He leans down with his arms laying on the roof of the car. The smile on his face is that of a snake. “It’s a shame you keep my daughter from me, sweetheart.”
What?!
My jaw slacks. The puff of air that leaves me sounds like a gasp, and it does nothing but feed Benedict even more ammunition to scare me.
“Do I have your attention now?” he asks lazily.
I say nothing. Too stunned to speak.
“If you don’t want to be mine, so be it.” Benedict taps his fingers along the top of my car, matching the rhythm of my racing heart. “But that means you don’t get to keep what’s mine either.”
Fury blinds me. The words crash right through the warnings in my head not to smack him directly in the face. If he would just lean down a little farther…
“Ah, I’ve struck a nerve?” he asks through a smirk.
“How can you claim she’s yours when you’ve held her a handful of times since she was born?” And every time, he acts like I should put out for him just because he gave her an ounce of attention.
He shrugs. “I don’t think the judge will see it that way when I tell the court about your past…where you live…your many jobs…how you can hardly pay the bills and keep a roof over Charleigh’s head.”
Just the sound of her name coming from his mouth sends me into a frenzy.
Before I can argue with him further, he slams the door in my face and slaps the top of my car, as if he’s giving me permission to leave.
Permission or not, I do exactly that.
I speed off down the street and head home. I dump the rest of the Skittles into my mouth, as if the sweet taste of candy is going to calm me down somehow.
Two
MALAKI
Well,this night has taken a wicked turn.
I sit at one of the penny slots but make no move to wager any money.
How I ended up at a casino watching one of my teammates drink copious amounts of booze while he sweeps all the other gamblers off their feet at the blackjack table is beyond me.
I’m not here for fun.
I’m here as his babysitter, even if he is wholly unaware of that.
I can hear my teammates now:Of course Malaki will keep an eye on Kane…he has nothing better to do.
Just because I’m one of the guys on the team who hasn’t settled down with a wife yet, doesn’t mean I don’t have better things to do. Actually, ninety percent of the team has deemed me the last to settle down, if ever.
Still doesn’t mean I don’t have better things to do, you know?
“If you’re not going to play, can you move?”
I turn and make eye contact with an older woman who has the voice of someone that smokes a pack of cigarettes per hour.She has so many deep wrinkles on her face I’m afraid she may be a witch and cast a spell on me if I don’t move, so I spring up from the seat and usher her to sit.
“Go get ‘em, tiger,” I mutter.
She doesn’t hear me. The bright lights and annoying bells on the slot machine have sucked her in–she’s preoccupied at the moment.
I sigh and swing my attention back to Kane.
He raises his hand to signal for the cocktail waitress.
