I felt stupid, seated at some huge table. Edward at the head with me next to him. The young girl who had bought me food seated across from me with her head hung low, eating silently.
I’d refused to leave my room and meet him for dinner resulting in me being locked away without food for the night. I didn’t mind – my stomach at that stage couldn’t have handled much anyway. The effects of the drugs that had been pumped into my body still turned my stomach with the thought of anything other than water.
Gracious old Edward had sent makeup with the outfit that had been picked for me to wear the next day. I dare say so I could cover the bruising that was now starting to show under my eye and around my throat.
Joke’s on him, I hadn’t used it.
I caught him flinch as I’d entered the dining room for breakfast. My stomach now screaming to be fed, but he had yet to mention it. I was already dressed in the outfit he’d sent up. It was yellow, like some kind of sundress and fell to just below my knee – not my style at all, nor my size. It had capped sleeves and covered all the way up to my neck. I guess the guy was the modest type. I felt like a Stepford housewife.
“Is this your house?” I asked as we ate. I was curious to figure out where I actually was. The view from the bedroom window, while very pretty looking over a lovely garden, gave me no hints to what state we were in. I didn’t take him as a man to live in Alabama permanently, most in his business was likely in LA or New York.
“No, it’s nice, but it’s only a rental while I’m here,” he explained with a smile. No doubt happy I was deciding to engage with him.
“It is nice. I’ve lived in Alabama for a while now, how do you like it?” I asked casually as I stabbed a piece of bacon, crammed some egg on the top and popped it into my mouth.
“It’s nice, but I prefer LA.”
Thank goodness, we were still in Alabama. My hopes of Kit finding me were still bright. I knew he would’ve gone to Daniel first. But it seemed as though I was only there momentarily before they moved me on. I hoped like hell Kit had gotten the info he needed to find me.
“If you’re thinking just because we’re still in the state, that your little club will find you, you should just forget it,” he said, cutting his toast into strips.
I frowned, who does that?
I shrugged. “Do you have any other children?”
I wondered if that’s who the girl was sitting across from me.
He followed my eyes. “No. Amber is not my daughter.”
“Then who is she?”
The young girl sat quietly as if we weren’t talking about her while she sat right there.
“She works for me.”
“Doing what exactly?”
He slammed his palm on the table, both Amber and I jumped. “Keep your nose out of business that’s not yours,” he growled, staring me down. “Amber, take the dishes into the kitchen.”
She moved fast, gathering all our plates and balancing them perfectly as she left the room.
“I know what kind of business Daniel Ashley is in, father,” I said tauntingly. “I know exactly what you were looking for when you found that picture of me.”
His lips formed a flat line, his fingers twitched on the table. “Daniel was right, you do need to learn your place. Obviously these men you’ve been associating with have let you get away with too much.”
I laughed. “Quite the opposite, actually. I happily follow the rules they set down for us. Because I respect them. Unlike my feelings toward you.”
His hand moved fast, grabbing a fist full of my hair and tugging it back. My neck strained and an unconscious whimper of pain left my lips. He pushed his seat back and loomed over me, his face twisted in disgust and anger.
“Do you know why I wanted you here, Harmony?” he growled. I didn’t move, I couldn’t move. “Because I was curious to meet my only child. A child who was kept from me for twenty-three years. I wanted to see what she was like, how she’d grown up. Maybe even consider how we could piece together a relationship that worked.”
“You didn’t have to kidnap me in order to do that,” I whispered.
“That wasn’t what I intended.” He released me, pushing back his chair and walking around the other side of the table. “But then Mr. Ashley enlightened me on how you were living your life. Sleeping with countless men, being provocative, shaming yourself. That’s not the way a woman – someone with my bloodline, should conduct herself.”
“I live my life how I please. You have no right to judge me,” I told him sternly as I cradled my head, my neck still screaming with pain.
“No, I haven’t been there up until now, and look at how you are living. It’s disgusting, and I refuse to pass on my hard work, my business that I’ve built up to a girl who spreads her legs for any willing male.” He screwed up his nose as he watched me from across the room.
I pushed my chair back and stood, sick of being looked down on. “I don’t want your business. Why would I want to be associated with a chauvinistic pig like you? Let alone have people know we are related?”
“My company needs an heir. If I don’t have a child to pass it on to when I die, it will be thrown into receivership. Split up amongst who knows what kind of people,” he growled, finally with some explanation as to why I was here.
“That’s it? You did all this so that your stupid business could stay within the family?” I laughed. “Well, I may as well leave now because I don’t want it. Give it to your girlfriend in there or does the person taking it have to be over eighteen?”
I took a couple of steps backward as he stormed toward me. Hell and the need to cause me pain sparkling in his eyes. He stopped before me, not touching me, but breathing over me. I wouldn’t back down. He could do his worst, but I wouldn’t be the little toy in his plans.
“You will learn your place.”
“I know my place, and it isn’t here being your pawn,” I told him softly but with power. “You think this is how it’s going to work? You keep me locked up, force me to play nice with a few bumps and bruises? You underestimate how strong my will is to fight.”
An unexpected smile curved his mouth. “The strong ones are the most fun to break.”
I shuddered.
He was exactly like them. My own father.
“Sometimes it isn’t about the pain or using a heavy hand,” he walked past me, his tone now calm and collected. The guy was bipolar. “It’s about using the right incentive for encouragement.” I watched as he paced back and forth, much like he had done during our first meeting. The angry, controlling bastard now replaced by the businessman, who was trying to negotiate contract terms.
“Your friend, Chelsea is it? She’s very beautiful?” he asked curiously.
My body stiffened. “Leave Chelsea alone.”
I caught him smile. “Mr. Ashley was very interested in her. She’s apparently exquisite.”
I ground my teeth together, my heart racing as he talked about my best friend.
“I’m in a position to pay Mr. Ashley, more than what this girl is worth, in order to keep her safe.” He shrugged. “Although, that is a lot of money I’m not willing to spend if I don’t get what I want.”
I thought about Chelsea, my best friend. Could I put her freedom before my own or was I willing to risk her getting caught up in this because I chose to be selfish? I knew if I said no that the club would watch over her. But as the situation shows, sometimes we fall through the cracks. In my case, I had fallen through the cracks on more than one occasion. I’d been shot during a failed kidnapping. I’d been assaulted, in a dirty side of the road bathroom while my protectors stood out front. Now, I was here because a member of a club I had trusted with my whole heart, had betrayed his Brotherhood for God only knows what reason.
I knew Kit cared for me and would fight with every bone in his body to keep me out of harm’s way, but sometimes there were promises that we couldn’t keep. He didn’t know that Caleb was a horrible shot and I wouldn’t have let him follow me into the bathroom of that petrol station anyhow, even if he had demanded it was to protect me. He also couldn’t have known that Target would turn, he trusted every single Brother, who joined the club.
The world doesn’t stop to consider our vows to our loved ones, neither do the people around us who make their own decisions without thinking about how they will affect others. I can swear to my lady that I’ll be home for dinner, but if there’s an accident on the highway because some asshole decided to drink and drive and I get caught in traffic then I’m going to be bloody late aren’t I.
I heard Doc’s words in my head. At the time, I’d laughed, but now his words finally made sense. We can only promise to do our best. And I know with every bone in my damn body that every Brother of that club would lay down their lives to protect Chelsea. I also knew that Kit and Optimus would want me to have enough faith in them to do that. They would never want me to back down from someone who was threatening my family.
“You want an heir?” I asked.
Edward looked at me smugly. “I want an heir.”
“Maybe you should post an ad in the paper, cos there’s no way in hell I want the world to know I’m related to you,” I sneered.
His eyes widened as he stared at me in shock.
“That’s my girl,” I heard the deep voice come from behind me and my lips slowly turned up with a smile.
“Hey Dad, let me introduce you to my real family.”