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Rolling over, I grabbed the framed picture of my mom that I kept on my bedside table. Sniffling to hold back my tears, I whispered, “I really wish you were still here, Mom. Miss you so much.”
My dad rapped his knuckles against my door, and I hugged the photo to my chest as he popped his head inside my bedroom. “Get up and make me breakfast.”
As I listened to him stomp down the stairs, I pressed a kiss to my mom’s face before setting the picture back down. Then I did what I’d done every morning since I’d come home from college for the summer—cooked my dad over easy eggs, sausage links, and toast.
I’d been hurt that he barely spoke to me other than to make demands. Make food. Clean the house. Do the laundry. My father had treated me as the hired help instead of his daughter, but that was nothing new since he’d basically done the same last summer before I left for school. And after what happened yesterday, I was relieved that he didn’t pay attention to me while eating.
When he was done, he pushed the empty plate toward the middle of the table. Leaving it there, he stood and grabbed his keys off the hook by the door that led to the garage. “I’m headed out to run some errands. Won’t be gone too long.”
I hoped like heck “errands” wasn’t code for another poker game before the bank had even processed my withdrawal request. “Okay.”
I didn’t understand why he bothered to tell me what he was doing until he added, “Log into your bank account and see if they did anything with the paperwork yet.”
“Will do,” I muttered, gritting my teeth so hard, I was surprised they didn’t crumble under the pressure.
He hadn’t been happy to learn that the person who handled college savings accounts wasn’t in the office on Saturdays. He’d wanted that money right away, but I’d been told the earliest the check would be cut was Monday morning. That didn’t stop him from asking me to check the account last night. Or again today, apparently.
As soon as I heard his car pull out of the garage, I made myself a bowl of cereal. While I munched away, I searched online for job opportunities in my college town. I figured the best-case scenario was that I found a way to pay for the upcoming semester since I already had my dorm room lined up for the year. Qualifying for an apartment when you were nineteen with no job or credit history was nearly impossible from what I’d found online earlier this morning.
Unfortunately, so was coming up with a way to pay for college since I wasn’t having much luck at locating any scholarships that still had open applications. And qualifying for any grants required my dad to fill out his part of the financial aid application, which I didn’t see happening. Loans were probably my only option at this point, but I needed his help with getting those too.
Considering I was in this position because he had a gambling problem, that seemed like a big risk. If my dad knew how easy they were to get, there was a chance he’d saddle me with more than I could ever pay back…and I’d still be in the same position because he’d run out and blow it on another poker game.
I needed help, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the big guy I’d bumped into as I was walking out of the bank yesterday. Although he’d been dressed nicely in a gray suit that didn’t do a thing to hide how muscular he was, there was still a dangerous air to him. Which was why it was ridiculous that I kept picturing him as the hero who would come riding to my rescue. Then again, with his intense blue eyes, short, dark hair, and the five o’clock shadow on his chiseled jaw, it wasn’t a surprise that I couldn’t get him off my mind. Especially with how tall he was and the muscles that were impossible to miss when I’d crashed into him.
But it wasn’t as if he would miraculously show up on my doorstep to solve all of my problems since we were strangers. Although, he looked like a man who knew how to get stuff done. And the extra years he had on me—at least fifteen if I had to guess—meant he had way more experience than I did with figuring stuff out. Which was probably why my brain had fixated on him as my only way out of this mess. That and the fact that he was the first man who’d ever made my panties wet…and that was saying a lot, considering the circumstances.
A hard knock on the front door pulled me out of my thoughts, and I set my laptop down on the coffee table before padding over to see who it was. It was a good thing I wasn’t a gambler like my dad because if I’d placed a bet on who it was, I would’ve lost.
Almost as if I’d conjured him out of thin air, the man from the sidewalk stood in front of me. “It’s you.”
“Damn straight it’s me.”
He gripped my waist to nudge me back into the house, kicking the door shut behind us. I should’ve been scared by the big stranger who’d basically just forced his way into my home, but he’d been so gentle with me when he’d done it. And there was a tender gleam in his eyes that tugged at my heartstrings. “I don’t understand.”
“I couldn’t leave town knowing that I left you behind with bruises on your pretty skin.” He wrapped his fingers around my wrist and carefully turned my arm. Fury filled his blue orbs as he stared down at the marks my father’s fingers had left behind. “Need to know who I’m gonna end for hurting you.”
His eyes flicked to a family portrait on the wall, and I briefly wondered if he knew it was my dad.
Was he serious? Whoa. He really was my knight in shining armor.
4
PHANTOM
I’d been across the street from her house in a motel parking lot for nearly four hours. Ever since Grey had tracked down her location—which had taken far too fucking long. Fifteen years with The Company had taught me how to be inconspicuous. I’d been waiting for her father to leave before approaching, knowing it would be a fuck of a lot easier to get her away.
But looking at her bruises, part of me wished he was still around so I could give him a taste of his own medicine. I didn’t want my woman witnessing that kind of brutality.
That might send her running and screaming in the opposite direction, though. So it was for the best that we were alone.
“Um, kill?” she asked in a breathless voice.
I wasn’t sure if it was fear or excitement, and that intrigued me. I doubted she was a bloodthirsty little thing, so I hoped it was more of that fire I’d glimpsed inside her.
My brain told me to tread lightly and not let on how absolutely obsessed I already was with her, but my hands had a mind of their own, and they cupped her cheeks. “I would do anything to protect you, sweet girl.”
Her eyes widened with surprise, but a glimmer of hope emanated from their depths. Maybe I should have expected her reaction because she’d been made just for me.
