Chapter Twenty

 

Kelly stared at her father. “Did you mean it?” she asked.

She probably shouldn’t have waited until he was back in his office and going over his papers, but still. It had been a bit of a shock. It took time to digest what he’d said.

He looked up at her. “Yes, of course I did. You two have more in common than you think, love. I told you that you just had to give him a chance.”

Kelly felt herself blushing. “I didn’t mean about Ivan. I meant about you underestimating me.”

Her father set aside his papers. “Yes. You’ve handled yourself well throughout this whole thing.” He paused. “Perhaps I should’ve made you lieutenant and kicked Bates to the curb.”

“Please don’t joke about that.” The betrayal of one of their own still stung. “Will you let me be the one to go after him?”

Her father frowned. “You’re not one of my hitmen, Kelly, you’re my daughter.”

“He killed Connor,” Kelly hissed, her hands clenching into fists. “Shane’s barely hanging on and you’re going to let Vinnie or Ralph do it? They were my family, Father, our flesh and blood. And we treated Bates like family too. Anyone gets to kill him, it’s me.”

Father stared her down, but she stared him down just as hard. She wasn’t backing out on this. He thought he could intimidate her? He might be the big bad boss to everyone else but he was her father. Like hell she was going to back down on this one.

At last, Father was the one to break away and look down. “Only if someone accompanies you. Like Ivan. Take him when he gets back.”

Kelly folded her arms. “I don’t need backup.”

“You’re also my only unharmed child,” Father said quietly. “If you’re going to insist on doing this yourself, then I insist that you take someone along to make sure that I get you back in one piece.”

Kelly relaxed, nodding. She’d been a little hard on him in all of this. She’d lost a brother but he’d lost a son.

She came forward, pulling him into a hug. They didn’t really do this much, the whole touching thing, but she supposed this could be a good exception.

“Thank you.”

Father brought his hand up to stroke her hair. “It feels like it’s all going so fast,” he admitted. “My baby girl is getting married.”

“I love that’s what you’re focusing on. You know we have a war we’re about to launch, right?”

“Ah, wars happen all the time,” Father replied. “My daughter only gets married once.” He pulled back, examining her face. “You do like him, don’t you?”

Kelly swallowed. She felt embarrassed, exposed. She didn’t want anyone, least of all Ivan, to know about this stupid bout of feelings she’d developed for him. But at the same time… would it hurt her father to know that she actually did like the man that she was going to spend the rest of her life with? He was her father, after all. He just wanted the best for her.

“Yes,” she told him. “Yes, I do like him. A lot.”

Her father smiled, hugging her tightly. “Good. That’s all I want, really. I want you to be happy.”

Kelly nodded into his shoulder. “I know.”

If she got to kill Bates and Shane woke up… she just might be.

As for Ivan—well, she just tried to shove that thought aside as something to deal with later. When they weren’t all at each other’s throats.