Lien-hua gently called me over to the door, and when I got there she urged me to go and talk to Tessa.
“I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to talk right now.”
“Then just tell her you love her. Don’t let her night start out like this. Tell her that much, trust me. She needs to hear it.”
I sensed she was right and hurried up the stairs to try to catch Tessa before she met up with her date.
69
I was too slow.
By the time I got upstairs she was standing shyly in front of Aiden. Brineesha had stepped away to give them some space.
This was the first time I’d seen him: Caucasian. Medium build. Tousled blond hair. Athletic. He was wearing a lightly starched tux. He appeared as nervous as my daughter.
Actually, that was a little reassuring. Nervous was good.
He held a red rose corsage for Tessa’s wrist. It had black lace and either he’d somehow found out what color ribbon and dress she’d be wearing, or he’d guessed right, because it would match her outfit perfectly.
“Hey,” Tessa said to him.
“Hey. You look really great.” His eyes glanced across the scars on her forearm, but didn’t linger.
She stared demurely at her feet. “Thanks.”
“Hello, Aiden.” I held out my hand to him. “I’m Tessa’s father.”
“Hello, Mr. Ellis.” It was natural for him to assume I shared Tessa’s last name, and I didn’t correct him.
He shook my hand. A strong grip.
Tessa was avoiding eye contact with me.
They both stood there awkwardly and I knew it wasn’t the right time to pull Tessa aside to talk to her, even if it would be to simply tell her that I loved her. “She needs to be home by midnight, Aiden.”
“Yes, sir.”
He fumbled with the corsage as she lifted her left wrist. He slid it carefully over her hand, then, like a gentleman, he held out his arm to her and she took it in hers.
“Back by midnight,” I reminded them both, at a loss for what else to say.
“Yes, Mr. Ellis.”
“Have fun.”
Tessa said nothing.
I got the sense that anything else I said right now was only going to embarrass her, especially telling her here in front of Aiden that I loved her. And embarrassing her was the last thing I wanted to do.
As he opened the door, she finally spoke to me and said stiffly, “Good-bye, Dad.”
“Good-bye, Tessa,” I told her.
Only when she was gone did I realize that I hadn’t taken any pictures of my daughter and her date.
70
Aiden started the car and pulled onto the street.
Despite how glad Tessa was to be here and the tinge of electricity that still rippled through her from when Aiden had brushed his hand across hers when he slid the corsage onto her wrist, she couldn’t leave the deal with her dad behind.
Even after all this time Patrick didn’t trust her judgment.
Of course he doesn’t trust you. You told him yourself you don’t have a good track record of finding respectable guys.
“I like your tattoo.” Aiden drew her out of her thoughts. He was glancing at the raven on her left arm. “It’s way cool.”
She couldn’t help but think back to the trip to San Diego when she got it. The guy who owned the tattoo studio had tried to sexually assault her. “Yeah, it’s got quite a story behind it. I’ll have to tell you sometime.” Now was definitely not the right time.
“Okay. Cool.” A pause. “I never saw your scars before.”
“I usually wear long sleeves.”
“Right.” Another pause. “So, did it hurt? I mean when you…?”
“Cut myself.”
“Yeah. When you cut yourself.”
“Yes. But it hurt worse when I didn’t do it. I don’t know if that makes any sense.” By Aiden’s expression Tessa couldn’t tell if he understood or not. “I had a lot going on in my life.” She wasn’t sure she should tell him the rest, but she did anyway. “My mom died.”
“Man, I’m sorry.”
“It was a couple years ago. I’m doing better.”
She thought about how she would have cut tonight, feeling like this, if it was a year ago.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
“Thanks.” She felt like she could really use a smoke but didn’t want to light up in Aiden’s car.
They drove for a few minutes. She wished he would take her hand, maybe put his hand on her knee, but he didn’t.
“Hey, listen, can you check my cell?” He indicated toward his phone, which lay between the seats. “See if Melody texted us yet? If they’re at the restaurant?”
“Sure. Yeah.”
She checked the texts and saw that the other two couples were already there. “I’ll let ’em know we’re on our way.” Without having to look at the phone she tapped at the buttons to send the text, and her thoughts returned to Patrick and how he’d gone behind her back and checked up on Aiden.
Because he didn’t trust her.
He doesn’t trust you because you don’t deserve it.
It’s not Patrick’s deal, it’s yours.
The words ripped through her, ruined her, crushed her.
Because she knew how true they were.
71
Looking concerned, Brineesha joined me by the door. “Something happened downstairs, didn’t it?”
“I said something I shouldn’t have,” I told her simply, then returned to the basement to talk about the case and to try to distract myself from thinking about what had just happened with my daughter.
Lien-hua was on the couch. Ralph loomed near the doorway to the bedroom.
“Let’s not talk about it,” I said. “I feel bad enough already.”
At first neither of them spoke, then Lien-hua tried her hand at reassuring me. “Brin and I got some good pictures of her.”
“Good.”
“By the way, when we were at the dress store I asked Tessa to be my maid of honor.”
“Really? What did she say?”
“She said yes.”
“That was sweet of you to ask her.”
“It only made sense.”
The conversation petered out.
Ralph cleared his throat. “Hey, I was thinking I might throw in some pizzas for supper. What do you prefer — pepperoni, or pepperoni?”
“Pepperoni,” I said.
“I’ll take pepperoni,” Lien-hua told him.
“Good choice. Let me grab a couple pies. I’ll be right back.”
When he’d left, Lien-hua said, “Pat, you need to hear this: if I were Tessa I probably would have felt offended too.”
“I’m her dad, Lien-hua. It’s not easy to know when to pull back.”
I really didn’t want this to slip into an argument, but thankfully, after a brief pause she said, “She’s a resilient girl. Don’t worry. I’m sure she’s going to have a great time.”
“I sure hope so.”
When Lien-hua went on, she did what I was hoping and left the topic of my clash with Tessa alone. “So, about the case. Ralph told me what you were thinking, that Valkyrie might have gone after family members of high-profile government officials just to prove he could. I agree, though I think it might also grow from his past involvement in the GRU. Possibly to make a statement to them, to show he’s able to do on his own more than they’re able to do as a group.”
Despite the fact that we were talking about motives, I had to agree that what she was hypothesizing did make sense, especially considering who the victims were.
“Ralph mentioned your search for video footage at the airports in India. It got me thinking. Tyree and this woman were in Atlanta last week when he left his prints at Corey Wellington’s apartment. Then he showed up in Kadapa over the weekend to torture those two men.”