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I don’t know how I will cope if Dad is ill. Seriously ill. It’s my worst nightmare – losing him. I have no one else. No real other family. My mum’s gone, Gray is nowhere to be found, meaning that my dad and Crow are all I have left.
I know that I will probably have a family of my own one day, and as much as I can’t wait for that day, I don’t want to lose my dad before it happens.
I’m not willing to lose my dad until I’m enough of an adult that I don’t need him, and I somehow doubt will ever happen.
I’ll always need my dad.
“No, Mother, I am not,” he says with a chuckle as he knocks my hand away.
He always tells me that I mother him. Cooking him food, doing the washing, keeping the house clean.
I enjoy doing it. I hate mess. It stresses me out more than most people could imagine. A clean home means that I’m happy and Dad is less likely to trip over something and hurt himself. He still manages it mind; he’s got two left feet like no one else I’ve ever met. It’s not even that he’s clumsy, he’s just never paying enough attention to his surroundings when at home.
“Can I ask you about something else?” I question. He seems to be in a relatively good mood and is much more likely to not argue with me about my questioning without others around.
“Is it going to be a real question this time, darlin’?” He smiles.
“Yep, a real question this time.” I laugh.
“Have you figured anything out about Gray or who or why someone put a mark on me? I know you don’t want me to know but I need to know this,” I tell him honestly.
He sighs, shaking his head before looking at me sadly.
“We haven’t come much closer to anything with your brother. I wish we had but there’s nothing, no matter which way we search. I’m not keeping that from you on purpose, we simply don’t know anything,” he says grimly.
“And as for you – Elio traced the Mark back to The Enforcers. The man you saw us with that day at The Club was the one that put you online, and if it was just them it would be fine but we suspect they’re working with someone with more connections since no matter which angle we try and go through, we can’t seem to take it down. They don’t have that kind of grasp so we’ve asked another organisation to help us.” The O’Banians. It must be them he’s talking about.
“That guy, he said something to me before I left that day. With everything else going on, I forgot to mention it but he said ‘He’ll get you.’ Who do you think he is?” I ask.
I haven’t thought about the man’s words since the day it happened, what with everything going on around me at the moment, but Dad’s words remind me. He’s not usually this open with me so while he is, I may as well at least try to get some answers out of him.
My dad’s face ignites with fury the moment he takes in what I’ve told him.
“He said that? Why didn’t you tell me before you left?” he questions. His voice has gone from quiet and soft to icy cold and nearing shouting.
“I didn’t think, I’m sorry. I was panicking about Crow and I just wasn’t sure if it was just his last ditch attempt to get free or if there was more to it.” Lying to my dad never gets me anywhere so the truth it is.
“Let me make a call.” And with that, he storms off, leaving me once again to myself.
Fifteen
Iam happily watching Crow as he works out in the gym at The Club. There is no one else in the gym at this time of night, which means that Crow enjoys the time to release any and all of his pent up energy even more. He gets on with mostly everyone, even through the natural grit and grumpy attitude he shows to most people, but he also likes to have the gym to himself and although I would usually leave him to it, Dad has insisted that he doesn’t want me home alone with the bounty on me and since both he and Liam are busy tonight, I am with Crow at the club.
I spend most nights with him anyway, though it isn’t usually here. I am more a middle aged mother than a teenager, often tucked up in bed reading or watching Netflix by nine pm.
I can hear the music pounding from the main room. The night is in full swing. There is music and mayhem most nights but with tonight being Friday, the first night of the weekend, it seems to give everyone even more reason to party. I had come in through the back entrance to avoid the crowds of people. I don’t know how Alice sticks it, though I know part of it is just out of necessity to provide for herself and her sister. They don’t have any parents around and with Alice being the eldest, she feels that it is her responsibility to do what she can to keep them both in as good of a position as she can.
I place my book down, watching Crow as he lifts weight after weight and finding myself startlingly turned on by the sweat and grunts he is omitting. He only has a pair of jogging bottoms on, leaving his chest bare. The mirror in front of him allows me to see his face as it scrunches up, filling with tension each time he pushes his body further by lifting the weight in his hands once more. The muscles in his back constrict and release each time he moves. The sight of his strength and his powerful body leave my stomach in pieces.
“Like what you see?” I didn’t realise he had been watching me as I watched him but as his eyes flit to my own, I shake my head at the smirk he has.
“I’d like it even more if you weren’t working out and were over here instead,” I flirt, though with my lack of experience, I’m not sure exactly what I plan to do if he does follow through with my plea and come to me.
“Well, if that’s the case, I think I’m done for the night.” He laughs as he places the weight down and saunters over in my direction.
“You wanna go back to yours?” he asks as he lifts my backpack from the floor and sifts his arms through the straps.
“Can we stay here actually?” I ask weakly, knowing he will question why I want to stay in his room instead of my own. He knows I don’t like staying here but the choice between being near Liam or hearing rowdy men all night had me willingly listening to said rowdy men.
