3. Chapter 2
Kodi – Twenty-Three Years Old
I gently bite my bottom lip as I tap my pen on the pad before me. The piercing blue eyes glaring at me have me entranced since last night, eyes I had never seen up close before.
Knuckles.
I don’t know the man well, heck, I didn’t even know his name until last night and if anything, the last time I saw him was in high school.
He never paid any attention to me, never looked my way.
I always knew he was guarded and kind of a prick, but that may be because he beat my brother up, who always called him prick instead of his actual name.
I sigh as I drop my pen and glare at the report before me.
I’m supposed to be filling in all the paperwork about the kidnappings and how the men mysteriously disappeared, which I know Dad will be pissed about.
Of course, Benny has left me to deal with him when he gets back to the station because his girlfriend of three weeks had a water crisis- as in, her apartment being flooded, kind of crisis.
“Your dad's on his way,” my partner, Masters, says, and I nod but don’t respond or look at him.
When Dad partnered us up four months ago, he was hoping I’d fall for a fellow officer who would keep me in line.
All it did was make me resent him even more because Masters is a pig, a womanizer, and a degrading little prick who eyes me up on a daily basis.
I don’t get time away from this insanity because I can’t take vacations thanks to my dad micromanaging my entire life.
“Your mother has been killed…”
Dad's choked sobs still echo in my ear when he stormed my place of work, my dream job, with half his work force, petrified for my safety and dragged me away from my life.
Four years ago, after Mom couldn’t convince him to release the leader of the Chargers, her secret lover. Cans had her killed out of revenge, her and her unborn baby, who was most likely not Dad's child not that Dad is aware of that.
I hadn’t spoken to my mom in three years before she was killed, after she threatened my brother's job within the force if I told Dad about her affair. And definitely not after Cans threatened to rape me. When Dad said she was dead, I just felt numb.
I was angry at her because I knew why he killed her.
I heard her on the phone, promising the sick asshole that she would get him out when he was arrested for murder.
I heard her tell him she’d continue to give him whatever money he needed for his business ventures, such as kidnapping and selling children.
She was using her husband to help her boyfriend not caring what he was doing.
I used to look up to the woman, and then she showed her true self. When Dad refused to allow a murderer to run the streets, his men raped and brutally killed her, chopped her body up into pieces, then sent them to the station wrapped in a tight bow.
I sigh as I begin to write up the report of the kidnapping, trying to forget about the woman who birthed me.
The kids are back home, safe, with only minor cuts and bruises thankfully.
Apparently, the MC got to them just in time, according to Laura, something about them wanting to inspect their ‘goods’. Trauma therapists have contacted the state home, and even though that is all good news, Dad won’t see it that way.
He’ll see we allowed the MC to run the show and take the nasty men who deserve to be chopped up. Not to see inside a jail cell where they’ll get three meals a day and a warm bed to sleep in.
“I can’t believe you allowed the kidnappers to get away,” Masters grumbles from across the room, and I lock my jaw to stop myself from snapping at him. He sighs when I don’t say anything and says, “Whatever, you and your brother can figure your dad out. What are you doing after our shift?”
I tighten my grip on my pen and mutter, “I have a class to teach,” and he scoffs.
“I don’t understand why you’re still teaching that class, your dad made it perfectly clear that your art was a waste of time,” he grunts, and again, I lock my jaw to stop myself from snapping at him.
I’m fully aware that Dad believes art is a waste of time.
He went from supporting me after my work won show after show, earning thousands of dollars and praising me for being offered a full-time job at the best art gallery in the state.
Then flipped to dragging me out of college and forcing me into the police academy.
Because Mom liked to have her cake and eat it too, because she was a selfish whore who knew Dad would cut her off financially for screwing the leader of the Chargers, all because he was working his butt off to afford her lifestyle of a stay-at-home wife, my life got derailed.
My dreams were cut, and I was forced to become a cop, so he could keep an eye on me, just like the $164,098 I have in his account, money I made from my art shows.
e’s kept, refusing to allow me to move out, refusing to allow me any space whatsoever and even now, my pay checks he takes the majority so he can control me.
He has taken over my whole life because he’s worried I’ll end up like my mom, but what he doesn’t know is that she was a liar and a cheater. What happened to her was her own goddamn fault.
Shaking my head, I put pen to paper and lie like my ass is on fire about the MC not seeing the kidnappers before Benny and I got to the scene at the motel that was out of our jurisdiction, but had permission to attend.
***
“Marshalls, my office now!” my dad shouts an hour later, and I swallow my sigh as I put my pen down and stretch out my fingers that are aching before I slowly stand and walk towards my dad's office on the other side of the room, feeling Master's eyes on my ass that makes me want to throat punch the man.
His advantages are beginning to piss me off to the point I will snap, and it doesn’t help that Dad continues to encourage him because he knows he can control me through him.
“Shut the fucking door!” Dad demands as I walk into his office, and I do as I’m told. and I stay standing near the door which earns me a glare before he looks at his computer.
Since Mom was killed, he has aged. His once brown hair has greyed tremendously and his brown eyes no longer sparkle with the love he used to hold when at home or at work.
I wonder how he’d feel if he knew his wife was screwing a criminal for excitement? That she was killed because he wouldn’t do what she wanted and release a murderer?
It would probably kill him, because Dad stupidly loved her.
I on the other hand no longer believe in love.
“You allowed the MC to take the kidnappers!” he accuses without looking up, and I shake my head.
“No,” I deny, “we got there, and the MC were sitting with the kids and the kidnappers nowhere in sight, and their enforcer explained the kidnappers ran away before they got there.” Dad shoots his head up and glares at me already knowing I’m lying, but I’m not deterred, and I continue, “I’ve personally checked the motel cameras myself.
The kidnappers drag the kids inside, and minutes before the MC gets there, they book it. ”
How they managed to manipulate the cameras, I’ll never know, but I’ll take a wild guess and say it was Clark’s husband, Trick, who is extremely good with computers, just shitty with his emotions.
The sooner he tells Clark he’s in love with her, the fricking better.
“You’re sticking up for them because of your little friend, aren’t you?!” he demands to know, and I hold in my sigh yet again.
Am I shocked that he knows about Clark? Not really, but I sure as hell am shocked he never intervened, though that may be because I don’t spend a lot of time with her because of him.
“No,” I deny calmly yet again, “I saw the footage which has already been sent over to your email.”
His nostrils flare, but I don’t change my expression.
I love this man, he’s my father and even though he was strict growing up, I never back-talked him, I never gave him lip. I respected the fact he always put his family and duty before himself but four years ago he tore me away from my life and I now resent him.
There are times I want to snap, and I know sooner or later I will, I just hope that day isn’t today.
Dad’s jaw ticks before he nods as he picks up his pen, knowing he can’t argue with physical evidence, before he states, “Masters is taking you out tonight, I want you home by ten.”
You have got to be kidding me?
Okay, never mind, that day is today!
“I’m not going out with Masters tonight or any other night. Last time I checked, I’m a grown-ass adult, so I’ll be home when I get home!” I snap, not able to keep calm this time, and Dad's head snaps up.
“Excuse me?” he grits, and I retort, “You’re excused!” before I turn around and open the door, but I pause when he snaps, “You walk out of that door, then I’m taking your jeep away!”
Don’t hit your father. I repeat, do not hit your father!
Taking a calm breath, I remind my father, “I paid for my jeep, and don’t think I won’t stoop low enough to report you because, chief of police or not, theft is still theft.
I repeat, Chief, I’m a grown ass adult, you are the one who has basically stolen my money, you are the one who is ensuring I can’t move out. I will be home when I am home!”
I storm out of the room and towards my desk, Masters watching me as I go, and I grab my keys.
“You ready then?” he confirms, and I know he’s already spoken to Dad about taking me out, which just angers me more because the jackass thought I’d just toe the line.
Gritting my teeth, I remind him, “I have a class to teach!” before I storm towards the doors without looking back.
***
“Okay, that is it, everyone,” I call to my students, though considering most of the people in here are in their seventies or eighties, I don’t know if I should call them students.
No one says anything, and I hold in my eye roll as I walk to my desk.
It isn’t what I wanted to do with my life, teaching people, but this is the closest my father would allow me and yes I say allow because the center is only five minutes from home.
I sigh as my students begin to trickle out without saying goodbye and I grab my phone only to wince at the several missed calls from my father and instead of calling him back, I look around the art room and eye the small couch on the back wall and I swallow hard knowing I’m going to be sleeping here tonight to avoid another lecture like I’m some teenager.
Maybe I need to start looking for jobs and places to live out of state. Knowing my luck, he’ll have me arrested for something I didn’t do just to keep me close.
I feel like I’m being suffocated by my mom’s actions. I’ve lost my dream job, my passion and I’ve never been in love, instead I lost hope in it.
I shake my head as my phone rings again and I ignore the call from Dad and mutter, “I really need to get out of my father’s house.”