Stratton’s entire face turned dark as he spoke far more truth than I expected. “I don’t have an excuse. I thought I was doing the right thing by making sure I kept to myself until I could fix my family issue.”
“You hurt her. A lot,” Jason countered.
“I know.” Stratton ran a hand through his hair before sitting forward. “I still don’t think I’m good enough for Dahlia, never have, but especially since I have absolutely nothing.”
Mr. Aldridge examined his expression. “Money isn’t important in this type of situation, but you and I will be talking about that later.”
Thank fuck. Someone needed to get through to the dense motherfucker.
His gaze turned to Dermot next. “What part do you play in this, Dermot?”
Dermot’s face was void of emotion. “I love your daughter, that’s the part I play.” Mr. Aldridge arched a brow as Dermot continued, “I know you don’t know me well—”
“I know enough about you,” he said evenly before looking at Kingston. “You’re putting my daughter into danger by bringing her into this type of lifestyle.”
“No disrespect, sir,” King gritted out, his patience with being talked to like this clearly running thin, “but she would have never been free of the Ross family shadow. The minute that you and my father decided to work together, it was an assumed connection… More than that, Dahlia is aware of what this lifestyle consists of, especially now. If I had to give it up to be with her, I would, but I’m not giving her up. None of us are.”
Mr. Aldridge had been a staple in all of our lives growing up, and I respected him, even liked him, but I think King was very clear about the situation here. This wasn’t Jason’s decision.
Mr. Aldridge didn’t say anything for a moment before looking at me. “And you. I have a problem with you, Yates.”
Shocking.
“Yeah?”
“Yes.” His temper flared. “Putting aside that it came in handy in this particular situation, you will never fucking implant anything on my daughter again without her permission.”
“And if I get her permission?” I asked, King chuckling. I hadn’t meant it to be funny.
I was also assuming now was not the time to explain that the tracker was a technologically advanced version that was much more accurate and smaller than standard GPS devices. Or that Imayhave gotten it from a military source that also traded on the black market. No, I had a feeling neither of those things would make him feel better.
His jaw clicked. “She’s an adult and can make her own decisions.”
Good. I knew Jason had one on his wife, so he was being ridiculous.
“I am obsessed with Dahlia.”
My words stilled him as he offered me a bewildered look. I continued, “I’m not going to bullshit you. If she didn’t love me, I would more than likely be in jail because of the extent of my obsession, one she is fully aware of…but instead I’m here. So while I understand your point and don’t disagree with you about getting her permission in the future, this type of thing won’t stop.”
Ever.
In fact, I predicted it would get far worse.
King spoke up then. “None of this is light or casual, Mr. Aldridge. We are in this for the long haul, and we plan on marrying her. I have no idea how we are going to pull that off, even if it’s just ceremonial as a group, and then married officially to one of us…but it’s happening. We want your blessing for that, but we don’t need it. Dahlia is ours.”
I watched Mr. Aldridge’s jaw clench before he looked towards the large window in thought. “If you want my blessing, then there are a few conditions you have to agree to.”
Yeah, we didn’t usually do well with rules.
“What are they?” Dermot frowned, clearly not liking that idea.
“Dahlia has been safe most of her life within the Wildberry Gates. I don’t know how you plan to replicate that, but—”
“We bought Dermot’s house and are having a designer come in this week to work with Dahlia,” King said.
Jason groaned, running a hand over his face. “Of course you are.”
A small excited sound came from the door as Dahlia’s mom slipped in and came to stand next to her husband. “Just ignore me, I’m just curious about what you just said.”