyone else gives her credit for. I know a little bit about her situation, but there is stuff that she won’t even tell me and I’m not breaking that little bit of trust I have. Just know that she’s been through a lot, and she is the way she is because of it. She’s a strong woman though, she can take care of herself.”

“I didn’t think she couldn’t, but I’ll tell you this, Gabe, you aren’t doing a very good job of warning me off her. You are making me want to dig.” I was so curious now I couldn’t stand it, this sounded like a mystery that I wanted to know the story behind. Too damned bad I had other priorities that demanded my attention. When I was done with my family shit though, I might enjoy peeling apart those layers Jeanette Clary hid under. With my bare hands.

“Let me ask you something D,” Gabe continued with a sigh, like he was exercising infinite patience with me. Fuck him, I wasn’t a kid. “Why do you want to know? Like really, why is anything about Jeanette important to you? Because if you can’t answer that then just let it go. She’s not a toy, and she’s really not your business.”