Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Hi, Dad…”
I can almost hear my words echo, that’s how quiet it suddenly is in here. And how much I think I might actually pass out.
This is fucking crazy. I mean, honest to God, I think I might seriously collapse.
The world around me is spinning…
But then I feel my fiancé’s hand on my lower back, and I snap out of it.
“Dascha…” Kellan whispers by my ear.
When I peek at him, I find him glaring at my father. Like, hard.
In fact, everyone is staring at dear old daddy. Rightfully so, because… Where the fuck did he come from?
Why is he here?
And why did he come in holding Rook at gunpoint??
Now that the gun is no longer aimed at anyone, Rook uses the opportunity to slink away from my father, darting to Joy’s side. She grabs him by the arm, all the while glaring at the stranger in the room. Her hand slips to the gun on her holster.
Obviously my dad notices, and he holds his free hand up while slowly bending to drop his pistol on the ground. “I do not want any trouble…”
“Holding someone at gunpoint isn’t the best way to convey that,” Joy growls.
“Fair enough,” my dad says with his hands up, eyes set on me.
I’m fucking reeling. My mouth is open, but I don’t think I could say words right now even if I knew what the hell to say, which I do not.
I haven’t seen this man in ten years…
Since he abandoned me without a word.
One day he was there, and the next, he was gone. And I was left alone with my mother… My sick sick tragically sick mother.
“What are you doing here?” I snap, having found my voice in the wreckage of rage I still live in everyday because of this man.
He takes a step. “Dascha, I’m—”
“Close enough, asshole.” Joy pulls her Glock, aiming it at my father’s head. She peeks at me. “This is really your pops?”
I nod slowly. “Yea… The one who dipped out on me when I was fifteen.”
Everyone goes back to glaring. Felix is practically snarling, gripping the handle of his knife with white knuckles. Super cute.
“I want to explain, Dascha,” my father mumbles calmly and with little emotion.
He still sounds exactly the same. Looks almost exactly the same, save for some more gray at his temples, and a couple more lines around his eyes. Other than that, he’s still my father.
My dad. The man I used to idolize, like he was larger than life. So much of who I am is because of him… The good, and the bad. Really there are only two things I got from my mother…
Her hair, and this fucking wound in my brain.
“It’s a little late for explanations,” I grunt. “You’ve had ten years to call and catch up.” Stepping forward, I cock my head. “So I’ll ask again… What are you doing here?”
Despite his being a goddamn rock, his face is etched with some guilt, but it’s mostly just annoying me.
I don’t know what he thought would happen when he sprung up on me out of nowhere, on the island where I was a prisoner.
But if he thought I’d run into his arms and he’d swing me around like when I was a little boy, well… he’s sorely mistaken.
“I followed you here,” my father tells me.
A gust of surprised air flies from between my lips.
“From the dock… when you picked up Kellan’s ex-wife’s boat.
” He finally pries his eyes off me to glance at my man, his lips twisting at their corner.
“I am Alexander, by the way,” he says to Kel, coming closer with his hand out. “It is good to finally meet you.”
“I wish I could say the same,” Kemper grumbles, his tone both sharp and growly.
He’s clearly trying to hold back his hostility for my sake, though the hostility itself is also for my sake.
I smack my dad’s hand away from him. “This isn’t a meet-the-fiancé thing. You’re saying you followed me from New York to this goddamn wasteland…” My brows jump. “Why??”
My father swallows, some kind of disappointment settling over his features. “You are going to be married…?”
“Yea. Surprise, dad! I’m bisexual.” I roll my eyes. “And I’m about to be one pissed off bisexual if you don’t stop fucking around and tell me why the fuck you followed us here!”
My fuming almost drowns out Joy’s and Rook’s chuckles.
“Dascha, I do not care that you like men,” my dad rumbles. I can’t be sure if he’s being entirely honest, but I really don’t give a fuck. “In fact, I already know about Kellan. I have known for some time now… Well, at least that he was in your life to some extent.”
Bewilderment is coming off me in waves. “What the… hell are you talking about?” My lashes flutter. “Are you saying you’ve… kept tabs on me? All this time??”
My father’s eyes shine with an admission of something I strictly never let myself think about. If I had, it would’ve given me hope, and hope makes you weak.
“I never stopped watching, moy dorogoy syn,” he utters softly.
And now I’m on the verge of a major freak-out.
Son of a bitch, what the fuck…
“I hate to break up… whatever the hell this is,” Joy speaks up. “But we have to go. We’re supposed to be going to get Lem, and it’s not safe to linger in one spot for too long.”
“Right.” I sniff, glancing at Felix. “I’m sorry. Your man’s more important.” I aim one last withering glare at my dad. “I can’t deal with this broken family bullshit right now anyway…”
Grabbing Kellan by the hand, I tug him along. Joy and Rook jaunt ahead of us, though I don’t miss how uneasy they look. It’s embarrassing, and I can feel the heat rising up my neck into my face from having to deal with this nonsense in front of my friends, whom I haven’t seen in like six months.
“What do we do with him?” Rook whispers.
“Who cares?” I grunt. “Throw him out there and use him as bait.”
“Baby…” Kemper, runs his fingers along the nape of my neck. That spot like a button he uses to calm me down when he feels like I might start to spiral.
“Kel, I’m fine, I promise,” I mutter. “I’m not feeling off or anything, I just wanna get Lem and Simon.”
“If I may…” My dad murmurs, and my jaw tics. “I must go to the mansion. If you come with me—”
“Wait, why would you go to the mansion?” Kemper stops.
“Manuel Blanco knows I am coming,” he chirps. As if that makes any goddamn sense. “He is expecting me.”
“The Ivory is expecting you??” I choke.
“Okay, you need to tell us why the fuck you’re really here right now.” Joy gets up in my dad’s face, pistol in hand. “How do you know The Ivory?”
“We have been business associates for many years,” he answers calmly, looking to me. “You remember, da, Dascha?”
Brows zipped, my head shakes a little, lips parted as my aggressively surging heart pumps severe confusion through my bloodstream.
“No…” I mutter. “I don’t fucking remember. What the hell are you talking about??”
“I don’t have time for this.” Joy nudges my father in the chest with the barrel of her gun. “Walk. You’re gonna give yourself up so we can get past—”
“He knows you are here,” my dad says, and once again, we come to a screeching halt.
I swear to God, we’re never gonna get out of these woods.
“Who knows who’s here?” Rook snarls.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Kemper hisses.
I recognize that tone… It means someone’s about to get their ass beat.
He grabs my father by the shirt and slams him up against a tree.
“Listen up, suka,” he seethes the word in Russian he only knows because he’s heard me say it more than once.
My dad chuckles, and I have to purse down my own grin and remind myself that I’m still fucking pissed here…
Regardless of how sexy and awesome my man is.
“You might be partially responsible for making my favorite human who’s ever existed, but you’re also fully responsible for a lot of anguish he still lives with even ten goddamn years later.
You wanna make it right? Make it fucking right.
Or I swear to any and all facets of God there are, I will bury you on this graveyard of an island with my bare fucking fists. ”
Le sigh.
Why is he an even hotter hulking hunk of growly man-candy when he’s angry??
Like, I have to actively stop myself from climbing his giant body right now.
“Kellan, I promise you, I did not tell Manuel that you and Dascha were coming here,” Dad says, with a severely impressed look on his face.
“He got eyes on you when you left your ex-wife’s house.
I was already following you when I spotted one of his men at the dock.
I told him to warn The Ivory, and he knows… ”
“Knows what?” Kemper snarls. Vein in his neck bulging.
I’m dripping.
“That if anything happens to Dascha, he will have big problems.” My father’s eyes slide to mine. “I told him this when you were arrested. If you are hurt, I hurt his business. He will not lay a finger on you.”
The way my head is twirling feels unhealthy. I’m trying really hard not to let them up… The voices.
I hear their echoes, but I’m fighting tooth and nail to keep them at bay.
You know nothing, Dascha…
You’re a toy, a pawn.
Like a chess piece. You have no control, and you never will.
“Shut up,” I whisper under my breath, shaking my head.
In a flash, Kemper drops my father and takes my face in his hands. “Baby, don’t go. Please… We’re here, okay? We’re right here, just me and you. And Felix is here too, right?”
Felix’s eyes are shining with concern as he murmurs, “Yea, I’m here, Dash. I’m so happy to see you.”
“Yo, 101, you’re gonna come help us kick some ass, right?” Joy says, encouragement in her tone.
Their concern warms me inside. It fights off the emotion just enough.
But then it makes me feel like a baby, and I hate it.
I can’t be weak in front of my father. I can’t let him see how fucked up I am… Then he’ll know he was right to leave.
Sniffling, I straighten and yank away from Kellan. “I’m said I’m fine, Kemper. Okay? I’m fucking good.” Stomping past them, I nod at my father. “Let’s go see Uncle Ivory, shall we?”