Mr. and Mrs. Rossi

“All the more reason we need to find Hannah.”

“I don’t know what’s going through that girl’s head,” Harley bit the inside of her thumbnail.

“She’s in love,” Tai answered the rhetorical question while adjusting her spaghetti straps of her blue and white tank top. Tai’s outfit reminded her of a sailor’s. Only Tai could pull off white shorts with an ass like that. Speaking of being an ass, Tai’s last statement took a dig at her soul. “Kind of like you,” Tai finished.

Harley’s neck strained from snapping her glare so hard at her friend. “What?”

“I’m simply reminding you that he broke into your room last night and you didn’t shoot him.”

“So,” Harley shrugged her shoulders, “he’s not so bad.”

“So I’ve seen you take aim at anyone touching your mascara.”

“Mascara is different!” Harley playfully touched the corner of her right eyelash. “A girl’s lashes are like her crown.”

Tai turned her face toward Harley’s and rolled her eyes. “Okay, Elizabeth Taylor. Anyway, you say he’s not bad now only because he’s laying the pipe but, Tomasello, you found out yesterday about his real profession. He’s lying to your face and you’ve dumped guys for less.”

“I haven’t been totally honest with him.”

“Whatever,” Tai took another sharp corner, “on top of coming back here, I don’t want your judgment clouded.”

“What?”

“We’re in Villa San Juan, are you going to be okay? You know you’re going to run into him, he practically owns the city.”

A shiver rolled down Harley’s spine. Almost twenty years ago Harley found herself infatuated with Julio Torres. Her sister told her he’d become mayor, which didn’t surprise Harley at all. The man always knew what he wanted. Harley was not a part of his plan. She’d left town ashamed and full of heartache. The experience left her with a hardened heart many men could not soften, until Dante. She thought about Dante without having any family, no influences and no one to support him. Why did she want to be that person for him? Harley forced a smile on her face.

“I’ll be okay. We won’t be here long enough for me to run in to him. Even if I did, I’m an adult now.”

“And all in love and married.”

“I did not,” Harley emphasized ‘not’, “say I was in love.”

“Your actions say something different.”

“What actions?”

“For starters, you didn’t shoot him.” Tai gripped the steering wheel and shouted. “You slowed down yesterday when leaving Alfaro’s. Whatever, enjoy him now, just don’t go soft on me.”

Harley’s brows scrunched together as she feigned being hurt. “Soft? When have I ever been soft?”

“Clear headed,” Tai corrected.

Whatever Tai had to say was drowned out by a loud wail. Villa San Juan’s Fire and Rescue truck raced past them. The agents exchanged a worrisome glance and Tai pressed on the gas. Harley clung to the bar above her seat and the homes passed by in a blur. She hated Tai’s jeep but right now, she prayed the piece of crap to hurry. They turned the corner onto Mariposa Lane, seconds after the red fire truck. They shared another look. They were so busy looking at each other and following the truck, neither of them noticed the billowing flame reaching the cloud-free sky until a blue uniformed officer held up his hands, preventing them from turning into the driveway where her family vacation home stood for twenty years—or at least used to. The windows of the three story home exploded, sending broken glass along the beach, driveway, and fire crew.

Harley leaped from Tai’s jeep, her feet barely touching the ground. She ran full speed toward the home but a police officer caught her and held her off to the side. Her lungs burned gasping for air. “I can’t let you in there, ma’am,” he said, plopping her on the other side of a yellow tape.

“That’s my parents’ house!” Harley gritted between her teeth. She glan

ced out to the pier. A small motorboat bobbed in the water. Her eyes glanced around for a glimpse of Hannah. “My niece is in there.”

The officer’s hard glare lessened at the news, he lifted the tape and allowed Harley to walk underneath, away from the nosy neighbors. “Hannah Tomasello?”

“Yes,” Harley breathed a sigh of relief. “Where is she?”

“She’s been arrested.”

“Arrested?”