Chapter Fifteen – Chelsea
“Dad, no!”
My father was pacing back and forth before me in the living room of our small apartment, the look on his face assuring me that he wouldn’t have been able to take in a word I was saying, even if I wanted him to. He had made his mind up—and he was going to do anything and everything it took to get his hands on Zane again.
“You really think we can let him walk, after what he did?” he shot back at me. His eyes were dark with a kind of anger I had never seen in him before, a kind of anger that terrified me, right down to my soul. My father had always been so kind, so gentle, so loving when it came to me, but now, I was seeing the Dog in him, the same version of him, I was sure, that had killed Zane’s brother and started all of this in the first place.
“Dad, listen to me, please,” I begged him. It had been the better part of a week since I had arrived back, and I thought Dad was going to leave it all behind. He had been so grateful to have me back, doting on me, fussing over me at every turn, promising me that they were going to triple security at the Kennels to make sure nothing like this ever happened again, that I had nothing to worry about and he would be there to protect me.
“Did he hurt you?” Dad had demanded, pushing his face close to mine. The fear in him, that something had happened to me, had turned to anger.
“I keep telling you, he didn’t do anything to me!” I protested. He didn’t seem able to believe it. Intent on making this worse than it was, to torment himself for what had happened to me, he had hidden the reality of what was going on from me, protecting me from what he saw as more stress than I could handle.
But today, he told me the truth. The Dogs were already staking out places all over the city to find Zane, and they were going to bring him in, and... fuck, I didn’t even want to think what the end to that sentence was. I knew what they were going to do with him. I’d heard whispers of it, how far they would go for people who had risen against them, and he had taken me, one of their daughters. He was going to pay for that.
“You’re still in shock,” Dad told me, moving toward me and clasping my shoulders. I almost wanted to pull away as he touched me like that. I knew he was just trying to help. He was doing what he thought was right as my father, but I hated it, hated feeling as though I was nothing more than a piece he was moving around a board to do with as he pleased. I shook my head.
“I’m not,” I told him through gritted teeth. “You need to just let it go, Dad. He’s not going to try anything again. I’m sure of it.”
“Oh, you’re sure of it?” He raised his eyebrows, almost flippant. “After everything that’s happened, you’re sure of it? You’re sure he’s not going to hurt any other women?”
“Yeah, I’m sure of that,” I replied firmly. “He wouldn’t do that. It’s not who he is.”
“You know him that well?” I knew he was starting to wonder what had been going on between Zane and I, but I hadn’t told him anything about him—or the two of us. He would lose his mind if he knew that Zane had laid a hand on me, no matter how much I tried to convince him it had been completely consensual.
“It was about me, that’s all,” I muttered. “And... the Dogs. He’s not just going out there to steal away any girl he can get his hands on.”
“That’s what he told you. He probably wanted you to think you were special...”
My head descended into fuzz. I didn’t believe him, not for a moment, but it was hard not to let the doubt nag at the back of my mind. The way he had held me, I was sure he couldn’t have faked that, no matter how hard he had tried. What we had shared, however briefly, had been real. But what if... what if he had already forgotten about me, moved on? The thought of it gripped my chest painfully, and I pushed it down, trying to control myself.
“It’s not about that. He’s... he’s been through his own shit. He lost his brother—”
“We’ve all lost people,” he replied, shaking his head. “That doesn’t mean he can just go out there in the world and do whatever he wants. There are rules. And we have to enforce them.”
“You could just let him leave,” I pleaded with him. “I know he’s not going to come back, you don’t have to worry about that. He’ll just go, and that will be the end of it, I promise.”
“You can’t promise that,” he replied, eyes darkening. “So we have to make sure of it. We’re going to take him out, once and for all.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, frustration mixing with fear in my head. I couldn’t stand this. I just wanted Zane to get out of here. I wanted him to put as much distance between this city and himself as he possibly could. I wanted him to run and never look back, if that was what it would take for him to be safe.
But I knew, in my heart of hearts, that he wouldn’t. He had been through too much to give up now. And that kiss he planted on my lips in the moments before he had run, that was... that wasn’t the kind of thing you could just walk away from, no matter how much you might have wanted to.
I didn’t want him to go. I hated to admit it, even to myself, but the thought of him leaving after everything we had shared… it was enough to send a sickening shiver down my spine. I was starting to get somewhere with him, I could feel it, and the man that lay under the surface, the one he did his best to hide, that man... was who I was falling for. The man beneath the front he had been forced to put up his whole life, the man who was willing to change, who didn’t try to control me. I couldn’t deny it. I wanted him, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to settle for anything less.
My father lifted a hand and grabbed his phone out of his pocket, bringing it to his ear. His eyes narrowed when he heard what was being said, and my heart flipped in my chest. I had a bad feeling I knew what this was about.
“Good,” he barked down the line. “I’ll be there soon. Wait for me. I don’t want you going in until I’m there.” He hung up.
“What was that?” I asked him fearfully—though I knew the answer already. I knew what was going on.
“We’re going to get the bastard who kidnapped you,” he growled.
I grabbed his arm, trying to appeal to some sense of his decency one last time, desperation getting the better of me. “You don’t have to do this, Dad. You don’t. I know you feel like you do, but that’s just... that’s just what being in the Dogs so long has taught you. You can change that, right? You don’t have to be that man anymore...”
I trailed off as I gazed at him, imploring him to listen to me, to believe me, to trust me. But I could see that it had all gone over his head. He had made his mind up, and nothing was going to change it.
He pulled me into a tight hug and pressed a kiss against my temple.
“Don’t worry, Chelsea,” he murmured. “This will all be over soon...”
And with that, he grabbed his jacket and strode to the door, leaving me standing in that apartment with no idea what to do next—and no idea whether I was going to see Zane again.
Alive or dead.