Page 95 of Waste of Worth

Being alone did nothing to settle the anxiety drumming in his heart. He was not on his game, and this meeting proved it even more. He was sleeping less and less, and when he did sleep, it was as though he’d dipped his mind into hell for a few hours.

Dino knew what his problem was—he was without Karen.

It was a jackass move to leave her without explanation after she’d told him about the pregnancy, but he didn’t know what else to do. He wanted to protect her from the monsters in his life—including himself—but the only way to do that was to cut her off completely.

Pregnant, his mind taunted. While she’s pregnant with your child.

Dino never pretended to be a good guy, or even an honorable one, for that matter. Even this was kind of low for him, and he knew it all too well.

“Fucking hate that tool,” Theo muttered from beside Dino as he took a seat at the table.

He’d forgotten that his brother was there—yet another reminder he was way off his game and that meant he was probably about to suffer for it.

“I’ll handle Riley,” Dino said.

He tried to sound flippant, but was sure he failed in the effort. Theo didn’t mention it either way, and for that Dino was grateful.

“And what was that shit he tried to pull at the end about Ben?” Theo asked.

Dino pushed up from his chair, trying to appear unaffected. “You know what it was.”

Theo glanced away. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

That was that.

“Do us all a favor and put some guys in Riley’s streets to do whatever work he wants them doing,” Dino said. “It’ll keep him happy and off our backs for a while. I’ve got enough going on without that asshole adding to it.”

“Got it.”

It took from the time Dino left the restaurant to the second he sat down in the driver’s seat of his car to decide to call Karen. He’d done well all week by avoiding her, but the fact remained the same, he didn’t want to avoid her at all.

Knowing she should be at work, he called through to the restaurant first. The office phone rang off the hook with no one picking up the call. Confused, Dino hung up, then tried another number—Karen’s cell.

That too rang with no answer.

A heavy feeling settled in Dino’s gut as he made an illegal U-turn right in the middle of the street, uncaring if he got pulled over and ticketed for the action. Something wasn’t right—he could feel it in his bones.

Karen was habitual to a fault. She didn’t miss work, she didn’t ignore calls, and even if she was pissed off to the high heavens at him, she wouldn’t snub a call from him.

Surely not now.

Knowing Karen should be working, he headed to the restaurant first. Surprisingly, Dino found Karen’s car was not parked in the lot with the rest of the employees’, and when he went inside, he didn’t find her there, either. He by-passed other employees, disregarding their questioning stares as he flew through the main dining area and then the kitchen, heading straight for the back offices.

Her car wasn’t there, so she shouldn’t be either.

That didn’t stop Dino from checking the office.

It was empty.

Not entirely empty, as things were still in its place, but Karen was not inside working as she should be. Even her laptop was gone.

Dino had just turned around to leave when the buzzing of his phone in his pocket stopped him. He checked the caller ID, seeing Karen’s name light up the screen, and quickly slammed the office door shut, determined not to have his conversation overheard.

“Where are you?” Dino asked the second he picked up the call.

Maybe that was not the best way he could have answered, given everything. Dino was well aware that he had no right to be playing the asshole between the two of them. He was the one who walked out on her and then didn’t even bother to give her a call for a week.

“Hello to you, too,” Karen muttered.