Page 28 of Fire & Frenzy

“What kind of bad shit?” I pressed.

He snorted. “Nice try.”

“It was worth a shot,” I grumbled. “So…you were the complete opposite of me.”

“Pretty much.”

“And the complete opposite of the country club boy you used to be, huh?”

“Yep. I figured if I was going to piss off my old man, I needed to really piss him off. He always took it personally. Made it all about him. Like I changed my entire life so I wouldn’t be anything like him.”

“Was he right?”

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “My life wasn’t bad. But it didn’t fit, you know? Dad wanted me to join the family business and I didn’t really have any interest in that.”

“What was the family business?”

“Finance.” He grimaced. “He wanted Crawford to become Crawford and Son. I’m a junior.”

“No,” I said in feigned shock.

“It’s true. Clinton Crawford, Junior.”

“I can feel the weight of your father’s aspirations on you.”

“Heavy, huh?”

“Sounds like it.” I tied my hair up into a messy ponytail and fixed it with the tie around my wrist. “So, you’re really not going to tell me a thing about this bad shit…”

“No use talking about it. I’m not involved in it anymore. The club isn’t, either. We’re legit now. That’s all I can tell you—so no more questions about it.” He pinned me with a stare.

“Ah, there it is.”

“There what is?”

I chuckled. “The dad voice.”

“Ha.” He shook his head. “It’s why I asked Tavy if she’d consider coming out to Waco for a while. I wasn’t in her life when she was a kid because of the club shit. Now there’s no more shit. I don’t have to worry about her getting hurt.”

“I see. The invitation did seem to come out of nowhere. I didn’t like you when she told me that she was moving to Waco to be near you,” I said in a playful tone.

“I’m surprised she agreed to come,” he admitted. “I thought for sure she still held a grudge against me for not being there for most of her life.”

“Well, I guess it’s going to work out okay.”

“For all of us.”

I nodded. “For all of us.”

Chapter 9

We were an hour outside of Amarillo when the rainstorm hit. It was just past dusk as dark thunder clouds tore through the sky before opening up into a torrential downpour.

The windshield wipers were on their fastest speed, but it barely did enough to keep the glass clear. I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of us.

Smoke gripped the steering wheel as he drove, and all of a sudden, we began to hydroplane. Tavy’s hitched up car fishtailed behind us.

I braced against the door and my heart leapt into my throat.

---