It showed how little he thought of my new job.
“Mercs take on dangerous work. I don’t want you wrapped up in anything illegal.”
“I’ll take that under advisement.”
“I’m serious,” he barked, using his admiral voice. “I looked into your boss, Ford Ledger. I found out he was dishonorably discharged.”
Like this was new. I was surprised it took him this long to bring it up. I’d been at Alpha Mountain Security for over a month now, and it was Ford’s company.
“Then you must’ve already heard about David Buchanan’s murder and name being cleared.”
Buck was Indi’s brother, and he’d been framed for an Afghan soldier’s death after he, himself, had been murdered. Yeah, big stuff.
“The circumstances around the entire incident are unclear.”
“Unclear?” I practically shouted. “Your intel is shit then.”
“It doesn’t change the fact that the intel I do have about your new boss isn’t shit.”
I frowned because he was right. Ford had been kicked out for trying to clear his friend’s name, but even with that taken care of, Ford hadn’t been exonerated.
Yet.
Dad was high up, and I suspected he was partially angry because he knew nothing about what was going on. The story that was being shared in the Navy was full of holes and paper thin. He wanted legit intel. From me.
Thatwas probably why he was calling more than him actually caring about me.
Now I was losing my temper.
“Whatever you’re seeing is wrong, Dad. Someone high up was running an illegal drug trade out of Afghanistan, and they tried to pin it on Ford and his friend. So yeah, things have been suppressed to protect the guilty. Since no one else is doing it, Alpha Mountain will expose the whole operation before too long.”
There was a pause as my dad digested that information. “I’ll put some feelers out, but I don’t want you involved in this, Melissa. If that’s true, you will all be in danger.”
I rolled my eyes. My entire career in the Navy had been dangerous. He hadn’t wanted me to enlist in the first place and had been very vocal about it from the start. My brothers, he was proud of. Me? I couldn’t do anything to satisfy the man. If I told him I was going to become a yoga instructor, he’d scoff at it. I’d never been able to make him proud. It probably started when I was born without a penis.
“I’m with an entire team of ex-Navy SEALs. No one will get past them.”
“Don’t get cocky,” my dad snapped. “You’re not a SEAL. You’re my daughter, and I won’t have you–”
“Hey Dad?” I interrupted. “I’m going into the coffee shop with my friends. Can I call you later?”
“Melissa.”He growled my name like a curse.
“Bye, Dad. Love you.” I ended the call and sighed.
“Do you call your dadAdmiral?” Megan asked as we climbed the wooden steps to the Feed ‘N Seed. They’d been walking along beside me as I had that fun chat. “Sorry, I wasn’t eavesdropping, but I heard that much.”
“I only do it to be a smart ass and piss him off,” I told her.
Holly went behind the counter where a sleepy-eyed teenager was making espresso drinks for the town’s coffee connoisseurs and started making ours.
“Ishe an admiral?” Holly asked, glancing over her shoulder.
I nodded. “Yep. Navy big shot. My three older brothers are all gunning for that rank, too.”
“Wow. Three older brothers. You followed in their footsteps?”
I frowned and couldn’t keep the grumble from my words. “I’m the baby and the only girl. I spent my entire life trying to catch up with those boneheads.”