AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t be a child.”
“But that’s what I am,” I say as my phone vibrates in my bag. I ignore it and drop the bag on a couch. “A child, Daddy.”
“Don’t even try and make it about the poor little girl bullshit. You’re spoiled, you hate Smith, but you don’t see me as a replacement, even really as a daddy figure. If you did, you’d run your fucking ass off as far as you could.”
He’s right, and being right doesn’t make it better. Somehow it makes it worse because I want a fight. I want to hurt him, to draw blood, the way he’s done to me and my heart.
“Fuck that. I’d be the one to run.” He takes a swallow of the beer but makes no effort to offer me a drink. “If you want to throw some kind of fucking hissy fit, go ahead. Your father can be an ass. I’m not him.”
“I don’t think you are.”
“Good.”
“Great.” I stalk up to him and grab the beer. Then I down a good portion. It’s dark, thick, and bitter with an edge of dark chocolate. “You wanted to talk?”
“Dakota, we won’t ever work. We both know that. I’m a fuckwit for not keeping my hands to myself.”
My vision blurs with tears and my eyes prickle. “I didn’t ask for this. You don’t like women like me, remember?”
His lips pull into a tight line. “Fina—Josefina—was a journalist. One of the fucking best you’d never heard of. I can’t tell you about what I used to do, what I do now, but let’s just leave it as me working with Special Forces at that time. And I loved her.”
Ire sparks in every cell. I want to hate her. But she’s dead. How can I hate someone who’s dead? I wait for him to say more, sipping his beer until the silence becomes deafening. He moves away, behind the other side of the counter. He bends down, opens a cabinet, then returns with a bottle of golden-colored rum and a glass.
He fills the glass and leaves it on the island, I’m assuming for me. He drinks from the bottle, the recessed ceiling lights making the silver of his rings glint.
“She was taken at the same time the stupid tourists, rich, pampered pretty girls around your age were. My orders were clear. Rescue them, bring in as many of the fucking insurgents as I could.”
He stares down at the label and my heart squeezes tight.
“Thing is, there were enough of us do to this while I rescued Fina. But she wasn’t considered important. And after I got those girls out, along with a few of the consulate workers, I was ordered to return and bring in the leader.”
He pauses, taking another drink.
“I broke my orders. Committed, in the eyes of the government, treason. I got Fina instead. They’d tortured her. Raped her. She died in my arms. She was pregnant.”
He downs unhealthy mouthfuls of the rum and I don’t know what to do. Everything hurts and I want to comfort a man who doesn’t want it. I want to comfort a man who can’t be comforted by a hug or a few words.
“That doesn’t sound like treason,” I say, my voice wobbling.
He smiles and it’s a cold, nasty smile. “Me killing every last motherfucker there was. They wanted someone, leverage to make a deal, to negotiate. And Smith, let’s just say I owe him my freedom from that shit show.”
“So you brought me here to tell me that?”
Orion stops, turns, rubs a hand over his beard as he picks up the rum, looks at it, and throws it against the wall. The bottle shatters, thick glass pieces and liquid flying into the air. I yelp, startled at his sudden display of violence.
“I wanted to fucking talk and let you know why we won’t work. I crossed fucking lines, Dakota. Huge fucking lines.”
“Okay, great. So now I know your story. Are you going to kick me out of your life now?”
He eyes me with a blast of ice. “No. I fucking wanted to make sure you understood this is you and me and no one else. That I went too far because you’re almost impossible to resist.”
“Almost?” I swallow. “Daddy?”
He goes still. “Baby girl, you’re playing with the fucking highest octane fuel.”
“I’m not what you want?—”
“You know you are.”
