Her spiking his drink made total sense now. No wonder the memories of that night were so damn choppy.

“Are you calling the police?” Sofia asked. “or are you going straight down there to file the report?”

Sal shook his head still staring at the video Romero had now rewound to the part where she spiked his drink. “I’m not doing either.”

Both Sofia and Alex spoke at the same time. “Why not?”

“First of all,” he said turning to face their stunned faces. “This tape would never be admissible in court. Romero could even get in trouble for having it.”

“Actually there’s ways around that,” Romero smirked.

Sal was adamant. “Even if there is. I’m not.” If this girl nearly took her own life because she thought he hated her, he could only imagine what she’d do if he ruined her. This would get her debarred for sure. Sal took a deep breath and explained briefly about Melissa overdosing and what Kat had told him. “She’s unstable but having this evidence against her could be enough to keep her away for good. I don’t even wanna have contact with her again but I could pass the word through Jason that if she so much tries to contact me or Grace I’ll go to the police.”

None of them seemed content with his decision, least of all Sofia. “What about Grace? Are you going to show this to her?”

Oh he certainly planned to. “Yeah,” he turned to Romero, “but I need another favor from you.”

For some reason what he needed to know now outweighed any worry he’d had in past weeks about clearing his name. Unbelievably something that had actually made him start questioning his desire to have Grace back in his life.

*

The next morning Sal got two calls: the first one was a relief; the other one his worst nightmare. Kat called to thank him again for coming to the hospital and told him Melissa had woke up just hours after he’d left. As much as a relief that it was to hear that news he still had one not so pleasant thing to do when it came to Melissa. He asked Kat if he could speak to Jason. First he apologized again for not making it to the wedding.

“Don’t worry about it, man. I get it now. I wouldn’t have wanted to be there either if I was in your shoes. But you gotta know I would’ve never pushed for you to go out with her especially a second time if I had known about all this.”

“Of course I know that,” Sal said. “But believe it or not there’s more. Can you put me on speaker because I want Kat to hear this too?”

Sal told them everything. About the Vegas stunt to the fake pregnancy and then dropped the big one about her spiking his drink. “Don’t ask me how but I have it on tape. I just want to make sure you guys know that I’m not going to the police with this yet. When she’s better I need for you two to make sure you tell her that I’m willing to overlook this. Let it go and we all know this is huge.” The thought of it was beginning to piss him off again. “But I’m willing to not ruin her career and possibly throw her ass in jail so long as she stays the f**k away from me and my family. I don’t want her anywhere near my house, the restaurant, anyone I know and I don’t want her contacting me in any way.”

After the initial shock of it both Kat, but even more adamantly Jason, agreed they’d make sure Melissa had it straight. And Kat thanked him repeatedly for not going to the police.

Sal sat back in his chair when he got the second call. It couldn’t have come at a worst time. Once again he had a meeting that day with the investors. He was just waiting for Alex to get out of class and come relieve him so he could leave and meet with them. But Romero threw a wrench in those plans.

The night before Sal had asked him if he could find out a little bit more than what Vincent was giving him about Grace and this Laughlin guy. He’d remembered a part of the conversation he had with Grace the day they left the hospital when the twins were born. When he asked her why she’d come back to the restaurant even though she was so adamant about not being hired as a bartender she’d said “sometimes necessity makes people do things they might not otherwise.”

Without a job, Sal knew Grace must be in a bind. She’d told him she wasn’t attracted to Frank in any way. And she’d told Rose she wasn’t interested in him either. So if she was sleeping with the guy now—the thought alone made him squeeze his eyes shut so hard he saw stars. But if she was it was for one reason only—money. Sal knew no matter what he could never respect someone like that. Grace said she wasn’t like her mother but... necessity. She sure as hell hadn’t wasted any time after they broke up to take a vacation in Laughlin.

Sal knew there was no way this guy would be buying her a house and going into business with her if there was nothing else involved. As much as it killed him he had to know.

He answered Romero’s call on the first ring. “Hey, man. I don’t have much yet except one little, yet very significant, thing that’s gonna piss the f**k outta you. But I thought you should know.”

Every muscle in Sal’s body went taut. “What?”

“Well you said the dude was down here this weekend right? And he drives a newer model, beige Cadillac with Nevada plates?”

“Yeah,” Sal’s jaw was already working in anticipation.

“I had a job near Chula Vista early this morning. I got here a little too early so I thought I’d drive by her place, you know to check out what might be a good place to get the best angle if I decide to stake it out.” He paused for a second before continuing. “The car was there, man. And if I had to guess because it was so early, we’re talking just after five, it was there over night.”