My face must have turned several shades of red.
“What!”
“Calm down. I contained the situation.”
Contained. Like I was a client.
“Contained!”
My father snapped open the day’s copy of Variety that had laid unopened all day on the glass coffee table. “It’s nothing to get excited about,” he said calmly. “You are an adult. And I asked Dys to keep you busy. I just didn’t expect that he’d get that busy, that soon.”
“What!” I sputtered.
“In any case, I couldn’t let something like that hit the media, so I took care of it. But I understood then why you didn’t want to have contact with any of them.”
I spun, inchoate as words caught in my throat and I spotted the amusement in Tobias’s eyes.
“You knew about this!” I choked out.
“Yes.”
“That’s why you suggested I stay away from them.”
He shrugged.
“Oooh!” I wailed. I don’t know what was worse, that he played on my relationship fears or that he looked out for my welfare without my knowledge. But I was furious that he interfered.
“Get her a drink, Tobias. She seems a little upset.”
Oh, that bastard knew where the liquor was, alright. He smartly walked to the liquor cabinet, which was a retro-vintage fifties-style cabinet that sported a bowl of fake fruit on its top. He poured me a shot of whiskey and handed it to me.
“Here. This is good stuff, not like that rotgut sour mash Dys likes to drink.”
“Wait. You’ve been hanging out with Jersey?”
“I’ve spent a little time with all the boys. Just to check on them.”
“I asked him to, Jacy,” said my father.
“You,” I said flailing my finger at my father indignant at his interference. I couldn’t get words out. What do you say to a man who is a master string-puller who manipulated my life? And then I whirled at Tobias, who was even worse, using the situation to leverage his position.
“You!” I snapped.
He smiled and leaned toward me and whispered.
“You are beautiful when you are angry.”
What got into me? I don’t know. Maybe it was too many nights of sexual frustration. Or the fact that I was attracted to four men, Tobias being one, and couldn’t pick among them, or the ridiculous competition they had going. Or that I, Ms. Take-Charge-And-In-Control didn’t command a single aspect of my life. I slapped Tobias Marshall across the face with such force my hand stung.
Marshall stepped back as the amusement died from his eyes.
“Daughter,” my father said with maddening calm. “You should get going. I’m counting on you to seeing this through to the end.”
I keened again and stalked toward the front door.
“You deserved that, Tobias,” I heard my father say. “You aren’t as arcane as you think.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
