“Dad!” she shouts, grinding against my balls while I bite my fist. “I told you not to come in! Get out! Please!”
I hear Mark’s trademark sigh, and part of me wants to jump up and throw him out of here.
“I pay for this house, young lady,” he tells her. “So if you want to get up to…adult stuff, then maybe you should look for a place of your own.”
Maybe she should…
“Fine!” she snaps. “I will. Now can youplease just get out of here?”
“You know what today is, don’t you?” Mark asks her, and I feel Harper’s body tense against me.
“Of course I do!” she shouts. “It’syouwho normally forgets. Now just get out of here!”
“Okay, okay,” Mark says, his heavy footsteps creaking the floorboards.
“And remember what I said, Chris,” he adds. “Hurt her and you’re a dead man walking!”
Fuck.
The door slams shut, and Harper lets out a frustrated groan.
“The gall of that man!” she huffs as I sit up and pull her back to my chest.
“Don’t get worked up,” I whisper, hugging her waist.
“I can’t believehe asked me if I know what day it is!”
“I know,” I say, kissing her ear.
“You don’t. Today is my mother’s?-“
“I know,” I tell her again. “It’s been twelve years today since your mom died.”
I feel her stomach clench against my hands.
“I didn’t think you’d know that,” she murmurs. “My dad only remembers when it suits him.”
I pull back her hair and stare at her reflection.
“None of us will ever forget that day, Harper. Your dad just tries to block it out and pretend it never happened.”
“Wish I could,” she says.
I nod. “Yeah. I bet you do. Listen, why don’t you and Maria do something fun today? Catch a movie or something? Take your mind off it.”
Harper twists her head and kisses my lips.
God, that’s addictive.
“I thought we could spend the day together…” she teases. “In bed.”
I groan and bury my head in her shoulder.
“Believe me, I’d like nothing more. But I have a few things I need to take care of.”
Harper stops breathing.
“You’re not going to hurt anyone, are you?” she asks.
I lift my head. “No. Unless trouble finds me, you have my word I won’t be hurting anyone.”
“Okay,” she says, stroking my scorpion tattoo. “What is it you wanted to talk to me about?”
Hearing Mark’s car revving in the driveway, I close my eyes.
“It can wait,” I whisper.
Laying Alice’s favorite flower on her gravestone, I stand and stare down at the single rose.
“Hope you’re having fun up there,” I tell her memory. “Please don’t be too mad at me.”
A silver Porsche 911 speeds into the cemetery car park and I sigh.
“This wasn’t planned,” I tell the headstone. “And I swear to God that I tried so hard to stop it happening. But I couldn’t. Maybe some things are just meant to be?”
The driver of the Porsche jumps out of his car and slams his door.
Fuck.
I really don’t want any more trouble.
“I’ll still keep my promise,” I tell Alice as the man walks up the pathway to my right. “I’ll never let anything bad happen to her.”
Closing my eyes, I silently apologize one more time as the click of footsteps echo beside me.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hey,” he says. “Come to confess your sins to my wife on the anniversary of her death?”
I open my eyes and turn to Mark Reeves. “Something like that.”
“You’ve got fucking nerve, pal,” he says.
“I don’t want any trouble. I just?-“
“Trouble?” he snaps. “You should have thought about that before fucking my daughter in a house I pay for!”
“Hey!” I grab his forearm and he glances down at my hand. “Don’t talk like that here. Show some respect.”
Mark shrugs my hand away and snickers.
“Respect?” he says. “Youreally want to talk tome about respect?”
“Not here,” I warn him.
“Fine!” he snaps. “Then let’s go to the café over there and talk about this.”
“Okay. After you…”
Mark storms off and I take one last look at Alice’s grave.
“I don’t break promises,” I whisper down at her before setting off after Mark.
The short walk to the cemetery café takes less than a minute and Mark is already sitting down when I pull open the door.
“You want a drink?” he asks me as I pull out a chair.
“I’m good, thanks,” I say.
He shakes his head and pulls out a hip flask. “Glad someone is.”
Mark glugs the whiskey and slams the flask down to the table.
“At least have a fucking drink with me,” he hisses.
“It’s midday,” I reply. “Seven hours too early for me.”
“Never used to bother you.”
I shrug. “Don’t know what to tell you.”
Mark glares at me and leans across the table.
“Take. A fucking. Drink,” he states, his bloodshot eyes full of rage.
I stare at the flask and shake my head.
“No one tells me what to do, Mark. Includingyou.”
He purses his lips and sits back in his chair.
“Not going to ask how the business deal went?” he says. “Because while you were fucking my only daughter, I was out there trying to secure us another nightclub.”
“Watch your fucking mouth,” I warn him.
Mark smirks. “You really don’t care about the business, do you?”
While I was watching Harper sleep this morning, so many things dawned on me. One of which being how my lifestyle is just a distraction from the shit I was feeling inside.
The nightclub empire, the fights, the guns, the money, they all allowed me to vent my frustration while avoiding the chaos inside me.
“Honestly?” I say. “No. I couldn’t give a fuck whether we have yet another nightclub. Because we’ll never haveenough, pal.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.