Is Dad coming? I reply.
She doesn’t answer. I try to call. She doesn’t answer.
When dinner time arrives, Logan hasn’t called and I’m a nervous wreck for no good reason. I’m just having dinner with my parents, or maybe just my mother. When it’s time to leave, Adrian and I stand just outside the SUV that Mason will once again be driving.
“I’m nervous,” I confess. “Why am I so nervous?”
“Don’t ever ignore a feeling, baby,” he says. “Be extra alert. Adam will be back inside the restaurant. I’ll be around the corner with Blake and Savage this time. Mason will be out front.”
“Okay.” My hand settles on the hard wall of his chest. “I want you to know that if you ever give me the chance to love all the parts of you that you hate, I will.”
His hand is at the back of my head and he brings our foreheads together. “Pri,” he whispers, emotion, so much emotion, etched in my name. And then he’s kissing me, a tender, passionate kiss that I feel from head to toe and right in the center of my heart. And I swear he settles right in my soul and nestles in to stay.
Reluctantly, we break apart and he flips my bracelet to on before I climb inside the vehicle. Mason turns on the radio, a mix of generations of music, and my mind floats back to the past. I’m working late at the office, the only one there, and decide to make a pot of coffee. Once it’s brewing, I leave it to finish, and I’m walking past Kelly Monroe’s office. Kelly is a first-year attorney, young and pretty, a redheaded bombshell. The door is cracked and the sound of a voice murmurs low, almost rough. It’s my father,
“I told you not to do this,” he snaps. “Don’t cross me again.”
“Or you’ll do what?” Kelly demands. “Tell your wife on me?”
I suck in a breath and the voices just disappear. They say nothing more. Or I can’t hear them. Afraid my father is coming, I hurry down the hallway and enter my office. I shut the door and start to pace, repeating Kelly’s words: Or you’ll do what? Tell your wife on me?
The SUV accelerates and I blink the present back into view. We’re almost to the restaurant and an old Staind song, So Far Away, is playing. Kelly left the firm six months later and my father upgraded my mother’s ring that year. I’d blown off that night, deciding it was work-related, but tonight, out of the blue, it’s present again. I haven’t been honest with myself. I know he had an affair with Kelly. I believe this memory is a reminder that my father is no angel, though I don’t know why I need this reminder at all.
I know. I know so well. But he’s not like Logan.
Mason halts us in front of the restaurant and glances back at me. “You good?”
“Better when this is over. And thanks for being here.”
He gives me a shake of his head and I exit the restaurant. Soon, I’m sitting at the same table as last night, ordering the same bottle of wine. I scan for Adam and it takes effort, but I find him at a nearby table. This time, he’s in a gray suit, his hair slicked back, and he’s working on a MacBook. I sigh with relief just seeing him.
My mother is once again late and I text her. This time she doesn’t reply. I try to call her. No answer. I try my father. No answer. I’m typing a text to Adrian when Logan sits down in front of me.
I blanch. “Logan.”
His handsome face is flushed, as if he’s rushed to the seat, or is simmering with red-hot anger beneath his perfect blue suit.
“Glad to see you ordered the wine already,” he says, as the waitress fills two glasses.
My heart is thundering in my chest. “Where are my parents?” I ask, afraid for them, so very afraid for them.
“Your father told me to come get you in line.”
Somehow, I manage to think straight and lower my phone to my lap to start the recording function because my anger snaps. “Get me in line?” I demand, leaning in closer and lowering my voice, though anger rips through my words. “You are the one in bed with Waters. I know what you’ve done. I know my father is being blackmailed and I know you’re dirty.”
“You know nothing,” he bites out, “and stop being a spoiled little bitch trying to show off. Drop the case against Waters.”
“I can’t do that. The DA—”
“Will go along with it and you know it. If you drop it, he’ll chicken out.”
“No.” My spine straightens, my chin lifting. “I will not.”
“Do it or we’ll all pay a price,” he seethes.