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“Okay, you’re going to tell me how great my dad is. I get it. You know, I remember when he used to fight. When they used to fight, Dad and Ford.”
“Yeah? That’s guy stuff. Nothing serious.”
“Dad never yelled at me, never got in my face.”
“You stood up to him.”
“Not like Ford. They’d go toe to toe and never back down. Dad didn’t say no to me. He didn’t care enough to fight.”
“That’s what you think?” Jagg tightened and loosened his fists around the wheel. “You think he didn’t care about you?”
“I’m his little angel; he has to love me. But care about my choices or the course of my life? Ford’s the one he made in his image.”
And he’d let her go without a fight. Her mom took her, choice or not, and Strat just let it happen.
“Strat can relate to Ford. You? He’s fucking terrified of you.”
Seemed unlikely given her dad was easily twice her size. “Me?”
“It’s a battle he fights with himself. He wants the best for you, in the world, fulfilling your potential, I guess. But he’s also terrified of losing you. He didn’t want to corrupt you. He didn’t want to corrupt Ford either. Having kids changed a lot, he says it changes everything. He wanted what was best for you. Your mom could provide more, Ted could provide more, better. Strat didn’t want you to waste that chance for the sake of loyalty.”
“But Ford—”
“Your mom couldn’t control Ford. Even when Strat tried to send him to your mom, he’d runaway and come back, like a fucking boomerang. Strat knew there was nothing in this life for you.”
“He told you this?”
His shoulder rose in a half shrug. “I know the guy.My dad? He didn’t give a damn. I know what that looks like. I know what hate looks like, what anger looks like. Impatience. Fury. My dad taught me that young. He taught me how to read the room. If I didn’t read him right, I could be in for a world of hurt. I knew when to get out of the way. Didn’t work all the time.”
“Strat never once asked me to stay. Visits with him were obligation, not a choice.”
“Now I know you’re shitting me. Strat cleared his schedule a month in advance for you, made me and Ford scrub the fucking floors. You were all he talked about. All he worried about was letting you down.”
“My dad doesn’t talk like this.”
“It’s his only hang up, the only one I ever read. You think he rejected you? Every time he saw you, he thought it would be his last, that you’d disappear into the world and never come back. Strat doesn’t judge, he doesn’t. Not you, not me, not Ford. You could tell Strat anything, any of us could. He’d be right there, shoulder to shoulder with me and Ford, to protect you. His only role as a father is to protect and provide. He couldn’t provide, so he’d be damned if he couldn’t protect you.”
“Protect me from what?”
“Guess we’ll never know.” He slowed to a stop by the corner and pointed ahead. “Got a three-sixty bird right there. The bank’s down the block.”
Right. Yes. A domed camera on the office building. Pushing her shoulders back, she boosted herself higher to check out the reception. Big honey-blonde hair, perfectly contoured makeup… The receptionist with the phone to her ear never let her smile slip.
She sank back, her attention sliding around to him. “Looks like this one’s on you, baby.”
While she smiled, he shifted to recce what she’d already seen.
“Goddamnit,” he said, but freed his seatbelt.
“You’re not out in ten minutes, I’m coming in.”
He opened his door. “Yeah, yeah.”
Without him, it would be harder to stay strong, to maintain any fortitude. His dedication kept her focus sharp. And with him by her side, she had nothing to fear.
TWENTY-TWO
FOR THE REST of the day, they trawled each of the women’s last known locations seeking cameras and clues. Some videos were handed over, others needed persuasion, and there were the flat nos. They got a few of those.
