He shouldbescared of me.
At least his organsneeded to be. Because I swore to myself right then, sitting on the edge of the hotel bed, that I'd make sure he paid the damn Croatians back somehow.
The old bastard owed me that much.
~ * ~ *
“He’s a sneaky son of a bitch,” Sonny sighed on his end of the line.
Bracing my feet on the bottom rung of the stool, I glanced around the diner like my dad could be hiding in a booth. That friggin’ asswipe. “The guy at the front desk told me he checked out yesterday. Yesterday, Sonny. It was like he knew what happened or something.”
“Maybe he did, Ris. Wouldn’t hold it past the old bastard.”
“It’s bull crap.” I cast another glance around the diner, this time looking for Dex. He’d left for the bathroom a few minutes before but he hadn’t come back yet. “We’re going to try to go to a few different motels around the area and see if we can find him.”
Yeah, the chances were slim, and Dex and I had both acknowledged that my dad would have to be a complete moron to move hotels within a few miles distance but...I’d never said he wasn’t a total moron. I could hope for the best, it was all I had.
Sonny hummed in response, the tension awkward between us still. I almost hadn’t called him, but after the phone conversation I’d overheard the night before between him and my tattooed behemoth, I figured it was the best option. The truth was, it pained me that Sonny was still mad at me. Even after I’d told him all about the incident at Pins, he’d sounded angry but still so distant. It wasn’t the way I felt he would have responded if things had been fine between us.
And it was my fault, which was the hardest thing to swallow but probably the most important. Actions always have consequences, right?
I looked over my shoulder while I waited to hear if Sonny said anything else, to see Dex standing just outside the bathroom with a waitress crowding his space. Not our waitress, just a cute one that had smiled at us when we walked in. Whore.
Okay, that was rude.
“Keep me posted on whether you guys need me to drive down there or not, I should be getting to Austin in a day or two depending on how many times Trip wants to stop,” my brother said.
Still looking at Dex as he shook his head at whatever the waitress was saying to him, I swallowed back the weird feeling in my throat and focused on my conversation with Sonny. There was no way I wanted to spend minutes of my life worried about whether or not Dex was doing something suspicious behind my back. I mean, he was right there. He’d never given me a reason not to trust him.
I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the many, many times Sonny had eaten something he didn’t like all because I wouldn’t eat meat. Or the hundreds of times he’d worried about my health and well-being. Sonny mattered to me. And I needed to try and fix what was wrong with us. That mattered.
“Son, I love you. A lot. And I’m sorry I’ve been such a lying shit and I know that my promises probably don’t mean anything to you anymore but I swear I won’t lie to you again. At least not over anything so stupid. I mean, if you ask me if I finished the last PopTart, I might lie but that’s it. Nothing else important.”
And then I waited. And waited. And waited.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, he really was that pissed off at me. Holy crap. I’d finally done it.
“Kid,” he finally spoke after what felt like a year. “You pissed me the hell off but I love you anyway. Nothing will ever change that. Not even that dumb monkey you got playing bodyguard.”
“I like my dumb monkey.” Like hell was I going to bring up him being mad at me again. I was going to focus on something other than that.
Sonny sighed again, this long, suffering sigh. “That’s unfortunate.”
“He’s really nice to me,” I whispered into the phone, turning around in the stool to look for said dumb monkey. He was still standing by the bathrooms with the waitress talking to him. “I’d like to keep him, so I hope you aren’t planning on murdering him.”
“Kinda ruining my plans there, kid,” he said, and I wasn’t sure whether he was joking or not. More than likely, he wasn’t. “He didn’t exactly keep to the truce between the Club, of leaving family alone. He knows that’s not cool.”
“Eh.” I glanced around to see the tall, black-haired jerk making his way around the booths toward where he’d left me. “At least leave his face alone.” I paused before adding, “And his hands.”
My half-brother groaned. “Getting off the phone now.”
I was torn between laughing and being ridiculously embarrassed by the way I’d made the comment sound. “That wasn’t what I meant!”
“Don’t care, kid. The damage is done.”
Warm fingers drew a line from my bare shoulder down to my wrist before Dex sat down next to me, his chest a solid wall of muscle and heat on my side. I glanced at his face, seeing it calm and passive. So handsome. Yet, I still cringed when I thought about the mental picture Sonny was probably having. “Yeah, okay.”
“Call me later?” he asked.
