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23
KAYLA
Ifroze, not knowing how to respond to the fact that my father, the man who I believed had been hunting me down for the past few months, was now hugging me.
It was the most bizarre feeling. It was like I was suddenly made to pet a rattlesnake while I was not quite sure whether it was going to bite me or not. Even though he was now in a wheelchair and did not look anything like the imposing man he once was, I had no idea if he was still dangerous or not, and it was tripping me up.
I looked over his shoulder to where Monty stood with his lips quirked up in amusement. He had his hands crossed, and he seemed to be enjoying my discomfort far more than he should.
“I thought I would never see you again,” he whispered into my hair, and the pain in his voice was tangible. It tore at my chest, and my hand came up to pat his back awkwardly, wondering what on earth was going on here. I assumed that the next time I would see my father again, it would be because his men had inevitably caught up to me and dragged me back here. I had imagined myself fighting against their clutches, struggling to get away as they took me to my father. He would be cold as he questioned me about what I saw and told me that I would be locked up, never to be seen again.
This emotional reunion had been the last thing on my mind.
My father’s arms finally eased and went to my shoulders, gently pushing me back to look at him. I was shocked to see that his eyes were slightly misty with tears. My father had not seemed like an emotional man when I’d met him. He’d been damn near stoic, but now, there was a clear sentiment in his gaze.
“How are you?” he asked.
It was a simple question, but it took some time for me to form an answer.
“I’m okay,” I said awkwardly before adding, “And you? How are you?”
“Better. Now that we finally met again.” There was a minute of silence during which his mouth opened and shut, then opened again. He shook his head. “I didn’t think I would get this opportunity again, and I’m trying very hard not to screw it up.”
His tone rang with honesty, and I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the man, despite everything. I glanced at Monty again.Trust me, he had said on the way here. Trusting him would mean trusting my father and trusting that he wasn’t trying to hurt me.
So, did I trust Monty?
The truth was I did, so I had to trust that he was right about my father. Or, at the very least, I had to try.
I ultimately decided to take the olive branch.
“It’s okay,” I said then. “We can just talk naturally.”
Relief and happiness lit up his gaze.
“Take a seat.” My father gestured to the seat at his side. “I think our talk has been long overdue.”
We sat, and there was silence for the span of a few seconds. My father kept looking at me like he didn’t want to stop in case I disappeared again. I, in turn, was trying to deal with the confusion and cognitive dissonance that resulted from this meeting. After a few more moments, Monty looked between the two of us before rolling his eyes in exasperation.
He was the first one to break the silence with, “Alright, enough of this. Let’s get down to business. Beau, did you send your men to capture Kayla after she escaped from here?”
Beau held my eyes while he nodded. “I did. I felt she had seen something she didn’t entirely understand.”
“Oh, I understood it,” I said. “I understood the fact that you had ordered your men to intimidate an innocent man while you were on a call to do that to another man.”
“Except for the fact that no one was innocent in that situation.” My father sighed and ran his hands over his face. “I guess I’ll have to explain the whole thing to you from the beginning. After I got out of the Marines…a lot of things happened. The first thing was that it was hard to find work. I had been in there for so long, and it was all I knew at that point, so getting out of it was extremely difficult. Finally, I landed a job at a security agency, but they weren’t paying me enough to even maintain a roof over our heads, including you and your mother. Once, when I was working at my post at one of the bars in the area, a fight broke out between two rival gang members. I broke it off, taking down both the men in one fell swoop. I guess I managed to impress one of their bosses, a man who was an enforcer for the mob.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means…” His face was thoughtful as he looked for the words to explain it. “Being an enforcer means that, whenever there are disputes between rival gangs, he steps in to solve it such that it doesn’t escalate. I began working for him because it paid well, and I slowly rose in the ranks until I was essentially him, in charge of resolving disputes. What you walked in on was something very much like that. Two of my clients had a disagreement regarding some stolen funds, and one of them backed out of a peace treaty of sorts. I had to kindly let the offending party know that this would not be accepted so that he did not repeat the mistake and…well, things got out of hand.”
“That’s an understatement,” I commented wryly.
Beau nodded, expression twisted in regret. “I hate that you had to see that, honey. And I never meant to force you to come back, I promise. I only instructed my men to calmly ask you to return so I could explain, but I see that they probably misunderstood the instructions. After it was clear you had no plans of returning, I let you go.”
I shook my head. I didn’t get that part because I felt like someone had been following me for a few months now, but I didn’t have any solid proof, so I didn’t bring it up.
“Is that why mom left you?” I asked. “Because you were in this business?”
