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“Nice one, Nick,” I mumbled absently, leaning closer to the screen and bringing up dad’s planner to yesterday’s date.
Mitchelton.“Mitchelton?” I muttered, and that sick, cold feeling rose inside me once more.
I didn’t need a fucking map to know where that was.
I scrolled through his calendar, finding more meetings listed there at times when I knew damn well he wasn’t there…until I stopped at a specific date about a month ago, with a name attached to it.Ryth.
My damn pulse stuttered. I clicked the date, but there was nothing else, just my little sister’s name. “What the fuck are you up to, dad?”
Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
I logged out of his computer and shoved the paperwork back in the drawer before I switched off the lamp. The bastard would be sleeping. But I wasn’t trusting a damn thing when it came to her. She needed someone to protect her, someone to look out for her.
She needed someone to care for her.
Now she had us.
THIRTY-FIVE
ryth
“Gio!”I called his name when the break bell rang, but he kept walking, shuffling with a limping gait that only seemed to get worse as the day went on.
I grabbed his arm as he walked out of the double doors and headed for the trees that shaded the tables and seats.
“Get the fuck off me, Ryth!” He yanked his arm away.
“Wait,” I barked.“Gio, wait!”
He stumbled but kept limping toward a group of others who just watched us with cold, calculated amusement.
“I didn’t know.”
He stopped dead in front of me, his shoulders hunched, then turned, staring at me through the swollen slit of one eye. “You didn’t know…”
I swallowed, fighting the urge to wince at his face. It was even worse this close up. “No. I didn’t know.”
He stared at me, searching my gaze as a thick tear slid from the corner of his eye. I clenched my jaw. I was going to murder Tobias. Stepbrother or not, he was going to feel my goddamn wrath.
“You know, it’s sick what you’re doing with them.”
I flinched as though he'd slapped me. “What?”
“What you’re doing, it’s not right. Your mom is about to marry their dad.”
I shook my head, glancing to the others behind him. “It’s not like that.”
“Then what it is like? It looked pretty fucking obvious at the club.”
Heat burned in my cheeks as it all came flooding back to me. “They were protecting me from the goddamn bouncers. If they hadn’t put their fucking hands on me...”
“You were underage at a bar that’s notorious for sleezy assholes, what the hell did you think would happen?”
“IthoughtI’d be able to walk in there, underage or not, and not be goddamn assaulted, especially by the employees!”
The fire burned in me now for a whole different reason. “I didn’t see you being manhandled. But then again, I guess it doesn’t matter, not with the companyyoukeep. But hey, if it makes you feel better about having friends who threaten and maim people, especially those who are inside prison, then go right ahead.”
Gio’s lips curled in a sneer. “You have no idea, do you?”
