If the task force had figured it out, Gross wasn’t saying.
Too impatient to line up with the crowds of people waiting to greet his father and his latest fiancée at the front door, Dominic took Ava’s hand and guided her around the side of the house toward the kitchen entrance. They had to show their badges to the security stationed around the house, which was reassuring. Their FBI status and the fact they were on the guest list meant they were both able to enter while carrying concealed. No Secret Service agents visible yet, although they were probably already stationed in and around the house.
The place was enormous, but his father liked to throw these lavish parties so at least he was making the most of the space.
“The house actually belonged to my mother’s family.” It felt liberating to talk about her for a change. To reject the black stain of her death, so pervasive that they all tried to pretend she’d never existed.
Ava pulled him to a stop. “What did she do? Your mom. When she was alive?”
“Nothing really.” He couldn’t meet her gaze as the emotions this conversation brought up were too raw. Too fresh even after all these years. “Her family came from old money. Made a fortune in the lumber and mining industries at the turn of the last century. Most of the men in the family perished during the Spanish flu pandemic or during World War II. My grandmother was the only survivor out of six kids. She married late—probably forced to do so by her parents so the money stayed in the family.” It was crazy really and yet he reaped the benefits every day. “My mom was the only child from that union and inherited the lot.” His fingers tightened on hers. “I think if she had done something with her life, something constructive besides having kids which obviously wasn’t enough for her—she might have been able get through that dark time without…” He still couldn’t say it. Suicide still pissed him off even though he knew his mother had been mentally ill.
“I’m really sorry you lost her so young, Dominic. Sorry she didn’t get the treatment she needed.”
Maybe that’s where most of the family guilt and resentment came from. The fact that none of them had realized how sick she was and they all secretly blamed one another so they didn’t have to blame themselves.
Dominic put his hand on Ava’s lower back and pulled her toward him. Her eyes went wide. He lowered his mouth to her lips and kissed her.
“What was that for?” she asked suspiciously when he pulled away. She wiped at his lips that were probably the same shade as hers. He didn’t care.
“Come on. Let’s find the family and see if we can set a record for the least time spent at one of these things and then go home and have some fun.”
When he opened the door to the kitchen the cook threw up her hands and shrieked, at first in surprise and then with joy.
“Dominic! Your father said you were coming but I didn’t believe it.”
Martha had been with them for years.
“It hasn’t been that long…” he tried to defend himself.
Martha wagged her finger at him. “Christmas, and you only live a couple of hours away.” She put her fists on her waist. She was wearing a chef’s uniform today because it was a formal occasion, but she didn’t usually. Most of the food for this size of event would have been catered by an outside firm. He’d always hoped his dad would marry Martha and find some normalcy in his life, but the governor seemed determined to chase the dream of the perfect woman. Pretty. Peppy. Permanently happy. As if that would somehow glue them all back together again. Or maybe his dad liked sex too—with pretty, peppy, permanently happy blondes.
“Who’s this?” Martha raised her chin at Ava.
Ava held out her hand. “Ava Kanas. I wor—”
“My girlfriend,” Dominic interrupted with a determined smile.
Martha’s brows formed a vee in her forehead, and she seemed to look down her nose at Ava for a long, drawn out moment. Ava kept smiling and finally Martha let out a gusty laugh. “She’s pretty, but you always did like arm candy.”
Rather than getting pissy, Ava raised a mocking brow at him. He didn’t know on whose behalf to be more insulted—his, his former dates’ or Ava’s.
“This ‘arm candy’ is armed and dangerous,” Dominic said dryly. “So watch yourself.”
“I like her already,” Martha declared.
He gave the woman a kiss on the cheek and held on tight to Ava’s hand. This whole situation was a potential minefield of disasters, but he was here now and needed to make the best of it even if he’d rather be negotiating a hostage release during an armed standoff.
He grabbed a drink off a passing waiter and held it out to Ava.
She refused. “I’m officially on duty.”
“Fine.” He wasn’t going to argue with her. He took it and downed it in one go, then grabbed another. “Where’s the whiskey when you need it.”
“Dominic!”
He forced himself not to tense up at hearing his father’s voice. He put a smile on his face and turned. “Pop. There you are.”
Ava squeezed his hand, and he wished he didn’t like her quite so much. He had the horrible feeling they’d both invested more emotionally in the other than they’d planned.
He embraced his dad, felt the man’s arms squeeze tight around him as if he were trying to anchor him in place. Rather than withdraw and run like Dominic normally did, he allowed the contact for a few seconds longer. Let his dad pull away first.
“Let me introduce you to Agent Ava Kanas. My girlfriend.”
He didn’t miss the way his father’s eyes lit up when he looked at Ava. The guy was a serial womanizer—just like his brother.
Ava tucked her pretty purse under her arm to shake his father’s hand. His father smiled intently. “You’re the first woman he’s brought home in over a decade.”