Page 100 of All I Feel

My eyes slid to the side, where I saw my mom and Nikki offering sympathetic smiles. I’d get no help from them on this, so I slumped back in my chair.

“Ace?” Luke prompted.

“For what it’s worth, Tessa’s not just unsafe in her own place. She’s unsafe in public, too.”

Confusion and concern washed over the faces of four people who meant the world to us.

Luke asked, “Are you saying this because of what happened with her car?”

Ace nodded. “That’s part of it.”

“What happened to Tessa’s car?” Nikki asked.

“I’d prefer to start at the beginning,” Ace said. Once he received a round of nods, he explained, “As you all know, Tessa learned that Ryan was cheating on her…”

Ace went on to explain how Ryan had been making attempts to contact me, including showing up at the salon.He shared how I’d shut down part of his attempts to reach out to me when I blocked his number. Ace revealed how Ryan happened to be at the place Ace and I were planning to have lunch together. Surprisingly, Ace didn’t hide that he’d attempted to get the message across that I’d moved on and how he’d accomplished that feat.

I then watched as my dad’s jaw clenched with anger when he learned that someone had run me off the road in what we originally thought was a random act of road rage, doing some damage to my car in the process. But that reaction didn’t compare to the utter fury emanating from him and Luke when they learned about the gas situation at my place.

“Are you telling me that asshole is trying to kill my daughter?”

Ace sighed. “I don’t know yet.”

“Yet? What do you meanyet?”

“I called Kash, and I have him looking into Ryan because I don’t trust that guy regardless of Tessa saying he’d never been violent with her.”

Pride washed over Luke’s expression, and I could’ve sworn I saw a hint of appreciation leaking onto my dad’s features, too.

My mom, voice shaky, asked, “Has Kash learned anything?”

Ace shook his head. “Nothing that he’s felt was important enough to call me with yet, other than one incident.”

“What happened?” Nikki asked.

“Kash had been tailing Ryan, and that guy just happened to show up at the same place Tessa was having lunch at with Harper and Savanna.”

My dad looked at me. “Did he bother you?”

From the moment we arrived here this morning, it was clear my dad was struggling to keep his emotions in check. It was possible this would be the moment he lost that control.

“Ryan has been insistent from about the time I ended things between us that he intends to win me back,” I explained. “Every time he randomly shows up somewhere, he wants me to give him time so we can talk. He did the same thing that day.”

“He also put his hands on her,” Ace added.

“He did what?” my dad boomed.

My head snapped in Ace’s direction. He didn’t need to share that tidbit of information. It wasn’t that I felt compelled to protect Ryan, but I knew how my dad would react. Luke wasn’t far behind.

“It wasn’t like that,” I interjected, wanting to bring the temperature down. “He didn’t hit me.”

“Princess, you didn’t invite him to touch you, and based on what Kash told me, Ryan had a firm grip on your arm and was attempting to yank you out of your seat.”

At Ace’s endearment, my mom and Nikki audibly swooned, but either my dad didn’t hear it or didn’t care, because he seethed, “I’m going to kill him.”

“Are you happy now?” I asked Ace. “My dad is going to go to prison for murder.”

Ace chuckled. “He’s not going to go to prison. Nobody’s getting murdered. But your dad should know the truth.”