Undead and Unforgiven(63)

“Of course. We can’t be partners without transparency.”

“And you think him being numb means he’s fine with that.”

For the first time, she faltered. “He’s not— I mean, yes, he’s grieving. But he knows I’m a force for good, despite my birthright, like he knows you’re a force for evil, despite yours.”

I stopped pacing and stood in front of her. “No,” I said bluntly. “He’s lost his wife and daughter in a very short time. His wife died of cancer while he was helpless and could only watch, and his daughter was recently murdered in a particularly nasty way, because a lifelong friend of his family happened to be a vampire. You could have set yourself on fire and waltzed with a grizzly bear and he’d have had the same reaction: ‘Yeah, okay, sounds good, I don’t care.’”

“I don’t—”

“Yeah, that’s just right. You don’t. Oh, say, where’s our dear old daddy-o?”

“He—” She realized she didn’t know, and closed her mouth. I was too irked to feel much triumph. God, what an idiot. Both of them. Must be a genetic thing. Curse. Whatever.

“You didn’t even notice he wasn’t here, did you? Too busy preening for the cameras. He ditched you. And that, little sister, is our father in a nutshell. All talk, no follow-up. He’s made a career out of terrible choices that he can’t stick with.”

“He’s scared of you! And he’s right to be scared. I said I’d protect him—”

I almost giggled.

“—and when I told him my plan he thought it was a wonderful idea. He wanted to help. He helped finance the operation.”

“With his ill-gotten gains. But hey, the ends justify the et cetera, right, Laura?”

“You just can’t stand that he wants to help me expose you. He had to fake his death just to get any peace.”

I sighed. Laura had an amazing ability to interpret all my actions as evil, and all our evil dad’s actions as good. And her own intentions were, in her mind, always golden. “Yeah, he committed fraud for the greater good. Except not really.”

“And why do you suppose he did that?” she asked in an exaggerated let’s-find-the-answer-together tone.

“Because he’s a raging coward who thrives on ducking familial responsibility?”

She glared. “That’s our father you’re speaking of.”

“I know.” I could feel my shoulders slump. Exhausted and it was barely noon. “That’s why it’s so awful.”

“He did it because he was afraid of you.”

“Oh, Jesus-please-us.” I rolled my eyes hard enough to hurt. “He can’t think I’d ever hurt him.”

“You threatened to kill him!”

“Mmm . . . doesn’t sound like me. No, I’m pretty sure I never— Oh. Wait. Huh.” It was all coming back to me, like those nightmares where you’re naked and tardy and haven’t studied for the test and everyone’s throwing tomatoes at you. “Fine, I did threaten him. Don’t look at me like that; it was a stressful couple of days, took me a second to remember. Do you remember every conversation you’ve had in the last two months?”

She took a breath and put her hands behind her back. I grinned; in her mind she was throttling me. I’ve been seeing that look on people’s faces for decades. “So you admit it. You know he doesn’t trust you!”

“Wait, the guy who faked his own death is the one having trust issues? Jeepers, who’d have thought?”

“He still wanted to help me. He was so happy to see me,” she babbled, lost in the happy memory of our father pretending he cared. “He was on board from the start—he thought telling the truth about you was a wonderful idea.”

“He thought revealing he’d faked his death and committed insurance fraud was a wonderful idea?”

“He— What?”

“Moron!” I’d leaned down and shouted it into her face, and watching her flinch was deeply satisfying. “He broke the law! It’s a felony, dumbass! He’ll be lucky if he’s only sued. They could slam his ass into Stillwater for—for—”

“Up to twenty years and a fine of up to one hundred thousand dollars in the state of Minnesota,” the doorway said, except not really.

“Oh, you might as well get in here,” I said, resuming my pacing.

To my surprise, Dick led the charge: “You’re pathetic.” Tina stretched on her tiptoes to peek over his shoulder and nodded in agreement. The others were crammed in behind them (narrow doorway).