Page 30 of When You Stayed
Her brows dipped, which drew my attention to her freckles. Which unfortunately took me back to a memory of one summer when we were at camp.
“Count how many freckles I have on my back, Ford. I told Connor, if I have more than him, then he owes me his dessert after dinner.” She wore a pink swimsuit that had strings tied in the back, showing most of her back, which I had already been staring at. Which was why I didn’t need to count, I already knew exactly how many she had.
She had five more than last summer.
“When my mom was there, she barely made ends meet.”
My fingers itched to pet my cat, but only because I missed Gus. At least that’s what I was telling myself. My eyes were on her face, but my fingers were idly stroking through soft fur, edging closer to where hers were. They were also itching dangerously close to the apex of her thighs where her shorts had ridden up indecently high. She was bare from the video I’d seen and how narrow the underwear she wore was, but even now, I could see the outline of her pussy that pressed against the thin fabric of her shorts.
“She was donating almost all of her paycheck to a nonprofit that helped the elderly. If I remember from reading over the reports, she also gave a chunk to the bartender. She didn’t need the job, so your dad was fine with her only taking a portion home. It had something to do with her roots and how she started with the Hollow. Rodney clears over seventy-five thousand a year.”
Royce froze with her fingers nearly touching mine, her mouth gaping. “What did you just say?”
I was about to repeat myself, but she straightened, which made her tank top dip lower, and my cock swell inside my jeans.
“I do the books, I don’t see his salary, but I see how much the club makes…it doesn’t make enough a year for him to make that.”
I contemplated telling her all of it, that we’d been watching Rodney for a while now. That Bernie had been concerned that his manager was stealing from him, and reported him to the police. Our contacts in the department told us the report was buried, so the club approached Bernie and offered to handle Rodney for him, and in turn he agreed to sell to us when he was ready. Royce wasn’t doing the real books. She was likely seeing whatever Rodney wanted her to, the rest he was stealing from Bernie. If I trusted her at all, I’d tell her.
No, she’d tell Taryn. Possibly Nova and Ellie. “Rose, I hate to say this, but Rodney shows you only what he wants you to see, and I have a feeling he’s been doing that for a while.”
“But…how—” she trailed off, but her fingers had sunk back into Gus’s fur, grazing mine. My breath hitched, which made me instinctually pull back out of fear that she’d pull away first.
It was self-preservation.
I could see her mind was still reeling, her eyes were unfocused off to the side as if she could do all the math in her head, finding where that extra money might have gone.
I needed to apologize for the other night. The words burned my tongue, but right as my mouth parted, someone slammed the door shut below us.
Feet hit the stairs right as someone yelled, “Why is Ford’s truck here?”
Royce stared at the open door like it might grow fangs and detach, then she glanced at me as panic surged her forward. “It was supposed to be a joke because you hurt my feelings.”
My brows fell inward as I tried to work it out, butright as I did, Killian filled the doorway. He was wearing shorts, running shoes, and a hoodie with his chest heaving.
“Ford, what the fuck are you doing in my daughter’s room while she’s in her underwear?”
I swiftly got up from the bed, my mind racing as to what the fuck had just happened. But the next person to barrel through the front door helped clear it up.
“Dad is on his way back, this was genius, Royce—Dad’s going to kill him, I came back as soon as I could, so I didn’t miss the show!” Taryn yelled while quickly scaling the steps and sliding to a stop outside Royce’s door.
“Oh wow, he’s…death stare. Okay, this is actually kinda awkward.” Taryn’s voice trailed off as her gaze bounced around from her dad to me, then to her sister.
My jaw hurt from how hard I was gritting my teeth, but if I opened my mouth, I’d yell at the woman in front of me who had somehow pulled out that drawer in my heart…
Royce set her coffee on the side table before getting to her feet. “Dad, I can explain this.”
Killian moved, and there was no way I was going to fight him in his own home in front of his daughters, so whatever he needed to do to me, I’d allow it. Even being president of the club wasn’t enough to combat a father’s need to protect his daughter. I knew this, and with Killian that need was amplified by about a thousand percent.
His fist landed against my jaw, making my head snap to the side and blood well up in my mouth.
“No!OhmyGodwhatIhavedone?” Royce stammered all in one sentence before shifting around the room, trying to get between her father and me. “Dad, I stole his cat. I told him to come over!”
She’d set me up knowing this would be the outcome.
Why was it that instead of hating her, I had a pride swelling in my chest?
Killian punched me again and then gripped me by the back of the cut and drug me out into the hall. Taryn was quick to move to the side as I tried to get my feet under me.
