The team rushes me like I’m a snack, and they are rabid dogs. They pile around Seaborn and I in a group hug, and we might all have been crying.
I’m flying fucking high when I walk out of practice to find my dad leaning against his unmarked SUV, which is very clearly a police car.
FORTY-TWO
WOLFE
“You can’t let me have one good day,” I mutter to the universe.
I expected my dad to show up, so I’m not surprised, but not this quickly.
Archangel’s hand finds my lower back for just a second, but it’s enough.
“You going with him?” Archangel asks when I don’t walk toward him right away.
“I should probably get it over with.”
He sighs.
“Tell me.”
“You don’t have to go with him. Actually, you don’t ever have to give him the time of day again.” Archangel’s eyes shine with emotion. He’s holding it back.
“I know, but I don’t want to make our lives difficult.”
“He’s making your life difficult, and I want to fight him.”
I growl. “I hate that we’re in public right now.”
“Why?” he searches my face.
“Because I want to kiss you.”
He glares, but he’s still emotional, and I can’t do anything without crossing his boundaries. “Kissing me won’t change what he does to you.”
“You don’t know what he is capable of. You think you do, and yes, it would be great to just cut him off, but do you really want to get a parking ticket every time you take your car out the rest of the time we’re in the city? And that’s them being nice. I don’t need you being picked up and harassed any time my dad remembers you exist.” The idea of what cops might do to him flays me wide open. I can barely live with the idea that they’d hurt him the second we are apart. “I don’t trust my father.”
“I would sue the department.” Archangel won’t ever hide who he is or bow to those power dynamics, and I love him for it, but I can’t risk it.
“Not before it’s already an issue, and I don’t trust any of them alone with you,” I whisper, carefully holding back tears. I don’t want to guilt him into anything, but I don’t know how to get him to understand.
He knows what my mother is. He saw her and my step-father, but when I had to stay with my father for months over the summer, he was always thousands of miles away, enjoying the time off school while I was in another version of hell. He didn’t even meet my dad until we moved here for college.
“Please just let me deal with him for now.” I have to keep him safe until we are out of the city at least.
“You’re right.” He shakes his head, holding back, but I’ll have to get him to talk to me after I deal with my dad.
“I won’t be late.”
“When do I assume he’s taken you to a holding cell and is not letting you out?” He’s joking but only partly.
I weigh my answer. “If I’m not at practice tomorrow.”
He frowns.
“I’m kidding. He won’t keep me from practice. He knows we need to win this weekend.”
“Fine.”
