“Why did he leave?” Van could understand leaving one’s home. Sometimes there were very good reasons. Like life and death.

“He always says that Ireland might be the Emerald Isle, but America is the Land of Green, so I’m sure it had to do with making money. He bought the Shamrock before I was born.”

“What else?”

“You already know he’s greedy. Ambitious. Willing to use anyone for his own purposes. Including me. Obviously.”

Which also made him a horrible father. “What are his weaknesses?”

“He hates feeling like he’s being disrespected or not listened to. He hates the thought that people talk behind his back. He’s got an enormous ego.” She tapped her fingers on the table. “But his biggest weakness is his money, of course.”

“He has a hoard also.”

“Sort of. I don’t know if he has a room like yours, though. He’d never show it to me if he did. My mother may have seen it.”

“What kind of supernatural is your mother?”

“A pixie.” Monalisa frowned. “She sides with him more and more every year. It’s like she’s realized there’s no point in fighting him.”

“I am sorry your life has not gone differently.”

She smiled, but it was a little sad. “It got me here, right?”

“True.”

The waiter came with their sparkling water and two goblets. He poured for them, then left again.

Van raised his glass. “To us. And to the future.”

They drank. He set his glass down. “What else can you tell me about him?”

She thought for a moment. “He’s a trickster. Loves to twist words, play pranks, and generally make everyone else the butt of his jokes. You can’t trust him.”

“Obviously.”

“But it’s more than what he’s done to me over the years.” She swirled the liquid in her glass. “He will take advantage of every loophole. You have to be very careful making any kind of deal with him.”

Van nodded. “I will be.”

She was oddly quiet for a minute. “Can I ask what you have planned? Are you just going to go in and fight and hope for the best? Or are you going to tell him upfront that you’re done fighting? He won’t like that. You make him a lot of money.”

It was his turn to be silent for a moment. “I am not sure yet, but I know this much. Whatever happens, the outcome must be your freedom.”

Monalisa felt her pulse trip at Van’s words. “That is…beyond kind of you. But he probably won’t agree to it. You can try all you want to make him give me a coin, but he won’t. And even if, by some strange twist of fate, you could get him to agree, it would be a lie. He’d just go back on his word. He’s done it numerous times.”

“But would he do that to me if he thought there was a chance of getting me to fight again?”

She squinted at him. “So…you’d lie to him? I’m not opposed to that, but I know how he operates. He’d have you sign a contract locking you in before he did anything himself. Then you’d be stuck fighting again.”

“I could refuse to fight the rematch.”

“You’d be in breach of your contact.” She shook her head. “Then you’d be in trouble with the League, and that would be a huge mess. He owns too many people in that organization for you to fight it. No, you can’t do that.”

He growled softly. “I do not like this man.”

“Neither do I, and I’m his daughter.”

Van’s eyes had the dark smolder going on that she’d come to recognize as him in deep thought. She sipped her sparkling water and let him have some time.

The server arrived with their food, setting it before them with a lovely flourish. It looked delicious, from her soup and salad to Van’s steak with fries. She thanked the man, but Van just grunted.

It was sort of cute, his grumpiness. Especially since she knew he wasn’t really like that. Much like Grom, his bark was worse than his bite. And it was hard to be cross with him when he was trying to come up with a plan to free her from her father’s clutches.

She took a bite of her salad and chewed while she studied the furrow of his brow and his intense gaze. He was putting so much effort into rescuing her. How could she not fall hard for a man like this? Really, it was the sort of thing that made her feel like she was already…in love with him.

She moved her gaze back to her plate. Well, that was silly and overly emotional and probably just a reaction to being around a single, available man for the first time in her life. Because she’d only known him a short while, and real love took a lot longer.

Didn’t it?

She honestly didn’t know. Were her feelings any less genuine because they’d come on so fast? What did real love look like anyway? It wasn’t what her parents had. At best, that was a mutually agreed upon business deal. Sure, they liked each other—there was no other way they could spend that much time together otherwise—but did they love each other?

Monalisa didn’t think so. How could anyone love a man like her father when all he loved was himself? And money.

Meanwhile, her mother’s great loves seemed to be shopping and vacations with her girlfriends. No, her parents’ marriage was based more on a shared appreciation for things rather than love.

Monalisa poked at the bubbly crust of cheese on top of her soup (which smelled and looked divine) and sighed.