“I’ll get her for you. Please, just give me a minute to get dressed and we can talk about this man to man.” I kept my voice steady and spoke through gritted teeth. This wasn’t how I wanted her father to find out about us.
He rushed past me and spotted her on the kitchen floor. “Bess? What exactly is going on here?”
She stood, my t-shirt barely covering her ass. “Daddy, I can explain.”
His face went from white to bright red in a split second. “Get your things. I’m taking you home.”
“But—”
“Now!” He pointed down the hall. “You’ve got one minute to put on some clothes and meet me outside before your mother comes in and sees you like this. Go.”
She scurried down the hall while I grabbed a pillow from the couch and held it in front of my crotch. “Sir, it’s not what it looks like. I’m in love with Bess.”
He turned on me, his finger jabbing the air like a dagger. “Don’t even say her name. You’ve ruined her.”
“With all due respect, sir, she’s a grown woman.” I knew he wouldn’t embrace the idea of me and Bess being together, but I’d hoped to ease him into it and win him over a little at a time.
“She might have the body of a woman, but she’s my little girl. I should have known you’d have an ulterior motive in getting her out from under the protection of my roof.” He moved back toward the door, his eyes taking in everything in the cottage Bess and I had shared.
“It’s not like that. I love her. I want to marry her.”
He let out a laugh. “You? Marrying my Bess? If you want her to be happy, you’ll stay far away from her.”
At that moment, Bess came out of the bedroom. She’d thrown on a pair of shorts and her own t-shirt and held her bag in her hands. She looked at me with tears spilling down her cheeks. “You want to marry me?”
“Yes.” I took a step toward her, but her father put out a hand to block me.
“Over my dead body.” He nodded toward the door. “Your mother’s waiting outside. Come with me now, and I won’t break her heart by telling her what I saw here today.”
“Bess, don’t go. Let’s talk about this,” I begged.
She shoved her laptop in her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. “I can’t right now. Let’s talk when everyone’s had a chance to calm down.”
“Okay.” I’d honor her wishes about leaving with her parents, but I was still in charge of keeping her safe, especially now that she was mine. “Just don’t go back to the house. I think the cartel is watching, and I won’t let them get their hands on you.”
She looked to her dad. “He’s right. You should listen to him. Triton has a lot more experience with stuff like this and knows what he’s talking about.”
Paster Trammer opened the front door and ushered her out. “We don’t need his assistance with this matter any longer. I’m working with the sheriff’s department now.”
I wanted to run after her but didn’t want to make things worse by having her mother see me wearing a throw pillow. She wiped at her cheeks as she got into the back seat of her dad’s truck. If he wasn’t going to listen to me, I’d have to take matters into my own hands. I rushed back to the bedroom and pulled on my jeans and a t-shirt. Then I raced out to my truck and peeled out of the drive while I dialed Aldis, the president of the Rebel Hearts.
* * *
Bess
Wave after waveof emotion rolled over me as I sat in the back seat and tried to calm down. I kept reminding myself that my dad was only doing what he thought was right. My mom had taken one look at his face when he got into the truck and hadn’t said a word in the hour and a half since we left the cottage. A tension-filled silence had settled over all of us with only the sound of my dad’s favorite inspirational radio station playing in the background.
I’d wanted to stay with Triton. Wanted it so much, I’d even considered telling my dad he should leave without me. But then I thought about how much that would hurt him. If Triton truly meant all the promises he’d made, he’d wait for me. My dad would come around. How could he not when Triton was the most gentle, kind, sensitive man I’d ever met?
With that settled, I rested my head against the headrest and looked out the window at the flat, brown earth flying by. A huge black SUV pulled up on our left like it was going to pass us on the two-lane road. When it drew up even with us, the driver swerved to the right, bumping into the rear panel of my dad’s truck and causing us to veer onto the shoulder.
“What was that?” My mom turned around to look out the back window at the SUV that had pulled in behind us.
“I think they’re trying to run us off the road.” Fear wrapped around my heart, and I grabbed my phone. Triton would know what to do.
“Bess, where are you?”
Just hearing his voice held my panic at bay. “We’re about halfway back to Maplewood. A black SUV is trying to run us off the road.”
