Chapter 31 #2
But Fi seems to read my mind, as usual. She springs to her feet and cocks her fist back, her fiery hair wild around her face and her green eyes blazing with fury.
But before she can punch him, Bastian steps in front of us and swings, catching my dad directly in the nose with an audible crack.
His slick dress shoes slide on the pavement and he stumbles, bright red blood pouring over his white shirt and suit.
He stares at Sebastian, his eyes wide with shock.
“Don’t you fucking touch him again. Do you understand?
Because I will kill you.” Sebastian is a grumpy fucker sometimes, and yes, he’s always been protective of Fi, but I’ve never seen him this worked up.
His muscles are taut and shaking, the cords in his neck standing out as he looms over my father with what can only be described as murderous intent.
My dad’s gaze connects with mine. “You’re just going to let him do this? I’m your family, Brantley. What? Is he your boyfriend?”
“And what if I am?” Bastian asks coldly, taking a menacing step forward. “Stop looking at him like he’s yours to control. He’s not.” Despite my throbbing cheek and fucked head, my insides swoon.
My dad gives Bastian a bloody smile. “You’re a wild card, aren’t you? I’m starting to see why Nedry was so incompetent.”
Sebastian grabs the front of my dad’s shirt, pulling him up. He’s tall enough that my dad has to balance on his tiptoes. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“Wait.” Fi jumps in. “How do you know about Nedry?
I sit up quickly, but fall back on my hands with my head spins.
“You said you know where Brantley is at all times,” Fi says. “You’ve been tracking us. You’re working with Dennis. You’re the reason he keeps finding me.”
“What?!” Bastian and I exclaim together as my dad starts up his maniacal giggling again. My entire life he’s always been so calm and collected, so seeing this unhinged caricature is unnerving.
“She’s smart,” he says to me, still dangling from Bastian’s grip. “I guess it wasn’t just her magic pussy.”
Clutching Fi’s arm for support, I climb to my feet and give my father a hard stare.
“Talk, motherfucker,” Sebastian growls. “Or I will make you talk. How do you know Fi’s stepbrother?”
My dad chooses to ignore the scary, beautiful man in front of him and focuses on me, which is probably a mistake on his part. But then something clicks, and I understand.
“Your company does security tech for the FBI,” I say quietly. “He would have met Nedry and Dennis through that connection.”
“And he gave Dennis the means to track us,” Fi finishes for me. “Where’s the tracker?” she demands.
When my dad doesn’t answer, Bastian shakes him. “Answer the fucking question.”
“I have no idea, okay? I gave them to Dennis.”
Them. There’s more than one.
Sebastian finally drops him, and he steps back with a hand on his chest, gasping. “Are you coming with me or not, Brantley?”
I raise my eyebrows incredulously. “No, I’m not coming with you. I’m done with you and have been since you ghosted me while I was in the hospital. I’m sorry you wasted so much of your time on me, Dad, but I’m not your little pet project.”
“Pet project?” He raises his eyebrows. “Don’t you understand what I did for you? For your dream? I spent money and favors to eliminate distractions at great personal cost—that gay kid and the closeted jock I caught you fucking in high school? They would have been toxic to your career, Brantley.”
I shake my head angrily while he continues.
“Then, in college, when your focus started slipping, I had to pay off the dean and several of your professors so that you maintained the GPA to graduate.” He sneers. “When I found out it was her you were so obsessed with, I had to cut that thread too. Honestly, son, it was a lot of work.”
“What the fuck, Dad? You can’t just fuck with people’s lives.”
“I can for you, Brantley. For your career.” He looks smug, so self-righteous, like he’s a hero who’s sacrificed everything for his son.
“I. Don’t. Have. A. Career.” I bite out every word, and the sharp pain in my chest as the words sink in is brutal.
I’ve been wrestling with my loss of purpose for almost a year, and I know this is truly the end of it.
Ryan Michaels was enabling me the whole time.
I wanted to play in the NHL so badly, but not like this. He hurt people. For me.
He straightens, and wipes his hands down his suit as if he can brush off the bloodstains and looks at me, offering one last chance. “You have nothing and you’ve probably pissed away all your money, so if you walk away from me, I hope one of these sexual deviants can support you.”
“Fuck you.”
Rage flares in his eyes, and I hate how much I look like him. This cold, heartless bigot.
“You think everything that’s happened since Fiona’s mother died is a coincidence? I thought she,” Dad points at Fi, “was out of your life after college, so imagine my surprise when I saw her at the hospital by my son’s side.
“So you made it your mission to kill me?” Fi snarks. “That’s a little extreme.”
He shakes his head, looking annoyed. “Nedry wasn’t supposed to do that. Dennis owes me a lot of money. He claimed he could pay me with your mother’s inheritance.”
Fi’s eyes widen. “You…”
“Your stepfather does a lot of shady shit, as you probably know. He’s worked up quite the debt over the years.
But clearly, I made a miscalculation when I trusted him.
He can’t even get you to sign some fucking paperwork.
Of course, we also weren’t expecting you boys to be following her around like a pair of cunt-drunk bodyguards. ”
I swallow, and look over at Fi, whose face is bleached of color.
“I heard that there was no trace of Nedry’s body, much to Dennis’s chagrin.
But whatever. I’m done with all this now.
Dennis’s debt will be his undoing, so he better hope he’s apprehended.
A life sentence will be preferable to what my guy will do to him.
” He cracks his knuckles. “Have a nice life, Brantley.” He looks between Fi and Bastian like he smells something bad, then turns on his heel and marches out of the parking lot.
Fi watches him go with apprehension in her eyes. “Why did he come here alone? Why wouldn’t he bring his muscle and take me to Dennis?”
I smile sadly. “My dad likes to hold people accountable. Dennis has to be the one to do it, or his life is forfeit. Plus, I think he just wanted me,” I whisper.
“Despite his actions, my dad never blamed Aiden or you for my failures. He blamed me for allowing myself to care about something beyond him and hockey.”
I hate how I feel watching my dad turn the corner and disappear from sight.
I never got closure when I thought he had abandoned me, but I didn’t realize that I still harbored some bit of hope that the man who raised me actually loved me in his own fucked-up way.
But now that he’s shown his true colors, there’s no going back, and my hatred for him mixes with a keen sense of loss.
I look over at Sebastian and Fi. “I’m so sorry,” I say, my throat thick with emotion.
“I honestly didn’t know about any of this. ”
“B,” Fi says, wrapping her arms around me, “none of this was your fault.”
I hang my head and close my eyes. “After my mom died, I thought if I could just impress my dad, maybe he would love me like she did. I saw how rigid and bigoted he was, but I looked the other way, even after he forced Aiden to leave, because I just wanted a family, you know?”
“Brantley.” I look up at Sebastian. My first name sounds so good on his lips. “We love you, and we’re your family, and that’s all that matters now. Got it?”
I swallow and nod, butterflies fluttering in my stomach as he places a gentle hand on my sore jaw and wipes my cheeks dry with the pads of his thumbs. “Now, let’s get you some ice, lock ourselves inside, and pretend everything isn’t fucked up right now. Agreed?”
Fi and I nod, and we walk toward the door.
I smile. “Since we’re a family now, can I call you Daddy?”
Fi snickers.
“You are literally older than me.”
“Pretty please?”
“No,” Bastian says darkly.
“Worth a shot.”