Yes, I’d stopped hurting Jo. I learned to apologize if I did unintentionally. I could share her with him without needing to peel off his skin or poke my eyes blind. And, on the rare occasion, I could call Furore Dad.
The doctor had told me that once I stopped labeling Furore the man I was forced to share my girl with, the man I only tolerated because of circumstance, once I saw him as the father he tried to be rather than the one I never had, once I saw he was manipulated into abandoning me just as I was manipulated into hating him, my issues with him would be resolved.
I’d been trying for months. But nothing could stop the darkness of an obsession or the pain of the inability to forgive.
And when they took over, all I could think of all day was how to make Jo love me more than him and eventually be only mine.
I even made a plan. I was hanging by a thread not to execute it.
CHAPTER 9
Furore
After she was sound asleep, I went outside for a smoke. I’d tried to quit a thousand times, but there wasn’t a point of trying to become someone I’d never be.
The door opened behind me. It was Rex. He sat on the patio lounge. “Can we talk?”
I was so fucking mad at him. The boy had no boundaries. First, taking my ol’lady in my bed then crashing the surprise I made for her. But I sucked it up. I had a feeling our constant fighting was stressing Jo out. I’d never seen her having lady problems or scolding me for helping people.
Pulling out my pack of cigarettes, I joined him on the lounge. Then I offered him a smoke. He rolled his eyes at me, wrinkling his nose. I put the cigarette back in the pack. “You’re making the brothers anxious with your no smoking. They think you look down on them, and they never feel like your squeaky clean ass really belong.”
“You know good dads tell their sons not to smoke, not the other way around.”
“Yeah, leave it to me to corrupt you.” I blew a puff in his face.
He swore. “What the fuck happened today? Why is she so upset?”
“Maybe ’cause you ain’t supposed to be at that smut show but you did anyway. Why can’t you respect my alone time with her?”
“Did you see me at the event? Did I talk to you or her?”
I stared at him for a few seconds, and then I blew out another drag of smoke in the air. “Then why the fuck were you there? And how did you get in?”
“I have my ways, too, Prez.” He threw a smug smirk at me. “I let Hook charm an author into getting us free tickets.”
“Hook? My Enforcer that barely ever speaks charming a writer chick?”
“Don’t take my word for it. Ask him yourself. He was with me the whole time.”
“You took him with you to the smut fair?”
“It’s called an author signing event, and yes, he stayed till the very end. I think he scored her number, too.”
“Hook?”
“Yes, Furore, Hook.” He laughed. “But don’t change the subject. What happened with Jo today?”
I twisted a jaw. I didn’t like discussing her shit with him. She wasmyol’lady.Ishould take care of her. But I didn’t know what was troubling her lately. I wasn’t too proud to put our shit aside if it’d help her. There was a part of her only he understood. Maybe he could figure out what I couldn’t. “I don’t fucking know. We were fine. I told her she could get ten books. She was over the moon. Then, out of nowhere, she lost interest and wanted to go home. She said something about PMS, but I bet my own dick it was something else.
“And it got worse when she saw Owl, Dusty and his ol’lady.” I filled him in about their deal. “When we got home she kept arguing with me about them, saying some shit about cutting ties because the Lanzas could use their kid to blackmail them into—”
“Kid?”
“Yeah. He ain’t really theirs. He belonged to another brother who didn’t make it that night, but on the papers I helped them get, he’s theirs. They have two baby girls of their own now. Twins. But what’s that got to do with Jo? The problem is she was so upset that I helped them. I’ve never seen her unkind to people, and when I tried to figure out why, she excused herself to the bathroom, saying she got her period. She locked herself up in that bathroom for half an hour, and when she came out, her eyes were red and puffy.”
His eyes narrowed at me for a while. Then he nodded. “It must be hormones.”
“The fuck? Since when are you such a fucking dude?”
