Ruin his life?
That didn’t sound like my mother. Not even in her lowest points. Any wickedness she had was born of desperation, not an innate malfeasance.
“There’s no way she said that,” I insisted.
“What did your mom tell you?” Dezi asked, looking at me.
“She said… she said that he said a child would ruin his life,” I recalled.
“That’s… convenient wording,” my father said, eyes thoughtful.
“Seems unlikely both you and my mom would use the same phrase.”
“But, clearly, someone did,” Dezi said. “Who had something to lose when you got an heir…”
My gaze slid to my father as a thought started to shake free. And I got to watch as the same thought made his eyes go dark, made his jaw tighten.
“Frederick,” he said, shrugging. “He’s the only person who has something to gain if I die without an heir. He gets everything.”
“And he’s been a dick to Theo,” Dezi said, reaching for a link of sausage.
But the link fell from his fingertips as his face went dark.
Then he was getting to his feet, the chair legs shrieking across the floor as he did so.
“You didn’t tell me that,” my father said, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Dezi had gone from puppy to rabid dog in a blink.
“He’s just been… difficult. And judgmental. That’s it,” I insisted, reaching outward to wrap my hand around Dezi’s wrist.
“How so?” my father asked.
“He’s just been implying that I’m here to mooch off of you,” I told him. “Dezi, come on,” I said as he just seemed to keep getting tenser. “Do you really think his snooty, old ass would be climbing under my car to cut break lines?” I asked.
“You think…” my father started, then trailed off.
“What?” Dezi barked at him. And I had to give my father credit for not flinching at his tone.
“I was going to ask if she thought he was capable of being that evil. But, now that I give it some thought, I know that he is.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Let’s just say he’s had a long history of needing to hire crisis managers and other… sorts,” my father said, shrugging.
“Sorts?” Dezi pressed.
“I never asked for details. Quite frankly, I guess I thought I might be implicated in his… doings if I asked for any details. I’ve just known that anytime he had an issue, he had a number to call, and then, suddenly, the issue was gone.”
“That didn’t seem weird to you?” I asked.
“You’d be surprised how many of the people I run in circles with who have numbers like that to call. Men and women who make problems disappear.”
“But attempted murder?” I asked, dubious.
“Money makes all sorts of sins disappear,” my father insisted.
“Not this,” Dezi said, pulling against my hold.
“Dezi, don’t,” I demanded. “There is nothing definitive about this.”
“No,” he agreed. “But it’s something to go on,” he said, carefully prying my hand off of his wrist, turning, and storming out of the door.
“Theodora,” my father called as I stared at the door, worrying about what he was going to do, what repercussions there could be for those choices.
“Yeah?” I asked, looking over, trying to take a deep breath to clear my head.
“You must have hated me,” he said, tone as sad as his eyes looked.
“Sometimes,” I admitted, nodding. “But if It makes you feel any better, I was usually too busy with life to think about you much at all.”
“Seeing as that busy life seemed to have been busy with hardship, no, it doesn’t make me feel any better at all.”
“Hey, I turned out alright. I mean, depending on your definition of that, I guess. And, I mean, maybe if I’d had your money, I’d have grown up to be an entitled little brat. If I got to choose between a being a down-on-her-luck bartender and some heiress in and out of rehab, I guess I’d pick who I am now.”
“There’s a small amount of comfort in that, I guess,” he said. “What are we supposed to do now?”
“About what?”
“Frederick.”
“I think, if it proves true that he is behind all of this, it really isn’t our place to make that decision. He, whether he realizes it or not, got himself involved not only with me, but with the club.”
“If they prove incapable of handling it, I have some numbers saved in case I ever need them.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I insisted, my gaze going to the door once again.
I didn’t know a lot about Dezi’s dark side, since I’d been lucky enough to see so much of his sweet side, but that look in his eyes, the way he was holding his body, that told me all I needed to know.
He was going to handle the situation.
And it was going to be ugly.
I mean, I wouldn’t exactly put it past Dezi to follow through with his threat to yank Frederick’s eyes out through his nose.