I understood the words my dad was saying, but the meaning behind them was hard for me to comprehend.
Did he just say he was protecting them from Micah?
What reason could he possibly have to protect them?
They didn’t seem like the kind of men he usually associated himself with.
I blinked when they both laughed.
“Are you, though? Protecting us from the fucking King’s Men? How do we know you really are when your daughter is fucking their VP?”
Dad turned to me, shock in his eyes. “What?”
I licked my lips, but there was nothing I could say to that. I didn’t realize his hate for the MC ran this deep. Enough that he was willing to protect these men from the club?
What happened to the system he worked his entire life to protect?
Was that not bigger than his hate for the MC?
“Ryleigh, tell me it isn’t true.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, hard enough that a slight metallic taste coated my tongue. I swallowed before I answered him.
“It’s true. I’m in love with Roman.”
He stumbled back. “You—”
He closed his eyes, and I tried to get to him. The chains held me in place. “Dad. Please. He’s not—”
I shook my head.
He looked at me as if he didn’t know me. “You saw him kill a man. A cop.”
I nodded. “I know.”
I wasn’t under any illusion about what kind of man Roman was.
“And you love him? That monster?”
“He’s not a monster. He loves me.”
“That little weasel can’t love. He’s using you.”
“No,” I said, trying hard to make him understand. But the look in his eyes told me there was nothing I could say that would change his mind.
“Please, Dad.”
At this point, I didn’t know what I was asking for. For him to help rescue me from this terrible situation, or to believe me when I told him that Roman loved me? That me falling in love with the man wasn’t the betrayal he thought it was—even if I did betray him in other ways.
Stephen laughed, the sound empty and mean.
I had almost forgotten the other two men were there.
“You want to know why that night at the fucking port didn’t turn out the way you planned?”
Dad looked at the men before he turned to me, anger clinging to his expression. “That was you? You tipped them off…” I could see him connecting the dots in his mind. “You were home that day. You heard me talking with William, didn’t you?”
I let out a small sob and nodded.
