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I gripped my glass and gave a slight nod. “I know where I get that from.”
“You’re a Barsetti,” he said. “And Barsettis are powerful.”
“I know. And I want you to know that I’ll pay you back for my education…eventually.”
“Tesoro, I don’t want your money.”
“I know, but I want to give it to you.”
“You don’t owe me anything. What I want more than anything is to die knowing you’re taken care of. That when my spirit leaves this earth, my daughter has everything she needs. Money means nothing to me. You mean everything.”
“Daddy…” I could never put this man in jeopardy, not when his whole life was directed toward taking care of Conway and me. He was the most selfless man I’d ever known. He would do anything for me, and I would do anything for him. “I love you.”
He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and kissed my forehead. “I love you too, tesoro.” He pulled away and dropped his hand. He took a drink of his wine, shaking off the affection because he wasn’t an emotional man. He only seemed to be that way with my brother and me, along with our mother. “So…are you seeing anyone?” He asked the question with dread, like he didn’t really want the answer. He never asked about my personal life before. But I was almost twenty-two, and he was probably wondering if I was close to finding a husband. I’d never had a boyfriend before, at least one that he met. Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of interactions with boys because my father, brother, and cousin scared them all away. But once I was an adult, my father backed off and stopped protecting me all the time.
Bones popped into my mind, not because I was dating him, but because he was the man in my bed. He was also in my thoughts, constantly. He’d taken over my life, becoming the person I spent most of my time with. He wasn’t my boyfriend at all, simply my jailer. I was a prisoner, but the only reason it was bearable was because the sex was unbelievable. “No. Not right now.”
My father drank his wine again, his long-sleeved black t-shirt gripping his muscles. Everyone else in the living room was talking to each other and laughter broke out from time to time. “If you meet a man you really like, I’d love to meet him.”
I wasn’t sure why my father was mentioning this now. It was like he knew something but didn’t directly tell me.
“I know I’ve never been very tolerant of men in your life. I was very protective. But you’re an adult woman now, and I don’t want you to be afraid to bring a man to the house…if you love him.” He didn’t make eye contact like he did before, obviously uncomfortable by the topic. And he made it clear he didn’t want to meet someone unless they could be my husband someday.
“I’ve never been in love,” I said honestly.
“You will…eventually. I didn’t fall in love until I met your mother, and I was almost thirty at the time.”
“But Mom was a lot younger, right?”
“Yeah,” he answered. “She’s four years younger than I am.”
“Well, if I ever meet the right guy, I’ll bring him around.”
He drank his wine again, emptying his glass completely. “I want you to be with a strong man, Vanessa. He doesn’t have to be rich, but he needs to be powerful. He needs to protect you with his life and love you even more than I do. If he does those things…he’s welcome in this house. And I will shake his hand and gladly give you away when he asks my permission to marry you.”
Bones popped into my head again. He was the last person who would ever ask permission. He was the last man I would ever marry. He was nothing but a man that I couldn’t shake. So why did I keep thinking about him? “You always taught me to protect myself.”
“And I stand by that lesson.”
“Well, I don’t need a man for that.”
He stared at me with his authoritative gaze. “But I do, tesoro. I need that.”
I might not live long enough to find Mr. Right. Now that Bones had cast a shadow over me, it destroyed my dating life. It destroyed my life altogether. The only way out of this situation was to kill him. “I actually wanted to ask you if you could give me a gun. After what happened with Knuckles—”
“Of course. How about a Glock? They’re small and easy to handle.”
“Yeah, that would be good.”
“I’ll give it to you before you leave. You need me to go over it with you?”
“No, I remember.”
“Alright,” he said. “I can always move you into a different place. Give you some security detail.”
“No, that won’t be necessary.” Actually, it was necessary for that not to happen.
