“Well, um… that was it, really. They did their sweep. I was caught up in it. They searched my house, my car, the bakery, did a forensic search of my computers and another of my finances, brought me into the station to talk to me and I found out who he was. We had a few words and I walked away.”

I stopped talking, which meant Martha started.

“I gotta tell you, Tess, I knew Damian was a bad seed. When I read that shit about him in the paper, it did not surprise me.”

I held her eyes and settled in for the “I told you so’s.”

I was not disappointed.

“And I gotta tell you, I knew somethin’ was not right with that Jake slash Brock slash whoever-the-fuck.”

I pressed my lips together.

“And I gotta tell you, I cannot believe you did not share any of this shit with me.”

I bit my lip.

“Now, what I wanna know is, how is he back?”

I released my lip only for both to slide to the side. Martha’s eyes narrowed.

I decided, since I’d kept so much from her, and I really shouldn’t have, that it was the right thing to do to answer.

“He stopped by today to explain,” I said quietly.

“Yeah? And what’d he say?”

“Um… well, he was, uh… well…”

I petered out.

“Oh boy,” Gwen whispered.

I started talking again when Martha got a look like her head was about to explode.

“He wants us to talk stuff out and see where we are.”

“Where you are?” Martha whispered and I shrugged, even though I knew that was not my best play. “Okay, where are you?” she asked.

“He’s coming over tonight at nine,” I informed her and she rolled her eyes to the heavens.

“Oh boy,” Gwen and Camille said in unison.

I took in another breath.

Martha rolled her eyes back to me. “Don’t do this,” she said softly.

“Martha—”

She shook her head. “I’m tellin’ you, Tess. Do not do this.”

“I—”

She grabbed my arm. “Listen to me, okay, seriously, open your ears for once and listen to me. This guy is bad news. Bad news. Okay, so he’s not up-his-own-ass-dickhead bad news like I thought. Instead, he’s a coplike, up-his-own-ass dickhead who played you. Just because he’s on the right side of the law even though I thought he was on the wrong side doesn’t mean he’s right for you.”

“Honey—”

She shook my arm and shook her head.

“Listen to me, Tess,” she hissed. “I do not get why you live your life with your head buried in the sand but I love you and that’s you, so okay, you do. But because you do it’s my job to look out for you when you’re buried, and right now, I’m looking out for you.”