Dreaming of the Wolf (Heart of the Wolf #8)(79)

In that instant, Alicia felt incredibly lucky. The other men made sure she was safe inside, then headed back outside to guard the entrance. Jake stuck by her side, while Tom and Peter stood by the door watching them.

She hoped that from the concerned looks on the staff’s faces, they didn’t think she and the men intended to rob the bank. She and Jake approached the woman in charge of the vault. The woman led the way, then unlocked and pulled the safe-deposit box out for them. After asking Alicia to sign the register, she left them alone.

Alicia lifted the lid of the steel box with trepidation, while Jake looked on as if she were opening a treasure box or a booby-trapped mine. On top of a stack of papers was her mother’s lease agreement to her apartment, but off to one corner, a ring glittered, catching Alicia’s eye. She pulled it out from under the papers and stared at the carat diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds. Had her father given this to her mother? If he’d cared enough to give her this nice of a ring, why had he left her?

Jake watched but didn’t say anything.

She moved aside more papers and found a little black book. Inside were tons of dates and figures and initials, but none of it made any sense.

“Looks like some kind of code,” Jake said.

“But what would my mother be doing with something like this?”

“Maybe it wasn’t hers.”

Alicia looked up at Jake. “Tony’s?”

“Might have been his.”

Alicia glanced back at the ring, wondering about her father, wondering if what her mother had told her had really been true. She opened an official-looking envelope. Inside was her mother’s birth certificate. She slipped it back in the envelope and opened another. Alicia’s birth certificate. She wasn’t going to look at it closely, figuring it was a copy of the one she had at home, until her hand brushed over the embossed seal.

She opened it, wondering why her mother would have had two original embossed copies, and scanned the information. Birth date, time of birth, Alicia’s name, her mother’s… all correct. But when she looked at the father’s name—Antonio Frasero, she realized it wasn’t a name she’d ever seen before. She felt incredibly light-headed all at once.

“Is something wrong?” Jake asked, seeing her distress.

“This isn’t my birth certificate.” She ran her finger over the embossed seal. “Either that, or the one I had at my apartment was forged.”

“Let’s take it with us, and we’ll check it out. What’s different about it?”

“My father’s name.”

Jake looked troubled. “What do you know about your father?”

“Nothing. Just that he left us when I was two. No reason. Just left. That’s what my mother always told me. When I asked her, she didn’t want to talk about him. She would just wave away my question, but she’d become teary eyed, and no matter how long it had been, I could tell she still loved him.”

“But to your knowledge, he never returned?”

She stared at Jake, then closed her gaping mouth and shook her head. She sifted through more of the papers. Nothing. She’d half-expected to find divorce papers, a custody agreement for visitation rights, parental financial support, sole support, something, but no sign of…

She paused when she unfolded the last document and quit breathing.

Her mother’s marriage certificate to one Antonio Frasero.

The same name on Alicia’s birth certificate in the safe-deposit box. Antonio… Tony? The man who’d been her mother’s lover? And subsequently had been murdered near Continental Falls by Danny Massaro? Had Tony been her father? But he had to have had an alias then. Tony Thomas. Not Antonio Frasero. And he’d been murdered. Like her mother.

***

“Alicia!” Jake called as her face turned as white as the tile floor, and she crumpled in his arms. If he hadn’t seen the stricken look on her face, he probably wouldn’t have caught her in time.

Hearing his shout, the bank clerk hurried into the cage, along with Tom and Peter. “What’s wrong with her?” the bank clerk asked horrified.

“Overcome with grief,” Jake said, not knowing what else to say.

“Oh, of course.” The clerk’s cheeks grew pink with embarrassment.

“Alicia,” Jake said, “honey…”

That’s when a police officer poked his head into the room. “Can I help… what’s going on?”

“She fainted,” Jake said, exasperated that everyone was crowding him in the small bank vault.

“She’s pregnant,” the police officer said, nodding. “That’s what the 9-1-1 call was about from Cliffside Art Gallery. The chief is on his way. Does she need medical assistance?”

“The chief?” Jake asked. What the hell was that all about?

“Yes, the police chief. He’s been wanting to ask the young lady some questions.”

“Bring her to our staff lounge, if you would, sir. We have a couch she can lie down on until she feels better,” the clerk said.

“What’s wrong?” Tom asked for Jake’s ears only.

“She’ll be all right,” Jake assured him, not wanting to discuss what was the matter in front of all the others.

But Tom looked as though he didn’t believe Alicia would be all right. And Jake wasn’t sure he believed it, either. Now he wondered if she had actually fainted in the restroom at the art gallery and had only said she’d turned into the wolf.