THE NEXT MORNING, Orion dropped me at school with the promise to pick me up when classes were done. Only, it wasn’t Orion who retrieved me. It was Sundance.
“Hey,” I said, climbing into the cab of a shiny, black Ford F-150.
“Hey,” he said.
“Where’s Orion?”
“He’s on a run.”
“Oh. Okay,” I said, and faced him. “I could have grabbed a ride share or called my roommate.”
“I’m aware. But Orion didn’t want you to do that, so I offered to come get you.”
“You didn’t want to send a recruit?”
He smiled, shifting the truck into gear. “Figured with the daggers you were shooting me earlier, you might need to get something off your mind.”
Lordy, like father like son.
“I’m good.”
“You sure?” he asked.
“Yep,” I said, folding my hands in my lap.
“Alrighty then.”
We’d driven about a hundred feet when I blurted, “Are you really not going to fight this?”
“Fuck me,” he breathed out.
“You have to fight,” I said. “If you don’t, you’ll be killing your son. And if you hurt that man, I will maim you.”
His mouth creeped up into a smile. “Maim me?”
“Maim you,” I confirmed. “And from a daughter’s perspective, if you don’t tell Violet what’s going on, you’re going to scar her to the bone. So, I ask you, big man, do you want your daughter on a pole, sporting a brand-new septum ring, and ‘Daddy’ tattooed across her ass?”
Sundance pulled the truck to the side of the road before he lost total control over his laughter. “Jesus Christ,” he said once he’d stopped laughing. “I can see why my boy loves you.”
I forced the gooey, warm feeling that statement gave me deep into the pit of my stomach. “He loves you more.”
Sundance’s eyes softened and he sighed. “I highly doubt that, sweetheart, which gives me nothing but happiness.”
I stared at my hands and blinked back tears. “Please fight,” I whispered.
His big hand covered both of mine and squeezed. “Is he freaked?”
I met his eyes. “Night terror level.”
“Jesus,” he whispered.
“I know things are… tense between the two of you, but you have to know how much he loves and respects you. You’re still his dad. He needs you.”
Sundance studied me the way only a father could. “I fucked up.”
I bit my lip. “If by that you mean you haven’t beenshowingOrion how much you love him? Maybe just a little, because you forgot words don’t matter to him. You have to back that shit up with actions.”
“You figured that out already, huh?”
