AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There’s more to life than safe,” she said, showing some flexibility. “Don’t you see that we’re missing an opportunity, maybe the only one we’ll ever have. I’ve talked more to Garrick and your men than I have to you. You don’t know me, I don’t know you either.”
“You think this is the time to be playing catch and trading stories?”
Tess wasn’t happy to be subjected to his ridicule. “I think my mother is dead. I think you’re the only family I have left, but existing in the same space doesn’t bond us. You think it’s your job to keep me safe because you’re my father or because you’re an Olympus agent, I don’t know. Your men mean more to you than I do. We have a chance to change that, a chance to mean something to each other… What do you think mom would want? If she was here right now, would you be ignoring her like you ignore me?”
“Your mother understood what I do,” Harry said, the insistence of his firm tone growing. “She sacrificed us for what I do. We sacrificed it. It wasn’t an easy decision to make. You can’t possibly understand what it is to be so obsessed with another person, to be in love with the only thing that ever mattered to you… the most important thing in your world, and to walk away from that.”
Didn’t she? Tess didn’t even have to turn around to know that Daire was looking at her. Even in that moment with the fish tank at her back, she knew he was nearby, knew he was monitoring what was going on even if he couldn’t hear it.
“Then explain it to me,” Tess said, going closer to pick up her father’s hand. “I want to understand.” And maybe if she understood more about her parents’ relationship, she wouldn’t be doomed to make the same mistakes they did. “I want to trust you. To believe in your conviction, to support you. I want you to be my father… You’re a stranger to me. I know more about you from your letters to mom than—”
“You shouldn’t have read those,” he said, withdrawing his hand and turning his back on her.
Although it hurt to be shut out, Tess pushed her shoulders back and kept on going. “They were all I had left of her. I didn’t even know what they were… I didn’t know who you were.”
“That was the way it was supposed to stay. Anything you know about me and what I do puts you in more danger. Carrie put her life on the line to birth you. I don’t know why she’d… Any danger she was in before that… Choosing to have you signed her death warrant.”
That implied that… The tingle of hurt in her nose came just before the heat in her eyes. “You never wanted to know me. You could care about me for what I was to mom, you knew what I meant to her, but without her… You said that being caught out was too easy… You didn’t even know mom was pregnant until the very end. If you’d known sooner, if she’d told you…” As he turned to the side to meet her eye, she didn’t have to ask the question, let alone hear any answer to it. Closing her mouth, Tess nodded, accepting the truth. “Okay.” She managed a smile, even though her lips were shaking. “Thank you for being honest.”
Going out of the wine cellar, Tess resented the tear that slipped from her eye. As she vaulted up the stairs, she swiped it away. Harry hadn’t known that her mother was dead. He’d been free of Olympus for a year before her death and he hadn’t tried to reach them. Given what she’d just learned, Tess wondered if that was her fault. Maybe her father would’ve gone to her mother if she was by herself. If he’d been with Anne, maybe she wouldn’t be dead.
If Harry resented his daughter for putting the woman he loved in danger, it was possible her mother felt the same way. Tess had split the couple apart. Just by existing, she’d put a wedge between them. Without a child weighing them down, maybe Harry and her mom would’ve fought to stay together. It would be easier to run without worrying about the ongoing needs of an infant.
Going into her bedroom, she didn’t pause even to turn on the light. Tess went straight into the closet and grabbed the bag she’d had at the hotel. Travel light. Her suitcase was still in the bed of Daire’s truck. She didn’t care about leaving clothes, but without her sewing machine, she wouldn’t be able to make a living.
Tossing her essentials into the bag, she departed the closet to enter the bathroom. Money. She’d need money. The money her mom left at Figgs office… Except… Her mom didn’t leave that money or the weapon, Daire left it to set her up.
Ironic that he’d managed to do it just by introducing her to Harry. Her father got his punishment alright. In the form of her.
“There isn’t a chance in hell you’ll get past me.”
Glancing at Daire leaning on the bathroom doorjamb, it didn’t surprise Tess that she hadn’t heard him approach. His stealth mode was impressive at the best of times, and her head wasn’t even close to being in the game.
“Please don’t,” she said, striding forward, intending to go past him.
Daire didn’t move and actually laid a hand on the opposite doorjamb to block her way. “You won’t get past me.”
“He sent you up here to tell me that? Goddamn man is a coward. He really does make you fightallhis battles for him.”
“Tess—”
“No,” she said, ducking away from his hand when he tried to touch her face. “You don’t get to use what I feel for you to fix this.”
“Nothing is too broken to fix.”
She almost couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye, but she did, aware of how much hurt and anger burned from within her. “Tell that to the man who wishes I’d never been born.”
“He wishes I’d never been born either,” he said, too casual for her liking. “Imagine how much easier his life would’ve been without a newborn to keep up with and a toddler kicking around the complex.”
“Your mom died, she didn’t choose to leave you.”
“Neither did yours. So far we’re equal.”
“I didn’t spend years hating you for splitting Harry’s focus.”
His ease vanished, and he stood straight. “Hey now, baby,” he said, trying to touch her face again. Tess backed off further. If he touched her, she’d fall apart. He came into the small room, closing the door at his back. “I don’t hate you now. I was a kid. A dumb kid. Who knew nothing about anything. Soon as I met you I knew I was wrong to blame you for something that wasn’t your fault… Just took me a while to get my head out my ass when it came to admitting how I feel about you.”
“Daire,” Tess exhaled, the bag falling to her side when her arm loosened. “I am so tired.”
