“Just do what you can, please,” I beg. “My fiancée is in grave danger.”
Nurse Cathy looks between my father and I and nods. “I’ll see what I can do,” she says, making her way out of the room.
I work to take a few more calming deep breaths, but I sense my dad approaching and open my eyes to find him in front of me. One side of his mouth lifts into a small smile.
“I’m proud of you, son.”
“ARE WE ALMOST there?” she asks, a cold bite to her voice. Her arms are crossed over her chest as she glares straight ahead of her.
I grit my teeth and give her a one word answer. “Almost.”
Her mouth sets into a thin line and I let my anger fill me up and fuel me on. She acts like she’s the one who was put out for having to leave the hospital. Not once did she consider how I’d feel. How I’d feel when I came back ready to spoil her with flowers and dinner only to find out she’d bailed on me. It didn’t take rocket science to figure out she’d gone to see him. And sure as fuck, I found her wrapped around him. Like she belonged to him.
I deserve her love.
It gutted me.
Fucking gutted me.
She’s lucky I didn’t end him right there once and for all. I craved to yank out the knife I’d bought, after returning to an empty hotel suite, and slash his throat. To watch it spray the ceiling and shower down around her. He deserved to drown in his own goddamned blood. The rage fights to consume me as I grip the steering wheel tighter, so I don’t do anything stupid like turn around. If I turned around and went back, I’d surely kill him. And if I killed him, she’d never forgive me. Her attention would be on him, not me.
I deserve her attention.
We’re walking a fine fucking line here.
Between right and wrong.
Love and hate.
Black and white.
The lines are becoming blurred and I’m tired of playing Mr. Nice Guy.
“Here we are,” I say as I pull down a long driveway that leads to a little house by the beach. “Home sweet home.”
She huffs at me and is already wrenching the door open before I have the damned truck turned off. I watch her run toward the house. It was easy getting her here. All it took was telling her the one thing she so desperately needed to hear. Come with me if you want to see your dad.
She’ll be so disappointed.
I’d hated the look of regret she’d shot over at that freak when she crawled out from under his heavy arm. I’d nearly gone mad with blinding rage when she pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. And I’d wanted to punish her—punish my sweet, sweet Baylee—for willingly cheating on me with that motherfucker.
I deserve her apologies.
But instead, I’d put on a brave face and wheeled her right out of that hospital. Helped her into my truck and drove her straight here. My girl had gone without a fight because she wanted to see her precious daddy. The same daddy who didn’t give two shits whether or not she got raped by men more than twice her age. It was just one more deep cut she wounded me with.
I was the bad guy.
Even after all this. After I’d stood by for years as the perfect, patient boyfriend.
I deserve to be the good guy.
As I climb out of the truck, my mind flits back to the beginning. Back when nobody believed me that she’d been taken. A satisfied smile stretches over my face.
“Where the fuck is she, Tony?”
He has the sense to look fucking ashamed. Leaning back in his armchair, he tilts the bottle of Jim Beam back and swallows a healthy gulp before speaking. “I don’t know.”
Fury overwhelms me and I fist my hands at my sides. I want to bash his goddamned skull in.
“She’s dead, Brandon,” he says.
The room spins as I consider his words. “No-No-No!”
“Not Baylee,” he snaps and his violent bloodshot eyes meet mine. “My wife. Lynn passed away. It was all for nothing. Now I’ve lost my baby, too.”
With a snarl, I stomp over to him and grab onto his shirt. Yanking him to his unsteady feet, I spit in his face. “What was all for nothing?”
He shrugs his shoulders—fucking shrugs them—and has the audacity to look down at me as if I’m still that pesky kid he always thought me to be. I’m no longer that shy kid who wants to date his daughter. I’m his worst fucking nightmare and I won’t stop until I have the love of my life back in my arms.
“Baylee. The sale. Gabe tried but it wasn’t enough. The money will come too late… Lynn couldn’t cope with losing Baylee. I never anticipated she’d deteriorate so quickly. That losing Baylee would cause her to give up.” A choked sob rips from him.
I curl my lip in disgust at his words and shove him away from me. “I fucking knew you were involved. You had a hand in selling your own daughter on the black goddamned market!”