“Yeah.” Hillbilly heaved a sigh and adjusted his arm on my shoulder. “I wanted to talk about her, too.”
Then his arm tightened around my neck with a squeeze like a boa constrictor.
“I might be an old dog who’s slowing down, and the club is a younger man’s game,” Hillbilly said. “But I’m not blind. I see the way you look at my daughter. And I see the way she looks at you.”
“I can explain—” I croaked.
He squeezed even tighter. It was getting hard to breathe now, and pressure began to build in my head, throbbing at my temples.
“I don’t need an explanation,” Hillbilly said. “I was young once. I looked at Lila’s mother the same way. Marina had been a university exchange student at the time, visiting from Brazil. We went up in flames at the snap of my fingers. Nine months later, Lila was born.”
I dug my fingers into Hillbilly’s forearm, pressed against my windpipe.
“Now, I’m not a prude,” he continued in a conversational tone, as if I wasn’t wheezing for air. “I’m well aware that my daughter is an adult. She can sleep with anyone she wants to.”
“Yes, sir,” I rasped.
“But you…” Hillbilly’s tone dropped to a menacing level. “You are different. She really, really likes you.”
I managed a sound between a gasp and an incredulous laugh.
“That’s news to me.”
“Oh, come on. Don’t play dumb. You two fight like cats and dogs precisely because you’re attracted to each other.”
I clawed at Hillbilly’s arm, attempting to get some relief.
“Is this…is this the part where you…give me the talk? Threaten to…shoot me if I break your daughter’s heart?”
Hillbilly shrugged.
“Nah. Why bother? Lila would have your balls for a trophy. That should be enough of a threat to make you act right.”
“So…why are you…choking me?”
Hillbilly deliberated for a moment.
“If you’re not serious about her,” he said at last. “If this is all fun and games to you to get your dick wet, leave her the fuck alone. Is that clear? Lila is strong, and stubborn, and she can put up one hell of a fight. But I will not stand by while you break her heart for the hell of it. I don’t care how old and infirm I get. I don’t care that you’re forty years younger than me. I willbury youif you make my little girl cry.”
I nodded, signaling I understood his meaning loud and clear. Finally, Hillbilly released me. I sucked in a gulp of air.
He patted me on the back with enough force that I lurched forward a step.
“Good talk,” he said. “You better hope to God that I never repeat myself.”
I lived in a trailer park, a ten minute ride from the clubhouse. By the time I parked and trudged into my trailer, yawning, it was closing in on 4am. I draped my cut on a hook on the back of mybedroom door, brushed my teeth, and stripped down, dropping into bed.
Just as my eyes slipped closed, the door to my trailer slammed open.
I sat bolt upright, alert.
A moment later, my bedroom light blazed in my eyes. I squinted with a groan. Lila stood in the doorway, hands on her hips.
“Are you going to ask me or not?” she demanded.
I sighed and sank back against the pillows, draping an arm across my eyes.
“Ask you what? The fact that you don’t know how to knock before barging in to a man’s private home?”
