Anger prickled my neck. Resentment. Bitterness. "Things don't always work out the way you want them to." I could have explained to him the line of events that led me to Austin but I wasn't going to. I was happy there, and I didn't regret my move for a second. And this man didn't deserve an explanation.
It wasn't like he'd explained anything to me. Ever.
"You don't get it..."
"There's nothing to get," I cut him off, sharply.
"Your mom—"
The more he mentioned her, the angrier I got because it made me think of the woman in his hotel room, and the little boy in Denver. "Don't bring her up."
His light colored eyes flashed. Indecision and who knows what else tore through him. "She was the love of my life."
Now, he was just asking for Dex to kick his ass. Better yet, I'd kick his ass. My hands clenched into fists in my lap. "Is that why you left? Because you loved her so much? You loved her so much you cheated on her and had a kid with someone else?"
He rocked back in his seat. "You don't get it," he repeated.
"No, I do get it. I get that you loved her in your own messed up way, but what were me and Will? Collateral damage? Accidents?" My chin tipped up on its own as my jaw clenched. "Nothing, right? We were nothing to you?"
"Goddamnit, that's not it at all. Why won't you stop being so fuckin' hostile and let me talk?" he snapped.
Yeah, I was done with this. Done with this man and this bull crap.
I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "I'm here because you need to fix this mess with those Europeans before they kill me or someone I care about. This isn't a social visit to talk about how much you've sucked being a human being, much less a father."
"Quit being such a bi—"
The drop of two pizza trays on the table droned out the end of his sentence. Dex's imposing figure loomed over the table, his hands gripping the edge. "You finish that fuckin' sentence, and I'll skin you alive."
Was he going to call me a bitch? Me?
My throat knotted up at the same time tears managed to find their way into the backs of my eyes. I ducked my head to keep either of them from seeing my reaction. I had to take a deep breath to center myself.
Of all the people in the universe, why did I have to be related to such a douche bag?
Unfortunately, you don't get to choose family, Sonny had told me once. But you do get to choose everyone else. In this case, I was cherry picking who I was going to spend the gift of my life with. Now that I deserved. Even without the cancer, without losing my mom and yia-yia, I would have wanted more. Not this sloppy excuse of a man.
I blinked and blinked again until I got myself under control.
Looking up, I caught the murderous look on Dex's face. The way his shoulders stiffened. He knew. He knew exactly what I was battling.
I couldn't glance at my father as I spoke. I kept my gaze steady on the tip of Uriel's tentacle peeping out from the black lip of his collar. This was right. Being there with him, that was fate. That was me taking control of my life and paving a new path. "I never want to see you again."
It was only the straightening of Dex's back that gave a warning he had processed my words and come to a conclusion.
That conclusion was in the shape of his fist nailing my father in the chin.
Maybe in a few years, or heck, maybe even months from then, I might feel guilty about what we did after that.
Then again, maybe I wouldn't feel a thing. Maybe, just maybe, I would never think about that visit to the pizza place or the man we left bleeding there. Who knows.
But what I did know, without a doubt in my heart, was that we did the right thing. The only thing. Maybe not the ethical or the nice thing, but when you're left to fend for yourself and for the ones you love, being proper and good-hearted goes straight out of the window.
We left.
My dad's keys in Dex's pocket, Dex and I walked out hand in hand.
A ruthlessness I didn't think I was capable of reinforced my veins and determination filled me as I spoke for the first time after Dex had stood up for me. "How much do you think we can get for his bike?"
The slow way in which he turned his head, brow up and lips pursed, was a mixture of shock and something else. But the smile that took over his features after that was the most stunning thing I'd ever seen. He reached across the console to palm my cheek. Those tattooed fingers, with the words LOYAL DREAM etched on them permanently, filled my chest with so much love and assurance I would have gone through the incident moments before all over again a hundred times for the same result.
Dex's nostrils flared as his thumb swiped over the yellowing bruise along my cheekbone. "Not sure but I know somebody who will."