Chapter 65
I DON’T TALK TO YOU FOR A REASON
Daphne
There aren’t many things in life that I can’t roll with.
Not after everything I’ve been through since being disinherited.
But my father showing up in the middle of nowhere, Colorado, all the way across the country from New York, is a punch to the gut that I can’t immediately get over.
He hasn’t called.
He hasn’t come to visit.
So what the hell is he doing here?
“Get in the car,” Oliver repeats to me. He’s moved so that he’s between us, pressing me against the door of the car without direct view to my father.
“I always liked you, Oliver,” my father says. “Always thought you were smart. But this…this isn’t looking so smart.”
Oliver’s as tense as an overstretched trampoline. “Frankly, Tobias, this is none of your business.”
“You’re with my daughter, so you’ve made it my business.”
Oliver snorts. “So now you want to claim her? Get lost.”
My father growls softly. “She doesn’t have to fuck everything up for us here like she usually does.”
I flinch.
I don’t want to, but I do.
“Watch your mouth,” Oliver growls.
“And now she can’t even face me while she does it,” the man who threw me away continues.
“She doesn’t owe you a thing. What are you doing here?”
“Negotiating for your future.”
“My future’s fine.”
“But it could be better.”
“Not interested.” Oliver turns away from him and puts a hand to my lower back. “Let’s get in on the other side. I’ll drive. You sit in back.”
The car’s face-first in the spot along the edge of the parking lot. We’ll need to back out, and if my father wants something—no doubt he’ll stand behind the car and make us run him over to get out.
I look up at Oliver.
He peers down at me, and my breath leaves me.
This man—this man is prepared to protect me at all costs.
Me.
Fuckup Daphne.
He’s looking at me as if he’s my personal bodyguard and he wants me to know that he has me.
“Find out what he wants so he’ll leave,” I murmur.
“First smart thing she’s said in her entire life,” my father says.
Oliver rounds on him. “Shut. Your fucking. Mouth.”
Two security agents close in beside my father, but he waves them away. “I’ve got this. He’s harmless.”
I grip Oliver’s hand and slide halfway out from behind him. “What do you want?” I ask.
He answers Oliver instead of looking at me. “My first choice was Margot to get this deal done, but if you need one of my daughters to go with the merger, then as far as I’m concerned, she’ll do.”
“She’ll do?” Oliver repeats.
“It’s cleaner when the companies stay in the family. Now, we’ll need to have a discussion about why you let her kidnap you—”
“Oh my god, what the fuck is wrong with you?” I yelp.
Yeah.
Me.
Turns out, fear morphs into rage pretty quickly when my father’s forcing himself back into my life.
“She did not kidnap me,” Oliver says, low and tight. “We’re both here because we want to be.”
“You want to be here,” my father repeats.
“Said that, didn’t I?”
“With her.”
I tense.
Oliver snorts, but this snort—it’s dangerous. “With Daphne. Yes. That’s her name. And I like being with Daphne.”
“You like this? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever—”
And that’s the last thing he says before Oliver’s fist connects with my father’s face.
A crunch echoes over the parking lot, even over the sounds of karaoke rolling out of the bar, and then Oliver has my father shoved back against the car. “You don’t deserve her, you worthless piece of shit.”
My father’s security guys grab at him, but Oliver shakes my father again. “You’re going to get in this car and go back where you came from and you’re going to—let go of me. Fucking let go of me.”
I grab at one of the security guys trying to pull Oliver off my father. “Let go of him.”
He shoves me away.
So I leap on his back. “I said let go of him.”
Oliver’s fighting with my father’s other security guy.
I’m being thrust back against our SUV.
No idea what my father’s doing.
Probably cowering and hiding like the pampered asshole that he is.
I vaguely register that people are starting to spill out of the bar to watch, because I’m struggling to catch my breath.
This isn’t the answer.
I know brawling isn’t the answer.
But hell if I’ll let them do anything bad to Oliver.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Daphne,” the security guy I’m trying to strangle says.
“Then let us go.”
Oliver lands a punch on the other security agent. “Leave us the fuck alone,” he barks.
“Police!” my father bellows. “Police, help!”
Fuck.
Fuuuuuck.
Sheriff’s deputies are here.
Where did they come from?
Oh, god.
No.
No.
People are filming us.
Bea’s going to see this.
Margot’s going to see this.
The deputies converge on Oliver and pull him off the security agent while he thrashes about, and I see everything as it’s about to happen.
They’ll arrest him.
He has a fake ID.
I have no ID.
My father will win.
He’ll fucking win.
Again.
I’m crying.
I don’t even realize I’ve started crying, but I am.
I’m full-on sobbing.
“Let him go,” I say to the deputies who are still trying to get a solid grip on Oliver.
“Daph, get off,” the security agent says.
He’s familiar.
I think he’s traveled with Margot a time or two. I tend to ignore anything that reminds me that she’s still supported by our family when she comes to visit, and she’s never made a fuss about it.
“Arrest him,” my father spits. He’s pressing a handkerchief to his nose. “I’m pressing charges.”
“No,” I yelp as I finally slide off the other security guy.
“He assaulted me.”
Shit.
Shit.
This is going to get bad.
This is going to get so bad.
“Why do you have to ruin everything?” I yell at my father.
“Let him go. He didn’t do anything. He was defending me.
You did this. You abusive, narcissistic, fucking asshole of a human being.
I am not a fucking pawn in your fucking games.
You don’t get to throw me away and then use me again when I’m convenient. ”
“Ma’am, please back up,” one of the deputies says to me.
“Don’t arrest him,” I whisper. “Please, please don’t arrest him.”
“First time for everything, Daph,” Oliver says. He’s quit fighting them too. “It’s okay.”
“It is not okay.”
Another sheriff’s car rolls in, blocking us, and two more deputies spill out.
“Always this bar,” one of them mutters.
“Why we patrol it,” the second one says back.
“Get him out of my face,” my father says. “He abducted my daughter.”
“Oh my god, shut up,” I say. “You disowned me. You disinherited me. You don’t give two shits about me.”
“Ma’am, did he abduct you?” one of the deputies asks me.
“No. I’m with him of my own free will. He didn’t do anything wrong. He was defending me.”
“Get him out of here,” one of the deputies says to another, jerking his head toward Oliver. “We’ll sort it at the station.”
“No,” I say again.
Oh my god.
They have him in handcuffs.
“Ma’am, you can come over to the station too,” one of the deputies says to me.
“Arrest me,” I reply.
“Ma’am?”
I point to the security agent. “I attacked this man. You need to arrest me too.”
“I don’t need to press charges,” the security guy says. “Honest misunderstanding.”
“Quit making a fool of yourself, Daphne,” my father says.
“Daph, it’ll be okay,” Oliver says. “Ignore this twatcanoe. He doesn’t deserve you.”
Twatcanoe.
Oh my god.
I love him.
I love him so much.
“Arrest me too,” I say to the deputy.
He smirks a little. “Ma’am—”
Fuck it.
Just fuck it.
Oliver was defending my honor.
I’m not letting him go to jail by himself.
And you know what else?
I’ve wanted to do this for ages.
And so I do.
I break away from the security guard, away from the deputy, and I charge my father.
And I punch him too.