Page 82 of If You Fight

Chapter Twenty-Five

Serena

Aknock at the front door startled me from a nap, and I answered it to see Jesse, one of my father’s men standing there. Large and dopey-faced, he looked uncomfortable, like he didn’t want to do whatever he’d been sent to do.

“Yes?”

“Uh, your father…I mean, Mr. Erickson called and said he wanted you in his office when he came back.”

As he spoke, he fiddled with the zipper on his windbreaker like a child forced to give a speech would. His hands shook too, and I wondered if he was always this fidgety or just tonight.

“Did he say for what?” I asked, knowing as soon as the words left my mouth that I’d wasted my time in even saying them. Jesse didn’t look like someone my father would keep as a confidant. His job was simple.

He was merely muscle, or as he was forced to be now, messenger boy.

Jesse looked away and shook his head. “He just said he wanted you there, miss…I mean ma’am.”

“Do you know when he’ll be back?”

He had to know that answer.

Directing his attention to the top of the doorframe, he said, “Uh, he said he’d be here in the next ten minutes.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

I closed the door to put both of us out of our misery and threw on a big white sweater that covered me to the middle of my thighs. As I headed out the door, I wondered what my father could possibly want to see me about. Even more, why did he want to see me alone? He didn’t ask to see Ryder, which was good since he was training with Floyd tonight.

My stomach twisted into knots at the mere thought of dealing with my father. I’d successfully avoided him for the past few weeks, thankful to not have to hide my rapidly growing belly since the last thing I wanted was him knowing about my pregnancy.

Tugging at the bottom of my sweater, I slowly walked down the stairs toward the door to the main house, all the while thinking of the reason why he would have sent one of his lackeys to get me. Had something happened to Janelle?

Then it dawned on me. I stopped as I turned into the main hallway, and my heart sank. He’d found out I’d gone to see my mother. Only that reason made sense. There was no other reason that explained why he’d want to see me alone.

My palms instantly grew sweaty as fear raced through me. Would he hurt her now because I’d dared to disobey him and find her on my own? A painful feeling of sadness wound its way into my chest, and I had to stop myself from crying. I’d been so sure that no one else had known what I was up to, but somehow he’d figured it out. I felt sick at the thought of her paying for my arrogance.

He’d probably found out from the private detective. I’d asked that man if he knew my father, and he’d claimed he didn’t. Did he lie? Was he actually someone my father hired himself, so he’d known all the while what I was planning? Was that why the private detective took so long to find her when there she was living less than an hour away from here?

As these thoughts raced through my mind, I made my way to my father’s office and stopped outside the door to steady myself. Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm my fears. If I called my mother immediately after talking to him, maybe it would give her enough time to get away to somewhere safe before he could send his thugs to do something horrible to her.

Silently, I prayed to God that he hadn’t already set his men on her and this meeting wasn’t to merely announce what he’d done.

“Serena, I’d know those footsteps anywhere. Come in here.”

The stern sound of his voice rattled me, but I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. “I’m coming.”

I stepped into the room and stopped dead at the sight of Ryder sitting in one of the red leather chairs in front of my father’s desk. Why had that oaf Jesse made it seem like only I had been summoned?

Stress and fear ebbed out of my body as the thought that this meeting was about my mother faded from my mind, and I smiled. “What’s going on? Why the formal request to see me, Dad?”

Extending his left arm, he offered me a seat next to Ryder. “Come. Sit down.”

I did as he said, and Ryder took my hand in his, bringing it to his lips in a kiss before lowering it onto the armrest of his chair. Surprised he’d do that in front of my father, I looked down at where our hands joined and then up at Ryder to see something strange in his eyes.

What was it? Fear? Dread? Why? What happened?

I wanted to ask him, but instead I smiled and waited for him to smile in return, but when he didn’t, I turned to face my father. “What’s going on?”

“Ryder won’t be fighting anymore for me. He’s coming back to work as security,” my father said matter-of-factly, his face expressionless.

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