Page 43 of The Prez’s Daughter

Getting to his feet, in that moment, he had a deep regret he’d not taken the time to tell him sooner. It was the least he could have done. Doc deserved that. He didn’t deserve to have all the hiding and sneaking and bullshit.

“I trusted you,” Doc said.

Savage held his hands up. “I know what it looks like.”

“Did you prey on her? Did you take fucking advantage of her?” Within seconds, Doc had closed the distance between the two of them, and he grabbed hold of his leather jacket.

“Look, I can explain.”

“Explain it to me. Explain how you’ve been sneaking behind my back with my fucking daughter.”

Doc tossed him across the room, and he crashed into the table. There was pain, but Savage ignored it. He deserved the pain.

He got to his feet, and as Doc came at him, he didn’t fight back, not even as two blows to the face came, one right after the other. He was not going to survive if he let Doc keep pounding on him.

The rest of the club were not interfering, and he figured they were all able to fill in the blanks, and none of them looked impressed. He didn’t blame them, not any of them. He had fucked up, there was no other word for it. He had fucked up, and this was the consequence of that. Savage had known better. He knew the dangerous game he’d been playing, and now he and Charlotte had been found out. All they could do was handle the consequences.

Savage didn’t know how it happened, but they ended up outside, where there was a small dusting of snow. It was fucking cold, and he shoved at Doc, hard, trying to keep some distance between them.

“I love her,” he said, trying to stall the attack.

He could be honest with Doc, he didn’t have to hide his feelings.

“You think you can fucking lie to me?” Doc asked.

Savage grunted as he got another blow to the stomach and one under the chin. He blocked the third hit coming his way, and he growled. “I’m not lying. I love Charlotte, and I want to marry her.”

“Dude, that is not what you want to say right now,” Doc said, who also let out an audible wince. He was not helping matters, not in the slightest.

“You’re not marrying my daughter. You’re not good enough for my daughter.”

Savage was pulled against Doc and his head ended up in some kind of chokehold. He hadn’t exactly put up much of a fight, because the truth was, he did feel incredibly guilty when it came to Doc. He should have told him the truth, and because he hadn’t and he’d been the one to fuck up, these were the consequences. He accepted it. He didn’t want it, but there was nothing else he could do.

He started to lose air and he couldn’t breathe.

“Dad, stop!”

He heard Charlotte’s voice, and much to his surprise, Doc did in fact let go and allowed him to breathe, which he took full advantage of, gasping as much oxygen as he could.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked. “Dad, let him go, right now.”

“All this time, you’ve been sneaking around with him.”

“We didn’t mean to sneak, and it wasn’t like any of this was planned. None of it was. It just happened,” Charlotte said, and he couldn’t help but wince because that wasn’t exactly helpful.

“Happened. So, fucking this piece of shit just happened?” Doc asked.

He would accept that for now, because he did, after all, sneak around with his daughter, and fell in love with her.

“Piece of shit. I seem to recall you constantly being proud of him, and all he had been able to achieve. That was all you could say, and you couldn’t give a shit what Jake or I had been able to do,” Charlotte said.

“Don’t bring him into this.”

Savage pulled away, and he saw most of the club were outside to witness his humiliation.

“Don’t bring Jake into this. That’s right, I’m not allowed to talk about Jake. I’m not allowed to talk about a lot of things. Like the fact you and Mom hate each other’s guts, and had long before you got divorced, but we had to pretend to sit and make happy family. Just like you want me to be happy for you and Maeve, and I am, but you always want from me, don’t you, Dad, you never think about anyone but yourself.”

“Charlotte—”