Beautiful Scamp

“I—” She laughs. “I’ve had it such a long time. You’ll think it’s silly.”

I shake my head. “Nothing about you is silly. Tell me about it.”

“Well, I told you I had a bit of a crush on you when I was thirteen and you visited? I didn’t know at the time that you weren’t going to come back, and I…”

“You got a tattoo when you were thirteen?”

She nods. “Mm hmm. The tattooist knew my papa and I said if he didn’t do it for me I’d make trouble for him.”

“Sneaky. So the VG is…”

She turns around to face me, pulling the dress up over her shoulders and trying to hold it around her chest, frowning when it doesn’t stay in place. “Yes. Valiant Garcia. Like I said, a stupid teenage crush.”

I shake my head. “No. It was fate. I didn’t know it at the time but you did. We were meant to be together, Scamp. Perhaps I was meant to go to prison and learn to be my own man, so I could take care of you properly.”

“No.” She frowns. “I would love you without all this,” she says, looking around the office. “Things are nice, but people are more important. If you had nothing, I’d still want to be with you.”

“Perhaps, but a man provides for what’s his. And for me that’s you and Pip.”

She opens her mouth to speak, but before she can there’s a ringing from my desk drawer and my stomach turns over.

“That’s my personal number,” I tell her. “And I don’t have any friends. The only people who have that number are you and Pip.”

Chapter 11 – Scamp

Come alone. I see any sign of cops or that rat bastard Garcia, your sister’s blood will be on your hands, Samos.

My father’s words play on repeat in my head as I walk in through the front of the casino. Val agreed, reluctantly, to let me come in on my own. He tried to persuade me to go to the feds, but what would they do that I can’t do on my own? As my father said to me, kidnapping is a strong word for picking up his own daughter from school. He’s right, even if he did wait until she went to pee to get her away from her bodyguards.

If he harms a hair on Pip’s head though, so help me…

Camilo sees me heading to the private back room where my father conducts all his business, and nods my way like we’re old friends or something. He’s a strange one. I guess my father keeps him around because he knows Camilo would do anything for him. But I knew Camilo when he was just a kid. He and Amara were inseparable, as I remember, and he was never the sort of boy you would expect to get mixed up in my father’s business. But then, what do they say about ports and storms? My father took him in when his own family rejected him, and that kind of thing creates loyalty that doesn’t break easily.

“Is he in there?” I ask.

Camilo nods. “I want you to know, I don’t agree with what he did. Scaring your sister? I told him that wasn’t cool.”

What does he expect? Thanks? Words don’t mean much to me right now and as I recall she was pretty scared when he burst into our hotel room last night.

I ignore him and push past, opening the door to the room and see my father sitting on the other side of a large glass desk, a smile spreading on his face when he sees me. He’s the same as I’ve always known him. Large, in every sense of the word. Tall, broad, with a slightly rounded belly and dark, intelligent eyes. Nobody underestimates my father, because as soon as they see him they know he means business.

“Samos!” he says, as if I’m the kind of daughter he would dote on. “My little tearaway. What am I to do with you?”

“Papa, I’m just here for Pip. Please let me take her.”

He shrugs. “Of course. Penelope is unharmed and once you agree to come back to work for me she’ll be free to go.”

I huff out a breath. “No, Papa. I’m sorry, but I don’t work for you anymore. I’m not selling drugs again, not for you or for anyone else. I’m out.”

“Samos. Of course you don’t mean this. I know you’ve taken up with Valiant.” He holds up a hand, shaking his head and tutting against my protest. “He is an honorable man, I won’t deny. I even liked him once. But he has put these ideas in your head about leaving the family, exactly the same thing he did as soon as he thought I couldn’t say no.”

“I’m not with Val any longer,” I lie. I’ll tell him whatever he needs to hear, but I will get Pip back.