Page 6
Two men stand across from him. Two men in tailored suits, with the same handsome face and bright blue eyes. Twins.
One has dark hair and a face that makes you look twice, and he stands with a stillness that tells me he doesn't need to move to be the most dangerous person in the room. He wears a black suit and a black shirt with no tie and looks immaculately lethal.
The other is leaning against the filing cabinet like he's at a cocktail party, one ankle crossed over the other. He's wearing a lavender suit and seems less intense than his twin brother, although something about his casualness makes me uneasy.
I don't know who they are, but I know they aren't here for anything good.
My eyes move back to Dad, and that is when I notice something that unsettles me far more than either of the strangers.
He's afraid.
I've seen my father frightened before. I've watched him face the possibility of losing Mom, watched him sit beside her hospital bed, trying to pretend he wasn't terrified. But this is different. Something is guarded in the way he's holding himself, as though he's trying very hard not to let these men see just how frightened he is.
I stay where I am, watching him without letting him know I'm here.
The man in black shifts his attention toward Dad, and I find myself holding my breath. There is nothing threatening in his expression, nothing I can point to, but every instinct I have tells me he is someone to be careful around.
I look at Dad again and feel a flicker of anger beneath my unease. Whatever this is, he has kept it from me. He has shut me out for months, and now I find two clearly very dangerous men standing in my home while he looks as though he’s about to pass out from fear.
I take one more step into the room.
My father sees me.
"Sunny, go back to your room." His voice is tight. I hear the tremor underneath, and it scares me more than anything else in this room. "Now."
But I don't move. "Dad, what's going on?"
"Nothing. It's a private meeting. Go back to your room, and close the door."
"It doesn't sound like nothing."
"Sunny." There’s a desperation in his eyes that I haven't seen since the night Mom died. "Please."
The man in the dark suit turns his head and looks at me, his eyes pinning me on the spot like a hand around my throat.
His eyes are a beautiful bright blue, but there is nothing warm in them.
He doesn't speak. But he doesn't need to for my heart to rattle against my ribcage.
My father has dealt with questionable people before. It comes with having powerful clients. But these men are not questionable.
They’re dangerous.
"Dad." I don’t take my eyes off them. "Tell me what's going on."
He looks at the man in the dark suit, but the man in the dark suit is looking at me.
A cold unease unfurls in my belly.
Because I know whatever my father has gotten himself into with these men, I just walked into the middle of it.
And from the way the man in the dark suit is looking at me, I have a feeling I'm not walking out of it anytime soon.
4
DANTE
Well, things just got interesting.
