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She peeked around his arm. And, yes, her father was by the unlit fireplace, a hand on the mantle.
“What’s he doing here?” her father asked. “I said alone, Sersha.”
“I heard you,” she said, moving to her guy’s side. “And this is what alone gets you.”
Conn took control. “What’s this about?”
“Family business.”
“Conn’s specialty,” she said. “Where’s Lach?”
“We have to talk. Alone.”
Her father turned his back. Did he expect her to send Conn away or send him to the hallway?
Like he read her mind, Conn didn’t consider either.
Irritation in his air, her father spun around wearing a glare. “He shouldn’t be here.”
“You don’t make the rules, Superintendent,” Conn said. “If you have something to tell us, talk. Otherwise, I’m taking your daughter back to my bed.”
“Don’t you see this, Sersha?” Her father gestured at Conn. “Why can’t you see it? How he uses you—exploits you.”
So much for Conn’s warning working long distance.
“Is that why I’m here? To hear you criticize my relationship?” She tightened her hold on Conn’s hand. “Take me home.”
“No!” Her father bounded toward them, stopping by Henry’s angled desk with the window behind it. “We have to talk, Sersha. We have to do it without outsiders.”
“Conn isn’t an outsider. You get both of us or we leave.”
They’d achieve nothing if her father kept throwing up objections.
“Our family…” Like he’d just decided Conn was no longer there, her father’s eyes drilled into her. “We have a special position in this city. People respect us. They follow our example.”
“I’m not interested in being worshipped.”
“It’s not about worship, it’s—” Sealing his lips, anger flared her father’s nostrils, but he held onto it. “We need to consider what’s best for the city. Not what’s best for us.”
“Meaning?”
“The man you…” He swallowed what appeared to be a bad taste on his tongue. “He doesn’t want what’s best for the city. His family is not—heritage is important.”
“History? Is that what you’re selling?”
Conn edged to the side, closer, putting his arm in front of hers. “You called the meeting to demand inside information,” her guy said, stating what it would take her father all night to clarify. “You want to know the McDade position, our plans. You thought she’d be weak enough to turn on us if you could get her alone. Tried that before, Superintendent, and it ended with her in the hospital. That won’t happen again. I’ll take down any threat to her. Including you.”
“That was your fault,” her father snapped. “You didn’t protect her in your territory.”
“It’s her territory too and she’s never in danger now that she’s safe behind the McDade shield.”
Maybe not totally safe, but safer than she had been before the world knew about her and Conn.
“You better hope that’s true.”
That sounded like a threat and she didn’t like it. Neither did Conn.
“Say that again,” he growled beneath his breath. “We’ll lay son next to father.”
