“That’s where Brett usually sits,” Olivia said.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind sitting across from you for once. I’d like to sit by my daughter, if it’s all the same to you,” Daniel said.
Before Olivia could answer, he scooted in next to her, blocking her between his body and the wall. I slid into the booth seat in front of them, trying to do my fucking best not to shove my fist through his face. I unbuttoned my suit coat and made myself comfortable. I slid both of my feet right beside Olivia’s, feeling how she was trembling, how utterly terrified of the situation she had become.
Oh, the things I’d do to that man if I got him alone.
“So, Brett. What do you do for a living?” Daniel asked.
“I own Greyson Consulting,” I said.
“Oh, so you own your own little business or whatever.”
“My own multibillion-dollar business, yes.”
“I work for him as his consultant manager,” Olivia said.
Daniel slowly panned his gaze over to her. “You work for him?”
“She came under my employ a few weeks back,” I said.
“Is he taking advantage of you?” Daniel murmured.
“What? No. Why would you think that?” Olivia asked.
“He’s your boss. You’re his subordinate. Is he holding your job over your head?” Daniel asked.
“We dated back in college,” I said flatly.
His eyes whipped over to me. “I wasn’t asking you.”
“Daniel. It’s okay. Really. No one is holding anything over anyone’s head. Yes, Brett and I dated back in college. We have a prior history even before I became an employee of his. It’s okay. Calm down,” Olivia said.
Why was she playing into this man’s hand? And what the hell was he doing trying to play the protective father after all these fucking years?
“Are you sure? Because I’m sure I could make a well-placed phone call or two,” Daniel said.
“It’s fine. I promise,” Olivia said.
“I’d listen to her if I were you,” I said.
I knew Olivia was trying to give this guy a chance. But I wasn’t, and I never would. I knew I’d have to address my concerns with her later, but for now I simply tried to keep the peace, tried to give her an even foundation to talk with him without pressure or the fear of being alone with him. I knew how she felt about him, at least somewhat. We hadn’t discussed anything outright, and we had much we needed to discuss.
“What do you do for work, Mr. Wilson?” I asked.
“Yes. What are you doing for work nowadays? You worked at the gas station up the road when I was younger,” Olivia said.
Daniel smiled at her. “I’m surprised you remember that.”
“How could I forget?” she asked.
“Well, I worked my way up the chain. I manage a string of gas stations on the other side of Seattle now. Well, not quite in Seattle. A little ways outside of the city limits. You know those back roads with all those small little gas stations,” he said.
“You manage all of those?” Olivia asked.
“I do now. Been doing it for about ten years now. I’m thinking about buying a couple of them up. The owners are aging and can’t keep up with the repairs and the orders and the employees and things like that,” he said.
“Wow. That’s… that’s great, Daniel.”
“What about you? I mean, is a consultant manager what you want to do for the rest of your life?” he asked.
It was the way he spat those two words that made me tense. Yep. He was trying to be the overprotective father. Trying to size me up and intimidate me. But it wasn’t happening. I’d never be intimidated by a man who abandoned his family for some addiction to drugs or whatever the hell it had been. Truth be told, that was an excuse I didn’t believe, either. Even though Olivia swore by the fact that she ran it through her mother—who’d confirmed it—I still didn’t believe it. Rehab took a month. Maybe two. She said her mother put a one-month condition on him before he came back home. Assuming he did rehab three times, like they both said, that was six months right there. With a month in between, nine.
So, how the hell did he not get back from rehab until over a year later?
My first thought was the fact that Daniel might have had a second family, another life of some sort. But the man obviously didn’t know how to parent. So, unless there were no other children in the picture for that second family, that didn’t make sense. The man was fucking terrible at it. It was possible both of her parents were lying to her to cover up the real reason why Daniel left.
But I didn’t understand why her mother would do that to her. She’d seemed like a reasonable woman when I’d met her back in college, a hardworking woman. It didn’t make sense for her to lie about something like that.