Slow Burn(104)

    “Nothing,” he said. “I’m quite familiar with Griffin Fawkes. He’s not capable of seducing you.”

    “What?” I was confused. “Like you’d care, Dad.”

    “Of course I care. You’re my daughter. I don’t want a thug like that thinking he has the right to corrupt you.”

    “Corrupt me?” I sighed. “You don’t even know me, do you? You don’t know anything about me.”

    “Well, that’s why it will be nice when we’re working together, because we’ll really get the chance to bond.” He smiled at me.

    I didn’t smile back. “Griffin saved me, Dad. Before Griffin, I was on drugs. I was promiscuous. I was getting in car accidents. And I didn’t even care about myself. Then he showed up, and everything—”

    “Promiscuous?” He raised his eyebrows.

    I looked at the table. Had I just said that to my own father? Yeah. I had. I lifted my gaze to his, defiant. “Yeah. Maybe you would have noticed if you were ever around.”

    “You’re exaggerating, Leigh.” He waved away what I’d said. “You spent your time with kids from good families, whatever was going on. That Griffin character, on the other hand, is a hoodlum. You may not know this about him, but he was in prison for armed robbery, and I hardly think he’s a good influence on you.”

    “Hoodlum?”

“I know you’ve spent some time with him, and you’ve probably grown a bit attached,” said my dad. “Heck, I liked him too. But he’s really a liability, and you have to understand that. It’s just business. And I don’t like to think of the way he’s warped your mind.”

“Where is he?”

    “Don’t worry about it. The sooner you get him out of your mind, the better. We’ll be starting your training soon. I suppose you’ll want to see your new room.”

    “I don’t want to be an assassin.”

    He sighed. “Listen, Leigh, please don’t be difficult. Caldwell doesn’t like difficult. I’ve done my best to protect you, but my influence only reaches so far.”

    “What did they do to you?” I said. “The last time I talked to you, you said Dewhurst-McFarland employed evil, greedy people. You said you were glad to be free of them.”

    “And free of all my money? And free of my job? Free of the respect my position accords?” He shook his head. “Sweetheart, I was putting a good face on a bad situation. And that’s what you need to do about that Griffin boy. He’s probably going to be killed, so it would be best if you put him out of your head and moved on to better opportunities.”

    I stood up, my chair clattering back behind me. “What? You can’t kill Griffin. I love him.”

    “Love him?” My father shook his head. “No, that’s not possible. He’s not the slightest bit capable of that kind of interaction. I helped him escape precisely because I thought I could trust him with you. That he’d keep his hands off of you.”

    I reached across the table and grabbed my father by the tie. “You can’t kill Griffin. If you can save me, you can save him too.”

    “Let go of me,” he sputtered. “I most certainly won’t save him. After what he did to an innocent girl like you—”

    I pulled the tie tighter. “I was hardly innocent, Dad.”

    I was choking him. His face started to turn red. “Leigh, he’s better off dead.”

    I remembered the plan, then. Griffin and I had gone over it so many times. I’d be taken away for questioning. I would use the capsule Griffin had given me to knock out my captor. I hadn’t expected my captor to be my father, but here he was. Griffin’s life was in danger. I had to save him.

    I had the capsule. I crushed it in my fingers and covered my father’s nose and mouth with it.

    His struggles began to fade. Within minutes, he was completely passed out, a puddle on the ground.

    I ran for the door to the room. It was locked. How was I supposed to get out of here? I looked back at my father’s inert form. How long would he be out?

    I wrung my hands. I didn’t know what to do. What was the next step? The plan. Griffin had grilled me and grilled me.