Page 11 of Crave

Fuck. My thoughts froze. I looked up at the wall, as if it would give me some answers.

Finally, the cloud evaporated from my mind, and I forced myself to speak again, softly. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means what it means.” He blew out a deep breath and narrowed his eyes on me. “Never mind. Go run after your boyfriend who treats you like shit. Do you know how many women he fucked after you left him? He doesn’t love you, Mia. Not like I do. I’m done.”

Joaquín dropped the phone and signaled to the guard to open the door back out of the waiting room.

I gathered my purse and exited the visitor room. Grant was waiting for me by the door.

“Dammit. That didn’t go well.”

Grant stood and grabbed my wrist, tugging me toward the door. “No, Mia. It went perfectly. Don’t you see?”

“See what? What are you talking about? He’s destroyed, and I just basically told him that the only family he has left isn’t really his family at all. Of course he’d be upset.”

“Yeah. And he reacted by accusing me of killing Tiffany.”

“No, he didn’t. He didn’t say that.”

“He didn’t have to. He was looking right at me when he said it.”

Grant was right. Joaquín had seemed to imply that Grant was involved. But I would never believe that, either. They were both innocent. They had to be.

Grant led me out of the jail. Once safely inside his truck, he snapped.

“Wake the fuck up, Mia. Joaquín is hiding something from you. I’m not sure what. But he knew about Julián. Now, he’s freaking out about a DNA test. Don’t you get it? He either killed Tiffany or he’s involved somehow in the kidnapping of our son.”

“No! How could you say that? He clearly name dropped Julián to alert us to his presence. He obviously knew that he had been kidnapped but was trying to protect him.”

Grant sped down the freeway. “How the fuck would he even know Julián wasn’t Tiffany’s kid, Mia. What? He just saw a picture of the boy and thought to himself, ‘Wow, that kid looks like my sister’s baby that I didn’t know she had! I should keep this a secret but also drop ambiguous clues. That’s a great idea!’ Seriously? Wake. The. Fuck. Up. You’re so fucking blinded by your love for him, you aren’t seeing what is right in front of you.”

I had absolutely no response for that. I didn’t have the answers and I refused to follow his logic or reasoning.

“He’s not who you think he is. He hasn’t been for years. I protected you, but it’s time for you to learn the truth. Joaquín wasn’t a saint—we now know he used drugs. He also fucked a bunch of women and always treated them like shit; he always had secrets. We all have secrets. It wasn’t my place to tell you, but now we need to examine the facts.

“So he partied hard, who cares? You’re no saint, either. He just told me you fucked a bunch of women too while we were broken up. Emma at the strip club told me the same thing.”

“Who gives a flying fuck how many women I slept with when we were broken up. You left me and we weren’t together, that’s what breaking up means. And I never treated them like shit. They were meaningless hookups I had trying to get over you.”

Whatever. He was right but that wasn’t the point. “He didn’t kidnap our son! And he’s not a murderer.”

Grant reached across my lap and turned my face toward him, gripping my chin in his hand.

“No, Mia. That’s where you’re wrong. We’re SEALs, that’s what we do. Joaquín is a killer, and so am I.”