Page 98 of The Nanny Game Plan
He ends the call, sliding his phone back into his pocket as he takes my hand. “The FBI is giving you both until tomorrow afternoon. They’re going to coordinate times for interviews with Peter, and he’ll get back to us tomorrow. He’s taking Plato home now.”
The relief that washes through me is so complete it’s almost nauseating.
Plato is safe. He’s with his dad, on his way home, and it looks like we’re both coming out of this relatively unscathed. I wish I could text him to tell him how happy I am that he’s okay, but both of our phones are dead to the world in the backpack in Dean’s hand.
Maybe we’ll be able to go back to using them after the FBI is done with them, maybe we won’t. Either way, I’m too grateful to care. And too tired. Getting in deep with the criminal element isn’t just scary, it’s exhausting.
“Come on, I’ll take you home,” Dean says.
I don’t ask if I’m going home to the apartment or tohishome, the home we were going to build together before things suddenly got so deeply fucked up. He’s clearly glad I’m okay, but his energy is still off.
He doesn’t lay a hand on my knee on the drive back to his place, and there isn’t a hint of sensual invitation in his voicewhen he says, “I think you should stay with me. Just in case. I don’t want you in the apartment alone.”
I nod. “Thanks. I’ll just go grab some things to change into, then? I had a suitcase with Plato, but…” I trail off, knowing he’ll connect the dots.
I’m too tired to finish sentences. So tired that my muscles shake on the way up the stairs to grab pajamas and my extra toothbrush, while Dean waits for me in the garage. I quickly gather my things and follow him across the lawn, feeling like a kid who got caught drinking at an underage party and had to call her dad to pick her up.
For the first time in our relationship, I feel every one of those eleven years between us. I feel very young and very dumb and not sure I deserve the kindness with which he tucks me into the guest room upstairs.
In the moment, I was certain I was making sane, rational, adult decisions, but now…
“I’m sorry,” I squeak as he turns off the light and crosses to the door. “I didn’t mean to be an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot,” he says, but it’s hard to believe he means it when he’s using his “disappointed dad” voice. “Rest, and sleep as late as you want. Elly and Grammercy are keeping the girls until dinner tomorrow, so we have time.”
“Okay, good night,” I say. I want to add “I love you,” but we’ve only said it once. It isn’t easy in my mouth, yet. It isn’t easy in his, either, a fact he proves by murmuring a simple, “Good night,” before shutting the door, leaving me in the dark.
The backs of my eyes begin to sting, a part of me afraid that I’ll never hear him say it again, that I’ve ruined my chances at a future with Dean, right as I finally decided that I was all-in.
But thankfully, I’m too tired to cry.
I’m too tired to do anything except exhale a shuddery sob of relief and let sleep take me.
Twenty-Five
From the texts of Dean Kate and
Nico Adrian Capo
Capo: Hey, brother, sorry to text on a Saturday off, but I wanted to reach out and promise you I had NO IDEA Gio Hamper and his business partner were dirty. I knew Gio from the Sons of Italy club my dad made me join the last time he was in town.
And yeah, Gio seemed like a sleazebag, but he seemed like a NORMAL sleazebag, you know? Not a drug-dealing mafia kind of sleazebag. And UFC is growing like crazy. It seemed good to include the UFC dudes along with the NFL and NBA guys, my publicist invited to the launch.
But obviously, if I’d known, I would NOT have had either one of them within 1000 feet of any of our people.
I hope you know that. And I hope you know you can trust me to keep our Voodoo friends and family safe. Safety is my top priority. Way above selling cologne to douchebags or drug lords or anyone else. So…are we cool?
Dean: What are you talking about? I mean, I know what you’re talking about, but how did you know about any of this?
Capo: What? What are YOU talking about?
Dean: I asked you first.
Capo: Um, okay. Well…apparently Dex Valerie and Gio Hamper, the guy who was at my launch party, were arrested last night in an exotic drug sting operation. A bunch of the local cops are crooked as shit, and the entire UFC community in NOLA is probably on some illegal super drug that turns them into serial killers or something.
It’s all over the news.
So, I’ve been texting everyone who was at my cologne launch party, who might have seen that I also invited Gio, to let them know that I have nothing to do with any of that. I honestly didn’t even know Gio very well.
