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The cold-hearted man was back, and when he scoffed, I felt like a useless trinket in his schemes once more.
“The woman from the banquet that accused your sister’s staff of assaulting her. Her name is Lila Beauregard. Thaddius is her father, and he sits on my board of investors.”
I tilted my head. “You’re saying that my father knows that man?”
“At least, they did,” he said as he crossed his ankle over his knee. “They grew up together, apparently. Went to the same high school. Played on the same football team. My researchers unearthed pictures of them at homecoming dances and huddled up in football circles. They were quite the duo back in high school. There’s even a trophy at the school with both of their senior pictures in front of it.”
It was rare that something shocked me so deeply that I simply couldn’t speak. But, to know that my family had such a stark connection to theirs was simply… mindboggling.
“But,” Dominik said with a sigh, “there’s nothing about them after high school. All those pictures and trophies and football games. The dances, and the smiling pictures. It all goes away after they both graduate.”
I narrowed my eyes as his voice pulled me back to reality. “What are you not telling me?”
He narrowed his eyes. “My team found a restraining order between the two families as well.”
“What restraining order? My father doesn’t have a restraining order on him.”
And when Dominik didn’t respond, I stood to my feet.
“I swear to fuck on high if you don’t start talking right the fuck now--”
He shook his head. “You don’t enjoy the luxury of tension and release, do you?”
I lost my head for a split second, and when I came to my senses, I had my fist tangled up in his button-front shirt. “If you don’t start spilling everything you know about my family instead of prancing me around for your god damn entertainment, I swear to fuck on high--”
He slapped my hand away and shot to his feet. His fingers wrapped dexterously around my throat as he barreled me back into my seat. I fell onto my ass against the cushion, staring up at him as he tightened his fingertips into my carotid.
And as I gasped for air, he snarled at me. “Really, sweet girl? You’d risk the entirety of your precious sister’s business for the sake of your pride?”
I glared up at him. “Talk, or I walk. It’s as simple as that. I gave you what you wanted, now you give me what I want. Or are you really not a man of your word, Mr. Drake?”
He winced at the nickname before he released my throat. “The restraining order, oddly enough, was initiated by the Beauregard family. On the paperwork, it stipulates that the reason for it is stalking and assault.”
I jumped back to my feet. “My father would in no way, shape, or form ever attempt to do something like that to someone. The restraining order is bullshit, and I don’t care if it happened when they were kids. It’s wrong. And just like they were bullshitting at my sister’s party, they were bullshitting them when taking it out. I’d stake my soul on that.”
“Really, now.”
I nodded with intent. “Really. I know the kind of man my father is. The kind of man he’s always been. I know his moral code because he ingrained it within me.”
“Everyone makes mistakes, sweet girl,” he said as he turned and made his way to his seat.
I wouldn’t let him get the last word in, though. “Mistakes or not, there’s a difference between actions and moral compasses. I know who my father is. He’s the most giving and kind-hearted man that I know. He’d never lay his hands on someone unless they were hurting someone he loved, and he sure as hell would’ve never stalked someone in order to do it.”
He eased himself back into his chair as that façade of stoicism dripped back over his face. “Tell me more about your father, then.”
And as I drew in a deep breath, I prepared myself for yet another fight.
Because I’d fight to the fucking death if it meant protecting my family from whatever the hell was going on.
