My father’s sharp voice startled us both, making me jolt. I whirled around and attempted to distance myself from Derek, but he gripped me tighter and pulled me against his front, hand splayed across my abdomen. As silly as it was, I felt strangely—protected.
“Dad… this is Derek.” I made no effort to move away from his embrace, even though I knew I should. “This is James’s son.” The hard planes of Derek’s chest tensed at my words.
I’d imagined my dad would be happy to meet his late best friend’s estranged son. His only child. But the stony expression on his face screamed the opposite. I’d never seen my father look at anyone the way he glared at Derek.
Hatred?
“I know who he is.”
I finally broke Derek’s hold, my eyes darting between the two men, narrowed in confusion as they stared one another down. Brown, stormy eyes against amused blue ones. “You… know Derek?”
My father’s dark eyes rolled to meet mine, and he shook his head. “No. I meant I knew who he was because you told me he was coming.”
Derek stepped from behind me and lifted a hand to greet my father, who hesitated before returning the gesture.
Tension hung thick in the air as the men exchanged false pleasantries. I was baffled and disappointed, realizing how much I’d wanted them to get along. As I started questioning their strange behavior, my cell vibrated in my pocket. It was a text from Rayne’s cousin, Cody, owner of a junkyard across town, where we were supposed to meet.
“Derek, we gotta run. My contact is leaving in thirty. We have just enough time.”
“Eva.” My dad’s voice wavered as he tugged me away from Derek. “You’re not going anywhere with him.”
“I’m not doing this with you right now. We’ll talk later.” He tried grabbing my wrist, but I moved out of his grasp. “Later,” I repeated, pivoting and walking past a too-smug Derek.
There went those alarm bells again.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
DEREK
The drive to the salvage yard was quiet. Eva looked pensive, staring out the windshield almost hypnotically. Now and again, I caught her sneaking glances in my direction, a question or comment brimming her lips, yet she spoke neither. I knew what was bothering her—the tense meeting between Franco and me. There was no mistaking the dawn of awareness that had crossed his face when he saw me and the intimate way in which I’d held his daughter.
“Are you going to talk to me? Or just sit there looking pretty?”
“Derek,” she half whined, the sound stirring my cock. I wanted to hear her groan my name again but in a much different circumstance. Preferably with my fist wrapped around that long hair while I was buried balls deep in her pussy.
“I just don’t understand him. It’s not like him to be so… cold and standoffish. And to you, of all people. He and James were like brothers.”
“I’m not offended, angel,” I said with a chuckle. “I’m not exactly many people’s cup of tea. And frankly, I prefer it that way. Unless it comes to you. Maybe he wasn’t a fan of my tattoos.”
She turned to me, confusion and intrigue written on her face. “You keep calling me that. Angel.”
I pulled into an empty lot right outside our destination, but kept driving until I reached past the end of the lot, until my car was obscured by a thick hedge of trees and shrubs. I cut the engine and shifted in my seat, peering at my watch. Having arrived earlier than expected, I figured we could afford a minute or two.
“You don’t like it?”
“I never said that. I’m just… curious. And why are we in the bushes?”
Her lips pushed into a pout.
“Well, first, look where we’re at. Chasing leads to a place like this over a girl you barely know. That takes a lot of compassion. And I’m here because I don’t know who the fuck this Cody guy is.”
“Cody’s record is clean. And I’ve known Rayne for four years. It’s called being human, Derek.”
She and I had two very different definitions of that concept. There was an obscenely short list of people I’d die and kill over. And by short, I meant one. Kai was the brother I never had, and the shit we’d been through together, the things we’d done and been forced to do, had bound us for life. My eyes flicked toward the woman sitting in my passenger seat. And something about her unraveled my prior statement. She tucked a tendril of hair behind her ear and watched me expectantly, waiting for an answer or possibly a rebuttal, but all I could do was grin.
“There are those who excel at that task and others who fail miserably,” I started, ignoring the subject ofCody and Rayne. I didn’t care about them. “And which side one lands on is purely objective.”
“Is it, though?”
