“No, fuck that. She’s not going home by herself. Everyone knows she’s been here and that makes her a bigger target than before. She’s not going anywhere. When Harper is safe to stay alone, then we’ll discuss Ivy leaving,” Kace growls.
I pull out of Zane’s embrace, placing my hands on my hips. “What the fuck is going on with you two?”
He narrows his eyes briefly, but quickly stops when Zane steps forward. He grabs the back of his neck and plays with that lip ring of his. “Nothing.”
“I’m so tired of you both telling me nothing. You guys are like a bunch of horny teenagers. You’re scared to tell the other one how you are feeling, so you do anything you can be around each other, without actually being with each other. Man up, Kace. If you want her, do it before she runs out of here and never looks back,” I say.
He scrubs his face and stands up, grabbing his plate and coffee cup. When he walks past me, he kisses my check. “Thanks for the unwanted advice and breakfast.” He puts everything in the sink and looks at Zane. “You ready?”
Zane looks at me and I smile. “Go, I’ve got this.”
He wraps his strong arms around me and kisses my cheek. “Thank you again, babe.”
After they leave, I clean up the mess from breakfast. Then I deep clean the house. I scrub every inch, vacuum, even wash the windows. The more I clean, the more I start to wonder where my father is. Not only where he is, but what the fuck he’s up to. It doesn’t add up. He shot me, but I lived. Honestly, even if he killed me he wouldn’t go into hiding. He’s watching, he’s planning, and he’s going to attack. I need to really think of where he could be before it’s too late. If Zane gets Dom, he should know. My father doesn’t do anything without Dom, I’m surprised my father took a piss without his help. The Shattered Souls have taken too much time. My father is definitely in the lead, whether they realize it or not. Something needs to happen and fast.
When I’m finally done cleaning, I plop down on the couch. It’s lunchtime now. I groan and stand back up, opening the front door.
“Finn, do you want something for lunch? I can make you a quick sandwich.”
He looks over at me and smiles. “No thanks.”
I don’t push him because it gets me nowhere. I decide though, it is time to talk to Ivy. She’s been locked in that bedroom all day. A part of me hopes it’s because she’s asleep and will wake up in a better mood, but the other part knows that’s a long shot.
I crack the door open and find her sitting on the edge of the bed. “Hey,” I say, walking in.
“Hey.” I sit down next to her and she jerks her head toward me. “Damn, you reek of bleach.”
I laugh, knocking my shoulder into hers. “Fuck you, I was cleaning.”
“Wow, fun,” she mockingly says.
I sigh and turn sideways so I can see her. “Look, I know this is shitty. It’s not usually like this though. We’re close to winning this one. After that you can run out of here and never look back.”
“Good,” she says, crossing her arms.
“I miss working, too. I’d do anything to be able to run that strip club again.” I stop and think about that for a minute. “Alright, not anything, but I loved what I did. I was fucking good at it too. We were making a killing on that club.”
“So, now what?” she quickly asks.
“I have no idea, maybe talk to Zane about starting one on my own,” I say.
She doesn’t look at me. Her focus is on the floor and I have to wonder if it’s because she doesn’t want me to see what she’s trying to hide. “I have no skills to run my own thing. I’ll have to find another shitty waitressing job. Maybe I’ll be lucky and this time I won’t need to wear a skirt so short my ass is almost hanging out. Maybe I won’t have to constantly swat away roaming hands. Maybe I’ll make more tips without my tits on display,” she sighs, and I see her biting her bottom lip. “It’s nice to imagine things differently, but that is rarely the case, Harper.”
My eyebrows dip in confusion. “What’s that sup
posed to mean?”
This time she does lift her head and the sadness I see in her eyes is hard to look at. “It means, you might want things to be different, but life has a way of pulling you back into what you know. When this is over, I’ll go back to my life, you and Zane will go back to yours, and Kace will go back to his. Hell, Finn might actually get a life.” We both laugh, but hers fades quickly. “I can’t wait.”
There is so much more going on than she is letting on. I wish she’d open up to me. I want to force her to tell me, but I know better than anyone, you’ll never get results that way. She’s right though, about it all. Life does have a way of pulling you back in, no matter what. I tried to walk away from it all and look where I am now. Our lives seem to be written out and when we try to change the narrative, we are quickly reminded that’s not the way it goes.
I won’t force her to talk, but I will ask one more time, “Ivy, is any of this about Kace?”
She laughs and stands up. “All of it.” She grabs her clothes and opens the door. “I’m going to shower.”
Well, that’s it. She’s done talking. I want to help her, but the only way to do that is to get her talking to Kace. Like I said to him, they are being ridiculous. I can’t force them to be adults and talk about their feelings. So, I’ll just focus on what I can try to do...find my fucking father.
Ivy spent most of the day holed up inside the bedroom, but I’ve been busy. I’ve been writing everything down I can remember about times my father got himself into a bad situation. I have everything laid out on the table in front of me. Finn asked a few times what I was doing, but I told him not to break my concentration. I went back as far as I could remember and my first memory is when Ginger, one of the girls a member was dating, was watching me. My dad left for a while, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I was glad to be having fun with Ginger, but the more I thought about it now, the clearer things started to become. I remember I was supposed to be sleeping, but I was listening at the door of the room I was staying in. It might have been her house, but I’m not entirely sure, but I do remember being scared to walk out. There was yelling in the living room and Ginger was screaming about my father just leaving me while he hides away from the shit he started. The more I thought back on things, the more they started falling into place. He wasn’t always picking up his next shipment, he was indeed staying hidden.