I laughed, but it wasn’t comical. It was hollow and tired-sounding. “Fuck you, Wyatt.”
“Full intentions. It’s on the list for tonight.” He looked around for a moment before walking around me. I didn’t turn, but I had a sliver of hope he’d listen and leave, but I should’ve known better. He started closing down the blinds on the front windows instead, and double checked the locks were bolted tight. “You clean up in the back, I’ve got the front area, little flame,” he said, acting like nothing I’d just said had happened.
He didn’t touch me again; he just quietly cleaned up. The chairs flipped onto the tables, he swept and mopped the floors, wiped down the counters, and brought me back any dishes I’d missed in my clear panic. When that was finished, he helped pack up any leftover pastries so I could have Jade take them to the local hospital and firehouse in the morning.
Less than an hour later, everything was cleaned up for the night. The bakery was dark as I leaned against the counter and looked around, my thoughts lost in a mirage of darkness.
His hand slid into my own, a warmth in a cold spot. “Upstairs, come on.”
I didn’t fight him. I just let him lead me upstairs and into the bathroom. He turned on the hot water, adding different oils and bubble bath before turning and stripping me of my clothes. It didn’t feel sexual like I thought it would—I felt cared for in a way I never had prior to now.
“Lean over the counter.”
“What?”
“I have the feeling you aren’t in the mood to play tonight, which is fine, but you probably want the plug out of your ass, right?” He was so matter-of-fact, but it didn’t stop the heatfrom crawling up my cheeks as I leaned over and he gently pulled the toy out.
“Good girl,” he whispered and kissed my cheek. “Now, bath. Hop in,” he said as he took my hand again, keeping me steady as I climbed into the now full tub.
A few minutes passed in silence before he began what I knew was coming.
“Tell me what you know so I can help, Ember.” He didn’t sound demanding or angry like I expected. I turned my head, looking over at him as he sat on a small stool next to the tub, his hoodie sleeves pushed up and his jeans a bit damp from wiping his hands on them. He looked just as tired as I felt, like maybe this was killing him as much as it was me, so I did what I never do—I opened up. I didn’t have it in me to hide shit right now.
“What do you know about my father?” I asked.
He arched a brow. “Quite a bit from the last couple of years, but nothing prior to maybe five years ago. When I dug into your past, I didn’t see the need to go back that far. It felt unnecessary and…rude.”
I grimaced. “My dad grew up with my Grandpa Joe and his mother, my grandmother, whom I never met. His younger brother, Howard, owns the Dunagan Ranch now, next to you, and that was the family fifty-some odd years ago.” I cleared my throat and pulled my knees to my chest. “When Bennett was seventeen, he ran his first con. Told the ranchers he was starting a paper route so they wouldn’t have to go into town every week just to get the updates on the world. Most of them didn’t have televisions since they worked sunup till sundown. They all thought it was a great idea, so he collected money, a great deal of money…and he left.”
“He left?” Wyatt questioned.
I nodded. “Dropped out of high school and moved to Denver for a while. Got involved in selling anything he could—cars, four-wheelers, real estate, timeshares. Whatever. He was great at it, but he’d get bored and need something bigger, something with more of a risk.” I laughed sadly. “He used to tell me when I was a kid, the greater the risk, the greater the reward, but my Uncle Howie used to come in and say the greater the jump, the harder the fall.”
“When Denver ran out of luck, he came home. Figured he could sell it that he was a dumb kid who’d fucked up. Said he’d work on paying everyone back what he owed them. Ended up meeting my mom, moved off the ranch, and married her after about a year, had me a year later. He was able to keep his issues under wraps for a while, at least from everyone except his brother and father. After my brothers were born, loan sharks started coming around. He was betting under the table illegally. He’d go to the casinos where it was simple five-dollar bets, only he’d play with the wrong people. The people where five dollars was really five hundred bets. He was in too deep, and he bailed on us. My mother said it was to keep us safe, and I believed it for a while, but eventually you grow up and you realize that the addiction is just that…a hard fucking fall.”
“So when I came and told you it was your father behind the identity theft issues?” he cautiously questioned.
I shrugged. “It made total sense. He’s my father. Of course he had my social and shit. I just…I didn’t want to, no, I don’t want to believe he’d do something like that to me. I’ve wanted to open this place since Grandpa Joe shared my grandmother’s recipe box with me as a child. I talked about it all the time. To think he’d risk ruining my one and only dream for me for his own gain, even if he doesn’t like me? It was, and is, too much for me to understand.”
“Doesn’t like you? What does that mean?” he asked suddenly, his brows drawn in confusion.
“When I was a kid, I spent all my time with Grandpa, which I’d mentioned before. But it was because that’s where they’d drop me. When I was in middle school, I tried to ask Dad to come to this father-daughter dance with me. He said no, and I ended up hearing him tell my mother that it was essentially because he didn’t like me. Grandpa ended up taking me himself, which went better anyway.” I shrugged as if I was indifferent, but Wyatt knew better.
“The man today?” he pushed.
I let out a long sigh. “He came to see me yesterday morning before yoga. He’s some guy my father owes money to, I guess. Basically told me to relay the message, and if he didn’t get his money, he’d burn my bakery down.”
“He said that exactly?”
I glanced down to see him clenching and unclenching his fists, and it brought a small smile to my face to see his calm facade cracking around the edges.
“Not directly, but it was a pretty clear threat there, Batman.”
“Let me help you, Ember.”
I scoffed. “I don’t want your help, Wyatt. I want you to leave. Go home, be safe, and I’ll handle it. On one hand, it isn’t your problem, and on the other hand, we aren’t together. I simply do not have the time or energy for a boyfriend, or really anything else that isn’t my own life.”
Wyatt stared at me before he started chuckling, the sound turning into a full laugh. “Well, I’m not leaving.”
