“Who…who’s up there?” Glancing back and forth between her dad and Slugger, she realized no one was answering her. And she’d picked up on the word “boss.” What did that mean? Why had Slugger called her dad “boss?” “Are there other OPAQUE agents in the house?”
Again no one answered.
Pressing his earpiece button, Slugger moved near the door as he answered someone from somewhere about something. His expression seemed even more ominous now. Why did him having an earpiece scare her? Mitch and the others used one. That never bothered her. But something about Slugger didn’t quite seem the same as the men who’d risked their lives protecting her ever since Sanibel.
Her dad slid his arm across her shoulders. “You’re okay. That’s just a little housekeeping going on upstairs.”
“Sounded more like trashing the place,” she said.
“By the way, punkin’, how many OPAQUE agents have been guarding you? Four? Six? Eight?”
“Four.” She tried to move out of his casual hold, but he tightened his grip on her.
“How many of them headed to the boat?”
“Four.”
“All men?”
“Yes.”
Slugger smirked then raised his eyebrows as he deliberately moistened his lips. “That’s a shame. I was hoping the lovely Cat would be here.”
“Looks like you’ll have to wait till next time to try out your moves.” Her father nodded in the direction of the boat. “Let them know.”
The man clicked his earpiece mic. “Four incoming your way.”
What the hell was going on? She felt as if she’d just been interrogated. And, for some reason, the wordincomingsounded ominous. Why? What was it about all this that didn’t seem to make sense?
Pushing her father’s hand from her shoulder, she turned out of his grasp and stepped back. Where could she go? She glanced at the open living room only a few steps away, but the kitchen counters were a barrier.
Her father opened the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. “You want anything, Elizabeth?”
“No. I’m fine,” she said. “Thanks, though.”
He laughed then gulped down half the beer. “Still always the polite one, aren’t you? Your mother was good at teaching you manners. Too bad she wasn’t as good at being a wife.”
Fear settled in Liz’s chest. Fear as strong as when she was ten years old and in trouble. Well, she wasn’t ten anymore. “I won’t stand for you putting my mother down. She was sweet and considerate. Always trying to make things better for us. She did the best she—”
Her father threw the now empty beer bottle full force at the stove. The bottle smashed into jagged pieces. Liz screamed, jerked back, covered her face, as the oven’s tempered glass shattered into a multitude of pebble-sized lumps. Glass scattered across the floor in every direction.
“Your mother was nothing but a prim and proper conniving bitch. She never loved me.” He grabbed Liz’s wrist. “Hell, I’d have been better off without her when I went into Witpro.”
“Let me go.” She grappled with his hand, kicked his shin, stomped his foot.
“Don’t fight me, Elizabeth. Don’t make me hurt you.” He intensified his hold. “And don’t think I won’t. You’re nothing to me but a mouth to feed. Not even my own kid. You. Mean. Nothing.”
The words hit her like frigid water on a hot, humid day. Woke her up with sudden awareness before the quick feeling of clammy stickiness coated her face. First, Drake had said he might be her dad. Now the man she’d called father all her life had said she meant nothing to him. One man had loved her mother. One had just slandered the same woman. Who was her father? Who?
She felt alone. Empty. Nobody. Like a sinkhole had open beneath her and she was plummeting hundreds of thousands of feet to oblivion.
“How can you say I’m nothing? I’m your daughter.” The quiver in her voice exposed the betrayal she felt. The need for a parent’s love.
“Nope. You’re just someone I’ve been grooming for years to use for CT’s benefit.” He stared at her without compassion. “The promise of you and your connections are what helped me rise through the ranks. Ain’t that right, Slugger?”
Slugger nodded as he kicked the main pile of glass off to the sides. Pieces clumped in even smaller piles. Pieces bouncing farther under the cabinet overhangs.
“Coercion Ten? You’ve been part of them all these years?” she asked.
