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“But you didn’t want to be here until I gave you a reason.”
My fingers paused in her hair as I regarded her. “What do you want me to say, Pretty?”
“The truth.”
I gave a quiet sigh. “You’re your father’s puppet, and I think it’s bullshit that you allow it to happen.”
“How am I his puppet?”
“I don’t care if he doesn’t like me. So why do you?” Our reunion had been playful and sexy, and now it’d gone to shit again.
Her eyes shifted back and forth between mine, empty of an answer.
“Form your own opinion of me.”
“I do have my own opinion of you.”
“Then it differs from his. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have asked me to come over tonight.”
She watched me for several long seconds. “This is one of those instances where I feel like I’m missing something, like I’m lacking context. This seems to be a trigger for you, and I don’t understand why. You say you don’t care if he doesn’t like you, but you clearly do.”
I released a sigh, turning my head away. “It’s complicated…”
“I’m a bright girl. Nothing is too complicated for me to understand.”
I didn’t want to tell her the truth. It made me look defensive. Made me look like a liar. “I’m just tired of people thinking they know me…when they don’t know me at all. They’re quick to believe a lie but slow to see the truth. Some days, it doesn’t bother me, but other days…it kills me.” My eyes were elsewhere so I couldn’t see her reaction, not that I wanted to see her reaction.
“What lie do people believe?”
I didn’t want her to know. It’d destroy this relationship, and she’d run off. Her father would mention it at some point, and she would believe him without hesitation, and then she would ghost me. I’d rather enjoy our time together…until that time came. “Doesn’t matter.”
To my surprise, she didn’t press me on it. “I saw you two arguing. What were you saying?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Is it because he accused your guys of stealing?”
I turned back to look at her. “That’s a really offensive accusation, and my guys don’t deserve that. If Dante doesn’t trust my guys, then he doesn’t trust me, so he should find someone else to work with.”
“You can’t control what everyone else does?—”
“But that loyalty has been built from nothing, and it counts for something.”
She continued to stare at me.
“Your father and I have very different business philosophies. He believes keeping everyone on their toes gets the job done, but it just creates mistakes and distrust. I prefer to build relationships.”
“If people don’t fear you, they’ll cross you.”
“If people like you, they won’t cross you,” I snapped. “Not everything has to be violent. Your father is going to get killed if he doesn’t learn that. And you’re going to get killed too if you go down this path.”
She stilled like I’d just threatened her.
“Just because he’s decided to be part of this world doesn’t mean you need to as well.”
“My father has been in business for a long time. His approach obviously works.”
“But he’s not invincible. None of us is. And that kind of arrogance is why people get killed.”
