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“Morning,” he said, without looking up at her. He seemed to be preoccupied with something on his phone. “Fresh coffee in the pot if you’d like some.”
“Thanks,” she said, and poured herself a mug. She hadn’t seen him since that night at Madigan’s and while being in his presence made her uneasy, she sat across the table from him with her mug in front of her. She sat quietly for several long minutes, until he finally looked up at her. Their eyes met and a cold shiver ran down her spine.
“I had to take out another loan last night. I figured I’d tell you so there would be no surprises on your end.”
Skyla lifted her mug with both hands and brought the rim up to her lips, slowly and purposely taking several small sips of the steaming dark liquid. She needed these few moments to collect her thoughts before she said something that caused him to lash out at her again.
She loved her father. He was the only family she had in this world. But she just couldn’t keep up with his gambling debts. Every time she healed one of AJ’s guys it took more and more of a toll on her. Didn’t he see that? Did he even care?
“How much?” She asked carefully, thinking maybe if the number was small, it wouldn’t be a big deal.
Her father shrugged. “Enough to cover what I owed. The problem is that I had to take it out at a higher interest rate than before.”
Skyla’s stomach sank and she closed her fingers tightly around her mug. “It’s not getting any easier, Dad. The older I get, the harder it is on me, and on my body. I couldn’t even drive home last night.”
“That’s okay, Pumpkin. You’re a big girl. I don’t need to know where you spend your nights, or with whom. You just keep up your end of the deal, and I’ll keep up mine.”
Skyla raised an eyebrow. “Yours?”
He nodded. “Who do you think pays for this house you get to live in, the clothes you get to wear, those damn tattoos that cover your skin and even that bar you run? I’d say that’s me keeping up my end of the bargain, wouldn’t you?”
She sighed. It was pointless to argue that Madigan’s was what paid for everything, because even though her father no longer took an active role in running the business, he still considered it his. Needing to get something off her chest, Skyla decided this was as good a time as any to bring up an idea she’d been toying around with since their last conversation. “How would you feel if I started looking for a place of my own?”
“Sure,” her father perked up. “Like I said, where you spend your nights is none of my business. Just be sure you can afford it all on your own.”
The conversation was going better than Skyla had hoped so she pressed on. “About that, I would need you to raise my salary -”
“No.” The word came out so final, it almost felt like a punch to the gut. “I said, you have to pay for it on your own. Any money that comes into Madigan’s is mine. Not yours. Just because you learned how to mix drinks and fry potatoes, doesn’t make you anything more than a glorified barfly. The only difference is, you know what’s at stake if that place goes under.”
Skyla swallowed a large gulp of her coffee. Yeah, she knew what was at stake. Madigan’s was the only thing paying for this house, and all its bills that her father had turned his back on years ago. “Dad, I can’t spend the rest of my life living in this house and running Madigan’s for less money than a month’s worth of groceries. Don’t you want me to have my own life? I’ve built that place up so high, it’s the best bar and grill in Dallas. I’ve tripled the sales and -”
“You did your job, Skyla. That’s it. Why would I pay you more to do the same thing you’ve been doing for years? That’s just bad business. I’m a lot of things, my daughter, but I’m not and nor will I ever be, a bad businessman. This conversation is over. Have a good day.” He stood, took his mug to the sink, then walked out of the room.
Skyla smirked to herself. His actions were completely appropriate for a man who expected a maid to come through and clean up after him. Only they didn’t have a maid because he had his daughter.
After draining her own mug, Skyla put both their mugs in the dishwasher before leaving the kitchen to put on her tennis shoes. Most Tuesday mornings, Skyla went for a long hike in the woods behind her father’s house. It was a way to unwind after a long week, and she loved being in nature, amongst the tall trees and the chirping birds. She didn’t even mind the bugs.
On the other side of the woods, over ten miles to the east, was a public hiking trail, but it was rare for her to meet other hikers in these woods. More often than not, the only living creatures she ran into were deer, and sometimes she’d spot a few ducks in the creek that separated her father’s property from public land.
It was so quiet today, even the birds seemed to be taking a break from their incessant chirping. She never understood how people could walk in nature with their ears plugged with headphones. Didn’t they want to hear the soundtrack of the world around them? After six days and nights of listening to music, screaming, shouting, and cursing at Madigan’s, the only things Skyla wanted to hear were the rustling leaves, the trickling sound of water, and the occasional singing bird. It relaxed her and gave her a kind of invigorating energy that lasted the rest of the week.
“Skyla? Is that you?” The female voice pulled Skyla from her daze. She spun around to see Vivian walking up the pathway toward her. “Wow, what a coincidence. I didn’t realize you hiked this trail. I heard it was haunted or something in one of those tourist books.”
Skyla had no idea what Vivian was talking about. These woods were small enough that they weren’t in any tourist books that she knew of, and as far as being haunted, that was just ridiculous. “I’ve never heard that before,” Skyla said, cautiously eyeing the woman who had first shown up at Madigan’s last week, and then came to Hallie and Caden’s barbeque on Sunday. “What brings you out here?”
“I just thought it was a nice day for a hike. It’s gorgeous out here,” Vivian said with a bright smile, pushing a stray hair back from her face and tucking it behind her ear. She wore yoga pants, a pink tank top, and white tennis shoes. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and she had on no makeup, though Skyla noticed a few streaks of sweat going down her neck, so the woman had obviously been out here for a while already. The day was warm, but not so hot that anyone would be sweating so profusely, unless they had been outside for hours.
Vivian wore a small backpack and carried a camera with a detachable lens, probably for taking photos of birds or other things at a great distance. Skyla had seen hikers with those kinds of cameras when she went on larger trails, but never anyone with that kind of equipment practically in her own backyard. “What brings you out to this little slice of heaven?” Vivian asked.
“Oh,” Skyla said, breaking away from her thoughts about the woman. “I actually live nearby. These woods back into my father’s property. I don’t usually see anyone else around here though. I’m surprised you were able to find the public entrance. It’s so overgrown and hidden from the street, most locals don’t even know it’s there.”
Vivian shrugged and offered Skyla a smile she didn’t trust. “I tend to find the things I’m looking for. I guess it’s part of being an FBI Agent.”
Skyla smirked, not sure what to make of her little comment. The awkward silence between them lent itself to Skyla hearing the soothing sound of the trickling creek, only it was coming from up ahead, which meant that Vivian had crossed it and was standing on private property. “How did you cross the creek?” Skyla asked, looking down at the other woman’s shoes again. The water was shallow enough to wade through or even skip the rocks, but that would’ve left her with wet and muddy shoes. Vivian’s shoes were clean and dry, which meant she’d walked to the northern edge of the property line where the creek narrowed to a point that someone could simply step over it. Except there was a sign there that said, ‘no trespassing, private property beyond this point.’ So, Vivian must’ve known she was entering private property.
“I just went across,” Vivian said with a nervous laugh. “The water isn’t that deep in most places.”
Skyla pointedly looked down at the woman’s shoes. “But it’s still wet in all of them.” When she looked up, Vivian looked even less comfortable than she had been a moment ago. “You knew I lived here, didn’t you? You’ve been snooping around. Why?”
