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This is what it’s about. Of course. He always pretended to care about family.
“And what if I don’t want my kids to know you exist?”
He laughs. “I knew you were sore when you left. I didn’t push you away because I didn’t trust you, son. I let you leave because my men could not be trusted with your life. I tested them and got rid of the ones who failed me. You’re safe now. All of them know what would happen if they hurt you, or your pack. Regardless of your status in the business.”
Maybe that’s true, and maybe he’s just telling me what he thinks I want to hear.
“I don’t want my family growing up around a cartel. I have no status in your business. I don’t want anything to do with that.”
“I don’t care where you raise your family, Parker. You don’t have to let your kids grow up in the city. I just want to have the chance to get to know them. You’re the only family I have. And family is all that matters to me. It’s all that’s ever mattered.”
I remember the way he used to talk about family when I was a kid.
It was at odds with how he treated us, like we were an afterthought.
He always knew what to say to get my mother to forgive him every time he lied to her.
Mom was soft hearted. I don’t know what she ever saw in my father. He’s never not been a liar.
She was the only one I trusted in the world, and when she got cancer she told me about Gemini Academy, and she told me I should go out and find my own life, separate from my father’s.
She loved him, but she knew he wasn’t a good guy.
When she died, I knew I could never say yes to him.
She knew his true nature, even if she stayed with him, she knew.
“That’s not true,” I tell him. “If family was all that mattered, you would have done anything for us, and you knew Mom never would have wanted you to take over from your father. You should have walked away.”
You should have been my father. Not just the oldest guy in the house, who was barely around and who seemed to exist to make my mother pray to her god that our family would stay safe.
He winces at my words. “You don’t understand …”
“I don’twantto understand. If you’ll excuse us, it’s late and I need to take my mate home.”
I lead Amanda around him, knowing he won’t follow.
Whatever his angle was, he can forget it.
I’m not interested in listening to someone I can’t trust.
I have everything I need in Wolf Creek, and my father does not belong there.
Chapter twenty-seven
Amanda
I’mquietasParkerleads me down the city streets. It didn’t feel like his father was lying, but I don’t think Parker did anything wrong, either. It’s a tough situation to be put in with a parent, and I support Parker’s decision. I also seriously doubt that’s the last we’ll hear from his father.
Turns out, the pizza place is kind of close to the parking garage.
My feet are happy to hear it. My wedges are comfy to a point, but I can’t wait to sit down again, even if it is for a four-hour drive back to Wolf Creek. Too bad it’s my first time out here, otherwise I could have used teleports, saving on the crazy travel time.
Parker holds the door to the tiny fast-food restaurant open for me, and we look up at the menus as we join the small queue at the counter. Thankfully, they sell by the slice.
There’s no way I’m eating more than that right now.
“What kind do you feel like?” Parker asks.
