Page 24 of Made in Love and Blood

“Which do you prefer—I run it out or drive?”

“They’re both going to kill you!”

She scoffed, and it almost sounded careless but for the choked sound at the end breaking his heart. “Well, that’d just be one less problem in your life, right?”

“Don’t you dare. I love you—to fucking death. I would give you anything you asked for, if I could. And God knows I’ve tried. I swear, it feels like you do this shit just to punish me sometimes.”

Her mouth tightened in anger, jaw clenching rhythmically. “Yeah, Daddy, sure. My unspecified eating disorder,” she spat out, rolling her eyes, “and speeding is all about you. Wouldn’t that be nice, huh? When you’re around, it just clears right up, so it must be you.”

Salvatore balked momentarily. “I didn’t mean it like that, I just—”

Her head shook erratically, making her messy bun in fall around her shoulders in waves. “No, enough talking. Skip to the end where you do whatever you have to do, and I can get the hell away from you. Are you going to ground me? I don’t go anywhere, Daddy. I don’t have friends, remember? Are you going to tell me that I can’t play soccer? I’m probably already kicked off the team after yesterday and I don’t care anyway.”

“What happened yesterday?” Salvatore knew—a message from her coach came in mere minutes after she left the field—but he wanted to give her the opportunity to come out with it. “I’m waiting,” he told her the longer she refused to speak.

“Just ground me, take shit away. I’m done.”

If she wanted to play that game...

“Okay, no penthouse for the next year. How’s that?” he asked.

This time, Frankie recoiled. “What, but—”

“Are we talking about yesterday, or not?”

Her gaze narrowed. “That’s a dirty move.”

“Or a great fucking bet on my part,” he returned.

Salvatore knew his daughter like the back of his hand. Before she had turned one, it was just him and her. She would never understand how much he had sacrificed and the things that happened so the two of them could scream at one another like this.

She didn’t need to know. It wouldn’t make anything better.

“No, take the penthouse. Take the new Rolls, and whatever else, too. I don’t care.”

She spun on her heel, but Salvatore didn’t let her get far. “We are not done here. Do not leave this study without my permission, young lady.”

Her steps faltered, but she didn’t turn around. Only glanced at him over her shoulder. The grin that twisted at her lips killed him from the venom behind it.

“I’m already stuck in this cage, so, lock the fucking door on your way out the next time you leave. I made it easy for you, didn’t I? No uni in the fall. No job lined up to give me something to do. Why don’t you add some cameras inside the house while you’re at it, and you’ll never have to ask me another damn thing about any of it. You’ll always know.”

Salvatore blinked, taking her words in. “Is that how it feels? That I’ve put you in a cage?”

Poison came right back for him in the form of stinging words, but he braced himself for the impact.

“Are you kidding me? You’re joking, right?” She laughed again as she pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes and turned back around so he could see the tears spilling down her cheeks. “I hate this fucking house. I hate my life. I hate you, Daddy.”

Salvatore’s throat clenched as he tried to swallow down that bitter pill. An invisible knife stabbed into chest, making every heartbeat painful to breath through. Words were just words. She didn’t mean them, and he heard this all before.

“Frankie, please—”

“I don’t know why you give a shit, you’re not even around!” she screamed.

Yep.

There it was.

She might have said how her anxiety and self-destructive behaviors weren’t about him, but those festering seeds took root somewhere. He first noticed when she was nine, going on ten. She made herself sick at the drop of a hat, couldn’t relate to her peers, became a target for bullies at school, and thus he pulled her out and took her places, travelling with tutors every chance he could.