Eyes glued to one another, we continued to stare.

I saw Vanessa in his features, the color of his hair and skin. But I saw most of her in his presence. They were both strong, proud, and stubborn. The similarities were striking, even when they weren’t in the same room together.

I didn’t speak, unsure what the context of the meeting was. He wasn’t there to kill me, and there was scotch on the table like we were supposed to enjoy it together. It could have been poisoned, but I drank it anyway.

“My daughter shot you.” He rested his fingers on the rim of the glass but didn’t take a drink. “Why?”

I was sure he’d read up on me, knew everything about me he could discover. But that was a question he would never find the answer to unless he asked me or Vanessa. As much as I wanted to lie about the beginning of my relationship with Vanessa because it was terrible, I couldn’t. Men didn’t respect other men who lied. It ruined their credibility. I needed Crow to respect me, even if he hated me. “Ask me anything you want, and I’ll always respond with the truth. But be careful what kinds of questions you ask…because you may not want the answer.”

Crow’s hard expression didn’t change. He didn’t even blink. “Why did my daughter shoot you?”

I grabbed the glass and took a long sip, finishing the drink. I returned it to the table, letting the warm liquid burn me all the way down to my stomach. “She was trying to kill me.”

“Obviously. Why?”

He didn’t know about the night we met. He didn’t know how long I’d kept her as a prisoner. It would hurt him to hear this story, but it would hurt more if he heard it from Vanessa. “I was working in Milan when I ran into her. I had an asshole in the alley, and she made the mistake of passing by at the worst time. She saw me kill him, and since she was a witness to the crime, I couldn’t let her get away. When I went to grab her, I got a better look at her face. That’s when I recognized her. That’s why I didn’t kill her.”

Crow hung on every word, hiding his emotions behind his hard face.

“I put her in the van and drove to Lake Garda to drop the body. I left the van in the snow, carried the body to the edge of the harbor, and while I was gone, she searched the van until she found my pistol underneath my seat.”

“Good,” he said proudly.

I was proud too. “When I was ten feet away, she raised the gun and fired. She was aiming for my heart, but I turned and she got me in the shoulder. My feelings for her started then. I’d never met a woman who didn’t flinch in the face of fear. She fought me the entire way and never gave up. She didn’t hesitate before she pulled the trigger. She would have killed me without remorse if she’d hit an artery, but she didn’t care. I had so much respect for her that I couldn’t keep it bottled inside. She made my hands shake. She made me feel something. So I grabbed her face and kissed her.” I looked her father in the eye as I answered his question, giving him the simple truth without remorse. “She kissed me back. Whatever I felt, she felt it too.”

“You said she always fought you. Did she fight you before this?”

I hesitated before I answered, knowing he wouldn’t take this story well. “When I tried to put her in the van in Milan, she wouldn’t go quietly. I tased her in the neck, and instead of dropping like men twice her size, she kept going. I tased her again, but that didn’t stop her. She just kept going…”

His jaw clenched noticeably, his green eyes bright with hostility.

“I told you to choose your questions wisely.”

“I told you I’m not afraid to kill you with my bare hands.”

I knew there was nothing he wanted more. The only reason both of us were still breathing was because of our shared love for Vanessa. Neither one of us crossed the line even though she wasn’t present. All we used was our words, attempting to be as civil as possible.

“I would never put a hand on her now,” I said. “That’s not how our relationship is. You know I’m not lying…since I’ll never lie. I respect her and love her. I’d rather die than let anything happen to her. She has my full blessing to shoot me in the chest if I ever did pull a stunt like that…and I would make sure she didn’t miss.”

He was stoic, as if that statement meant nothing to him. “Then what happened?”

Tags: Penelope Sky Lingerie Romance
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