Prologue

Talon – One month ago

My father was dead. To be fair, I thought my dad had been dead all of my twenty-three years because that was what my mom had told me. She said he died before I was born and had no family. So, it had always been just the two of us. Mom and me against the world. No father for me unless you count mom’s string of boyfriends who had no use for a curious little girl in need of male attention.

Obviously, that was all a lie because I finally sat down with the baby faced lawyer in the expensive blue suit who’d been hounding me for weeks to learn that my father had actually died less than a year ago. Nine months to be exact. How could I not feel it? How could I not know that while I wished and prayed for some kind of family as my mom lay dying in the cancer ward, someone else had been out there? He’d been looking for me my whole life.

And only months after his death had he succeeded. Damn. Actually, the lawyer told me a friend of my dad felt compelled to finish the search after his death and that right there turned me into a hot mess of emotions because that kind of friendship was rare. Special.

I had so many mixed up thoughts and feelings about all the information that had just been dumped on me, and I just sat on the wall overlooking Lake Michigan to try and clear my mind. Sometimes the cool breeze off the water helped, but I had a feeling nothing could help me now. And the worst part about it? My mom wasn’t here anymore, so I couldn’t ask her why she kept me from him. Why she denied me a father. I didn’t know if I wanted to scream, puke or cry.

At first, I thought maybe she’d been afraid of him, but as I remembered the things she’d told me—he fixed motorcycles, had a great laugh, played the guitar like a pro—I realized that she still loved him. Even years after fleeing and hiding from him, she loved him. So why, Mom?

Sliding off the wall, I made my way back to the parking garage a few blocks away and decided I’d give my boyfriend, Damon, a chance to help me figure things out. According to the lawyer, my dad Magnus Ashbee—funny how we still had the same last name—spent the past thirty years in a small California town along the Mexican border called Brently. He owned a house on a few acres of land plus a diner, and now it was all mine.

If I was ready to step up and claim it.

By the time I made it home, I was no closer to a decision. I couldn’t deny a certain amount of interest about my dad’s life all these years. Did he have a wife or other children? Did I have brothers and sisters? Was he happy? Did he hate Mom for hiding from him all these years? The curiosity burned in my gut with the need to know.

I probably should’ve been paying more attention because I didn’t even notice my best friend Abby’s car in the drive, though her teal hobo bag lay across the sofa and her laughter rang out from the kitchen. With a smile at the laughter I heard, I shrugged off my jacket and hung it up then followed the laughter. No, not the laughter I corrected as my eyes settled on the scene before me. Giggles. Abby was fucking giggling. With her bare legs wrapped around Damon’s waist while he sank his cock inside her.

“Guess you weren’t expecting me home so soon.”

Both of the lying, cheating cowards froze. Probably worried about how I might react. “Talon, babe let me explain. Shit!” Damon gave me that slick salesman smile that I fucking loathed. In that moment, I hated it more than I ever had.

I pushed my palm into the air and pinched my eyes closed, tamping down the fury of rage that fired through me. I heard the unmistakable sound of bodies untangling and forced my eyes open as Damon pulled out of Abby. Raw, I might add. “I’m not really interested in anything you have to say. Put your dick away and get out. Both of you.”

Abby slid off my kitchen table with her bare ass and stood in front of me, contrition shining in her traitorous green eyes. “Talon, we just got carried away—ow! What the fuck?” Now anger shone, and I dared her to retaliate, to give me a reason to give her the beat down she really fucking deserved.

Yeah, I’m not ashamed to say I slapped the shit out of her. “I don’t give a shit what you have to say, you rotten skank. Get the fuck out and don’t come back.” When she didn’t move fast enough I pushed her, causing her head to slam against the wall. I had zero fucks left to give. “Go!”

“Talon baby, calm down. It was just a mistake.” Damon smiled that pop star grin, a flop of blond hair hanging over one eye.

I smiled at him and cupped his jaw. He really was a beautiful man with blond hair and clear baby blue eyes, but apparently, he had a slippery cock, and I didn’t share. “I doubt it was a mistake,” I told him as I raked my nails down his left cheek. “And I doubt it was the first time. What’s more—I don’t give a fuck. Get out, and don’t come back,” my voice tremored with anger.

“Ow, you crazy bitch! My face!” He held his cheek as blood trickled to the surface, and I smiled proudly. It’ll be hard for him to go into the office tomorrow with those marks on his pretty little face. “I’ll be back when you’ve calmed down,” he tossed over his shoulder as he strolled out of our apartment. Our former apartment, I amended.

I didn’t bother with a response because those two—the closest thing I had to family—had helped me make the decision I’d been struggling with for the past two hours.

Looked like I was going to Brently.