Dangerous Kisses

Secrets

Chapter 33

Dante Valentino

morning of wedding

I lightly shook Cali awake. She wasn't the one to mess with in the morning so I took precautions in waking her. She groaned and opened and eye, peeking up at me, "I've got something to do but I promise I'll be back in time to take you to the wedding."

She mumbled something and turned on her stomach, pushing her face into the pillow. I rubbed my hand tenderly up her bare arm and placed a kiss on her forehead, not liking that I was doing something behind her back. But, it was necessary and had to be done. I was a man of high power and needed to keep tabs on everyone, even if it was the girl I was quickly falling for.

I pulled my blanket higher up her body, trying to cage her in warmth. She sighed into my pillow, but didn't move. Leaving, I slowly closed the door behind me. Zeus was walking down the steps when he heard me, turning around he ran towards me, tail wagging.

He nudged my bedroom door.

I laughed lightly while opening the door and allowing him to go in, he padded in quietly. Jumping on the bed skillfully, not touching Cali, he laid his head against her stomach and stretched out on the bed. At least while I was gone she had protection.

~

"What'd you find?" I asked Daniel.

He placed down his coffee and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He had been up all night trying to find some sort of lead to why Cody wanted Cali so bad, "I found something all right."

I sat next to him, eager to see what he found. He scrolled through some files on his laptop until coming upon a document from four years ago, "This was three years before Calista's parents split. Her father was charged with murder on first degree."

I sat up taller, studying the report on the computer screen, "Shouldn't this have came up earlier?"

Daniel nodded, "It would have but it looks like her father had some good friends. All Chargers were dropped and forgotten, her father got away with murder."

I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion, "How could a murder be forgotten? Who'd he kill?"

"That was pretty hard to find too but it came up in a missing person website. His name was Drake Johnson, thirty year old gang member."

"So no one cared." I whispered to myself.

Gang members usually sold themselves to their group. Dropping all contact with family and friends, basically going off the radar. It wasn't surprising if one died and no one cared, "Who dropped the charges?"

Daniel scrolled down the page farther until he came to the end, where it listed Calista's name and her mothers, "Calista would've been a minor. Why is her name on the police report?"

"That was exactly what I was thinking," Daniel spoke, "My guesses are he used this against the court. Her name shouldn't of ended up on her so he took advantage of it."

My jaw ticked in anger, "So he used his only child to get out of his bloody messes."

Daniel nodded again, exiting out of the police report, "Seems that way."

I gulped as I asked the next question. I felt like I was betraying her, not confronting her first but doing it behind her back. For once in my life it felt completely wrong to do this, "And what about Cali. What'd you find on her?"

Daniels eyes dropped in exhaustion but he continued to scroll down the list until coming upon a photo. It was a teenage girl on the front page of the newspaper. Her hair was brown and reached past her back, sweeping across her back as she ran from something. The picture was blurry but I had no doubt that it was Cali.