“I was going to take you to the bookstore to get to know you. I already got the ass. I’m good.”
“Bro,” Apricot hit me hard as hell making me grab my arm.
“Damn you hit hard. I was joking,” I chuckled while she mean mugged me. “Nah, I just wasn’t sure if you still wanted to go with all that happened.”
“Yeah, I do. Distractions are good.”
I nodded my understanding before looking up at her. “In all seriousness, you really do need to be careful when you’re out and about. You’re an easy person to spot.”
Apricot rolled her eyes. “Of course. Because of something that I didn’t have anything to do with now I have to hide and walk around on eggshells. I just love my life.”
I really could see where Apricot was coming from, but she was also giving me spoiled ass brat. Even though she didn’t want her father’s money, she had her entire life to learn that he wasn’t an average man. She didn’t have to like it but complaining aboutit wasn’t going to do anything either. I finished putting her bed together, and she thanked me.
“What do I owe you?”
“Owe me?” I frowned. “Nothing. Lock up and have a good night.” I placed a kiss on Apricot’s forehead and was gone.
CHAPTER 7
APRICOT
My father was betterand out of the woods. He’d been in the hospital for a week, and they were saying he could leave in a day or so. I met the cleaners at the house and was in my father’s office looking for some documents to take to his accountant. Just like he had guys on his team to handle his illegal business while he was recovering, he only trusted me and my mother with certain things. She was still a bit frazzled and exhausted, so I volunteered to handle his business for the day. My brows hiked as I looked at one of the bank statements it was requested that I get. I knew my father had money. Shit, he was wealthy as hell. A blind man could see that. But looking at an actual statement and seeing the numbers was insane. In a checking account there was $2,798,456.96. In a joint checking account there was $400,210.34, and in a savings account, there was $4,987,204.12. I also had enough sense to know that those weren’t his only bank accounts.
Had I been open to taking my father’s money, I could have been living the life. Just as quickly as the thought entered my mind, I shook it off. Remembering the vivid details of his and Marlo’s shooting along with Lonzo being beheaded weren’t things I could get used to.
My eyes narrowed when I saw the corner of something pink poking out from underneath a bunch of papers and books in the bottom drawer of my father’s desk. Curiously, I reached for the item and pulled it out. My heart raced as I realized that I was holding Kiwi’s iPad. I had purchased the pink cover and the stickers that adorned it myself. If my father had found the person or persons that broke into my house and got our stuff back, he would have told me and Kiwi. He would have given her the iPad back despite replacing everything that was stolen. There was no need to be confused. I knew exactly what kind of man my father was, and he had my house broken into. That was the only way to explain why he had my child’s iPad locked away in his office. I was willing to bet my last dollar that he decided to scare me into moving in with him. That would explain why my home was broken into despite everyone in the area knowing I wasn’t supposed to be fucked with.
Every muscle in my body tensed as I came to the realization that simply falling back from my father would never do. I had to completely cut him off which would be almost impossible to do because my daughter adored him. Kiwi didn’t have a father. The presence of my father in her life was critical. But enough was enough. My poor child was still having nightmares thanks to the shooting. My father wanted me to move into a house purchased by him so badly that he had my house broken into. Devin Jennings was insane on another level, and I was tired of biting my tongue. Standing up, I left the papers on his desk. I wasn’t taking anything to his accountant. He could handle his own affairs.
I did walk out of the office with Kiwi’s iPad in hand, however, and I was going straight to the hospital. My father was much better and a bit on the grumpy side, so my mother had finally stopped spending day and night at his bedside. It didn’t matter to me if he was alone or not. I was going to say what I had to sayto him. Despite the money he had, it was very bold of my father to think he could simply go around doing whatever he wanted to do.
I drove to the hospital fuming. By the time I walked into my father’s room, I still hadn’t calmed down. He didn’t have any visitors, and his reading glasses were on his face as he scrolled through his phone.
“Hey, babe,” he stated after looking up, but his face fell instantly when I held up the iPad.
“Want to tell me why Kiwi’s iPad was in the bottom of your desk drawer?”
Slowly, my father removed the glasses from his face. “You know I have connections. I fo−“
“Are you serious?!” I screeched with a frown. “You’re about to look me in the face and lie to me? Had you found out who broke in my house and got our things back you would have said something. What was the point of hiding the iPad? You just would have let Kiwi keep both of them. Please don’t insult my intelligence.”
“You are my daughter, and Kiwi is my granddaughter. No matter how much you hate it, you are attached to me, and you didn’t need to be living in that area.”
“And please do me a favor and tell me just how safe me and my child were moving in with you? We still damn near got our heads blown off.”
My father’s caramel colored skin turned red as his jaw muscles flexed. “I have never met a more ungrateful person in my life.”
“Ungrateful?” I seethed. “I’m ungrateful because I knew the very thing that did happen could happen? Do you realize that Kiwi is now afraid to sleep alone? My child is traumatized and for what? Because you’re in your fifties still engaging in street beef?”
“You want me to apologize for not having my wife and child standing in the food stamp line and living in the projects?”
Exasperated, I threw my arms up. “You just don’t get it. A father is supposed to be his daughter’s first love. All you’ve done is shown me the kind of man that I don’t want.”
My father’s nostrils flared with anger. Before he could respond, his room door opened. I didn’t even look to see who it was. If it was the nurse coming to put me out, I would gladly excuse myself. If it was my mother, I’d probably still leave because something told me she would find a way to take my father’s side. When the color drained from my father’s face it prompted me to look over my shoulder.
I had never before seen the 6’2 guy standing in front of me. He looked to be about twenty maybe a little older, and he had the same complexion as my father. His low cut was full of waves, and he had almond-shaped cognac-colored eyes. His orbs darted between me and my father, and my chest tightened. The air in the room was thick. The tension was thick enough to be cut with a knife. No words were spoken as the three of us had a staring contest. The door opened yet again, and my mother walked in with a smile on her face.
My mother’s steps halted, and she too began looking around the room. Her eyes landed on all of our faces. “What’s going on?” she asked visibly shaken.
