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Tobias looks ready to throw his son right after the bouquet, but he resists. “Ricky, why the hell does anyone come to a restaurant? For fucking breakfast. Now get the hell out of here, like I told you, before this scene gets a lot uglier.”
My ex clearly doesn’t want to leave, his eyes lingering forlornly on me before I see his shoulders sink as he gives in. “Fine. I’ll call you, Teagan.”
“No the fuck you won’t,” Tobias barks at his son's back as he retreats, and Ricky jumps nervously. We both watch the yellow Jaguar disappear out of the parking lot, silence falling over us as the car retreats into the city.
Having Ricky here absolutely ruined whatever was happening between Tobias and me, but now that he’s gone, it feels even more tense. Now that the truth of Ricky’s parentage is out in the light, unpleasant thoughts start to form themselves in my mind. Instinctually, I don’t think Tobias has been messing around with me, but the coincidence is so odd that I can’t just let the question go unsaid.
“So, um…” I lick my lips, shuffling my feet as I try to find the right way to ask. “Have you been coming here because…?”
I can see that Tobias doesn’t get what I’m saying at first, but when the half-spoken question processes, annoyance and frustration are rippling over his features. “If you’re about to ask me if I’ve been coming to see you daily as a spy for my son, the answer is no. I haven’t even spoken to him in months. Trust me, I’m not thrilled to know that the two of you have some past connection.”
It’s silly since I barely know him, but it’s like my heart is cracking, hearing him say that. I guess it doesn’t matter how strong our connection is because nothing can make the fact that I dated Ricky go away. “We barely dated,” I protest quietly. “I don’t even like him as a person if I’m being honest. I know he’s your son, but…” I shrug one shoulder, feeling self-conscious. “It’s fine if you don’t want to come in anymore.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just…fuck!” Tobias drags his hand through his hair, making a frustrated noise in his throat. “This isn’t anything I anticipated.”
He moves towards me, and for a second, I think he’s going to touch me—maybe cup my face in his huge hand—but he stops himself, taking a deep breath. The thing is…I want him to touch me. I want that overwhelming feeling of attraction and lust to go ahead and wipe away all the awkward feelings from Ricky showing up. It would be so easy to just drown in it. Tobias, though, has more self-control than I do, and he keeps his hands at his sides.
“Go back inside,” he tells me, sounding so regretful. “We’re done for the day.”
It’s not what I want to hear. At all. “But?—”
“Teagan.” There is no room for argument in his tone. “Don’t argue with me. Go inside. I will see you tomorrow.”
A thread of anxiety inside of me fades away, knowing he’ll still be coming into the diner. He might be lying, but for right now, it’s enough. I’ll get to see him tomorrow, and maybe we can pretend that this whole ordeal didn’t happen.
Sad but understanding why it has to be this way, I nod. “Okay. See you tomorrow then.”
Before I turn, Tobias reaches out, faster than lightning, and brushes his thumb over my bottom lip before pulling his hand to his side again. “Tomorrow,” he rumbles, and in that single word, there is a world of promises.
4
TOBIAS
Before I climb behind the wheel of my car, I turn my phone off and fight the urge to snap it into a mess of wires and glass in my fist.
How in the hell can this be happening? Of all the fucking people in the world for me to have this uncontrollable obsession for…it just so happens to be my deadbeat son’s ex-girlfriend?
I know what the right thing to do is—I should leave her alone. I should travel for a few weeks, take a few last jobs, anything to get her out of my mind. But for the first time in my life, I find something shift in me. I just can’t do it. Cutting Teagan out is an impossibility.
Deep inside, I’ve already decided that she belongs to me, and my selfishness and stubbornness are out in full force. I barely even know the girl, but she’s like a drug to me. So, inappropriate or not, she’s going to be mine. Soon enough, Ricky won’t even be a thing she thinks about anymore. He will just be an unfortunate footnote in her history. I am her future.
Maybe it would be different if my son and I were closer, but we’ve grown apart so much over the years that I couldn’t give a single fuck less about what makes him happy and what doesn’t.
Ricky was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, thanks to me, but he’s proven to be a selfish little prick as an adult. He has no drive to work and earn his own money or make his own place in the world and just expects that he’ll be able to rely on me for the rest of his life. No way in hell that is going to happen. Not with the things I’ve had to do in order to make the money that I have.
Ricky enjoys the clout of being the son of one of the most successful hitmen of the last generation, but he doesn’t want to put in any effort of his own. Because that’s who I am—Tobias Terrazas, independent hitman, tied down to no one.
In the last decade, I’ve slowly transitioned the business I’ve built into a security firm, with the singular goal of having a legitimate business to pass on to my son. It was going to be my legacy, and all without Ricky having to ever spill a drop of blood himself. The little shit refused, though, when he learned how much work it would be to take over Terrazas Industries from me.
After that, it was a series of lies. Watching the road change from the busy Chicago highways to the quieter roads that wind along the Lake Michigan coastline, I flex my hands on the leather steering wheel as I recall all the bullshit he’s told me over the years.
Before he graduated high school, it was nothing but promises about taking the company over, but I’ve always had the fear that he was more interested in the violence and intimidating status that came with the hitman career. I hadn’t wanted to tell him at all, but by the time he turned eighteen, there was no way to hide it from him anymore. When I switched the company over to security, he started to lose interest in taking my place and was even more distant when he saw just how many hours I had to put in to be successful.
Then, it was a short-lived passion to go to college for business so he could make his own way in the world as an entrepreneur. I snort, thinking back on that now. How the hell did I fall for that crap? I paid for his degree, and to be fair, he did graduate with a bachelor’s, but just like before, any desire to actually do that hard work once it was time to do so disappeared. Since then, I’ve watched him nickel and dime away the money I gave him to establish himself in the world once I realized that I could never force him to succeed. I put a fair amount in an account and handed the details over to Ricky, washing my hands off my son and letting him figure shit out on his own.
I haven’t seen him in a while. It figures our reunion would be at the worst possible time. Fuck! I punch the steering wheel, irate at what a perfect chance Ricky ruined. Teagan had been the one to approach me and not the other way around. I would have never anticipated that. She was basically putty in my hands.
Was she putty in Ricky’s hands, too? Dammit…I’m going to lose my mind thinking about shit like this. I need to put my energy into deciding what my next move is, not dwelling on the fact that my son has potentially had his hands on my woman.
