Untamed (A Bad Boy Secret Baby Romance)(70)
“I made me who I am. But of course I’m gracious for the opportunities Glass has helped to provide me.” I staple on the standard answer.
“Doesn’t sound like the correct sort of way to talk about your adoptive father?”
“We’re getting into personal territory now.”
“You said that all that matters to you is fighting and family?”
“Yes.”
“What about the other member of your family, your foster sister?” He flips through his note pad, bunches up his brow. “Um, Deidre Marino?”
I regard the man. That was an act if there ever was one. Everybody who knows of Johnny Marino knows his daughter by name.
“What about her?” I ask, instantly feeling protective. What’s this guy driving at?
“Is she in the business?”
“What business?”
“It’s an open secret that Johnny Marino is a big-time mobster. Mafioso. That he owns half this town, north of the river. Do you also work for the mob, Duncan? Are you an enforcer? You’d make a good one, no doubt.”
I grin. “Interview’s over, Dan.”
“Just one more question, Duncan.”
“Get out or I throw you out.”
He chooses wisely.
I glare at him as he leaves, and then lean back in the sofa.
I think about Dee, her beautiful face, her soft skin.
Dee, legally my sister, but I’ve never thought of her that way.
Dee, who means more to me than anything else.
Dee, the only woman I can ever imagine sharing my life with.
Chapter Twenty Five
“He’s so sexy.”
The words float through the black speaker grill in the front of the limousine. Beside me, Frank grins.
“I love his eyes. They’re so blue, like water at the perfect beach.”
“Like sapphires!” another girl says.
I roll my eyes. Regular bunch of poets back there.
“Who are these girls, anyway?” I ask, jerking my thumb back toward the two-way partition glass that separates the back of the limousine from the front.
They can’t see us or hear us up-front – it’s just a mirror on their side – but we can hear everything they say, see everything they do. I peer back, and right now they’re drinking champagne liberally from the limo’s bar.
“And can we turn the speakers off?” I add.
“Sorry, Deidre,” Frank says. He turns his ruddy face and sleepy eyes toward me, wears an apologetic expression. “Your father’s orders.”
“You have to listen to them? That would drive me nuts.”
“I listen to everything,” he tells me. “Re-re… I don’t know the word.”
“Redundancy. So who are they, anyway? Just some girls for Dad?”
Frank frowns, shakes his head quickly. “Not your father, no. They’re for his friends. But don’t worry, Deidre, they’re here of their own choice.”
I make a face. Usually, you wouldn’t need that qualification. Usually. Dad swears he doesn’t do prostitution, but I know that’s a lie. He only says it because I’m a woman and he thinks I can’t take it, thinks I’ll burst into hysterics or something over it.
Like women haven’t been living in this fucking world, too.
“You’d think they’d have something better to do. God, they’re practically my age. Why do they do this?”
All of Dad’s friends are his age… just the thought of it icks me out. I wonder again if these girls have a choice. Nobody has a gun to their head, but life is tough for a lot of people. The barrel is not always made out of metal.
Dad preys on those people specifically.
I glance back, look through the mirror. The girls, three of them, seem off. They’re hyper, jittery, almost trembling, but not from cold. The limo’s heated.
“They’re really here to see Duncan, Deidre. You know that. They just entertain some of your Dad’s associates, that’s all. It’s a transaction.”
The girls in the back, three of them all dressed up – impossibly-high heels, tiny dresses, glittering jewelry – squeal with laughter. I wince as the speakers erupt into a static hiss.
“Damn it,” I whisper, rubbing my ears, thankful I missed what they said. No doubt it was something about Duncan. No doubt it was something I wouldn’t like to hear.
Words float through the speakers, but I try to ignore them.
“I don’t think they’re talking about anything important,” Frank says, and he lowers the volume. He offers me a kind smile.
“Thanks,” I tell him.
“They’re obsessed with Duncan,” he says before briefly clearing his throat. “All the girls are. Every fight now, they’re all talking about him. More girls turn up to fights than guys now. Can you believe that? I shuttle more girls to these fights than I do guys. It’s… I never would have thought it, you know?”