Getting the message that she’d be at The Cove last night gave me hope, but nothing prepared me for how she just let it happen. How she was already ready when I showed up and for the first time, she let me touch her, without a guise or a fight.
It was fucking incredible, and for a little while, it was like the years in between when we were kids and now had never happened. Nothing existed except us, especially all the bullshit in between.
It was kind of a date. I kept her clothes on. Most of them.
But every time the spell started to fade, she let all that other shit back into her head, and I was getting kind of fucking sick of losing her.
She may or may not love me.
But it was becoming clear. She didn’t want me.
“Sir?” Crane called out, sounding on alert.
I looked up, the door opened, and men, some I had and hadn’t seen before walked in, all in suits and some with gloves.
I closed my eyes, sighing. “Fuck,” I mouthed.
My father stepped over the threshold, dressed in a black suit with a gray shirt, his dark eyes looking up and finding me instantly.
He was trying to get a hold of me last night, and I blew it off. He always gave me a long leash, but if he had to snap it, it fucking hurt.
“What do you want?” I asked, descending the stairs.
“Do you care?” he replied. And then he looked around. “Where’s your wife?”
I held his eyes. My father’s strength hadn’t dissipated with age. Although graying, his skin growing more wrinkled, and his voice getting raspy from all the years of cigars, he still had a very healthy appetite.
For everything.
Especially for making sure he had control over all in his domain.
Unfortunately, I never went according to plan and never would. I might not be any better than him, but we weren’t the same, either.
He waited another moment, but when I didn’t answer,
because I already knew that he knew Ari wasn’t here and his grandchildren weren’t getting made, he flexed his jaw and jerked his chin, gesturing to me.
“Take him,” he told his men.
What?
They rushed me, taking my arms, digging their fingers into my shoulders, and I thrashed, throwing them off and growling. “Get the fuck off me!”
I tore away, shoving one of them in the chest. “Son of a bitch!” I yelled.
One grabbed my wrist again. I whipped it away and threw a punch, but more came from behind, and I looked to Mr. Crane who was already being held back, looking angry and helpless.
Gabriel paid for the security. He paid for everything. As much as my own team wanted to do something, they wouldn’t.
The backs of my legs were kicked in, my knees buckled, and I fell, coming down to the floor. Three men held me down, keeping me on my knees, one with his grip on the back of my neck.
In front of me, my father crouched down.
“And where’s the sweet, little bitch who’s twisting your head?” he asked. “Where is she?”
Winter.
I was suddenly glad she wasn’t here. Michael and Rika were no match for Gabriel, but she was safer with them than anyone if I wasn’t there.