Chapter Twelve – Jason #3
The sigh that left me after that was bone-rattling, I swore. I gave her the side-eye, but she didn’t back down. All she did was wait for me to say something. “No,” I huffed after a while, “no girlfriend.”
“No wife?”
I shook my head once. “No wife.”
“Good.” The word left her quickly, too quickly, and I cocked a brow at her and caused her to hurriedly add, “Good to know for later, in case I ever meet someone who’s into tall, tattooed, silver foxes. You never know when you might stumble across someone like that.”
Okay, out of everything she could’ve possibly said, I was not expecting that—and because I wasn’t expecting it, she got me. I laughed. A bad thing to do, because it would probably only egg her on, but fuck me, I couldn’t help it.
She was ridiculous. Ridiculous in every goddamned way.
“You better get it all out of your system,” I told her. “If Kieran hears you say anything like that, he’ll lose his mind.”
“Then let him,” she said simply, taking her legs off the coffee table so she could scoot towards me. “You don’t need to know this, but he’s kind of hot when he’s lost his mind out of jealousy.”
“You are trouble.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I am. I’m trouble and I’m proud of it. I don’t really know what to make of you, though. Say Kieran comes here and he tells you everything you want, what then? What’s next? If you think I’m going to sit back and let Tessa ruin my dad’s life—”
She’d stop her from doing it, because she had loyalty to the man, something which Tessa had lost when it came to her brother. It’s something I could admire about Laina, as much as I shouldn’t say it.
She was so blunt in what she said, too. She didn’t bother trying to mince words or beat around the bush, and that was why I was inclined to believe every single word she said.
“I don’t know,” I settled for telling her. “Tessa’s family. I’d like to give her another chance to change her tune, but based on that video you showed me, she might be past the point of no return.”
I didn’t like the idea of giving up on her. She was my kid, my daughter, even if she had made mistakes. But to try to have her own brother killed? That was a bridge too far. That was something I could not forgive.
“You know,” Laina started, “it strikes me as odd that you’re more upset with Tessa trying to have Kieran killed than her wanting me out of the picture. Do you condone violence against underaged girls?”
“Of course not,” I hissed out. “But sometimes getting what you want isn’t pretty. Sometimes bad things need to be done. You only lucked out because Kieran apparently had a thing for you years ago.” I hated that when I said it, I could see exactly why that was.
“I’d be dead if she would’ve gotten what she wanted.
” Only when she said that did she appear to be a bit sullen, like the weight of it was almost too much for her.
“She might be your daughter, but I hate her for everything she did and everything she tried to do. And now, with this pregnancy thing… something here is fishy.”
I couldn’t argue with her about any of that, so I didn’t. I did, however, say, “I don’t blame you for your hatred toward her.”
“Does she take after her mom, then? Always wanting more? I admit, I have wondered where Tessa and Kieran got their… unique personalities from. Would have never guessed someone like you would be half of it.”
“Their mother did always want better for herself, and she had no qualms about leaving her entire family behind to chase whatever life she thought she deserved. Me, the kids, we were just placeholders for her. It took me years to realize it.”
She was quiet for a few moments, and then she whispered, “That must’ve really sucked. I’m sorry.”
“It was another lifetime ago.”
“Maybe, but it’s still a part of you. Things like that don’t just leave you.
They tend to stick.” Laina spoke with a wisdom she had no right to possess, but that didn’t stop her from sounding like she knew exactly what she was talking about.
“I imagine, if I ever leave this city behind, everything that happened in it will always be a part of me. I don’t think the darker side of things will ever let me go. ”
I stared squarely at her. “Do you want it to, or do you like where you’re at right now?”
When she smiled then, it wasn’t a flirty grin.
It was wistful. “Of course I like where I’m at right now.
I’m comfortable with who I am for the first time ever.
I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not just to make other people happy, but…
I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a teeny, tiny part of me that wonders what life outside of this city would be like. ”
“For what it’s worth, I think you’d do well beyond city limits. You don’t strike me as someone who fails.”
She turned that wistful smile to me. “Think so?” I gave her a nod, which made her chuckle. “I’d say you hardly know me, but since you’ve been watching me like a creepy stalker the past five months, that wouldn’t be strictly true, would it?”
“No,” I admitted, “it wouldn’t be.” I knew this girl more than I cared to admit, and for whatever reason, when I said that, my eyes moved on their own, my gaze dropping as I took in the way she sat, how close she’d gotten to me.
This girl, she was more than just trouble.
Trouble was something I was more than experienced in handling.
She was worse than trouble. She was tempting, captivating in an undeniable way, irresistible.
Just like that, after speaking with her a few times, I understood where Kieran was coming from, how he’d decided to keep her alive.
Sometimes, even though someone wasn’t blood, they became family.
Bonds like that were not so simple to explain, and even more difficult to break.
Kieran had chosen his family, and he’d picked Laina.
I could accept that, but it seemed Tessa could not.
Laina leaned her head back on the cushion of the couch as she lazily gazed up at me. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“How long did all those tattoos take? And does the all-black one connect?”
“A long time” was what I told her as I answered her first question. The next… the easiest thing to do would be to say yes, but I’d walk a dangerous line if I gave into her at all. She shouldn’t care, shouldn’t be looking up at me like that while she waited for me to speak.
But she was, and for the first time, I had thoughts that were definitely not appropriate for a man to have about his son’s girlfriend.