Page 154 of Wreck Me

With a grunt, he pulled the tie off entirely, then stuffed it in his suit jacket pocket.

He caught my eye, then muttered, “She tried to get me to wear a bow tie.” He gestured at mine. “How do you handle those things?”

“Years of practice and childhood indoctrination as well.”

He chuckled, then joined me beside the wall overlooking the rest of the gardens, including a hedge maze a few feet away.

“All this time, even the business you’ve had with my wife, and you and I have never actually formally met,” he mused, while staring off into the distance.

I picked up on the subtext there. “So, what’s brought it about all of a sudden tonight?”

He turned to face me, leaning his shoulder against the wall, and I did the same, facing him head-on.

“My daughter, King.”

Hmm. “What about her?”

“After what happened with that accident, and something scaring her so much that she came running back here and gave up a career path that she loved, do you really think I wouldn’t have eyes on her? I wasn’t about to make the same mistake I did that first time, leaving her be. I know what’s happening between the four of you. That aspect is fine with me. For the most part. It’s her decision to make. But I’m also aware of your nightly operations, the fact that she’s begun to participate. I’m fully aware of Onyx, I always have been. She needs it and I know she can handle herself. However, it’s different this time with the three of you being involved there.”

“You’re asking me to pull her from the team?”

“No. She’s found some people to connect with after so long being alone. I won’t take that from her.”

I frowned. Not the response or stance I was expecting.

Frank Bennett kept to himself and that was serving him well here, especially given that he was proving exceedingly difficult to read. He was clearly well aware of that fact, given that he’d had the confidence to approach me like this.

“These nightly activities are one thing, but I don’t want that work to expand beyond that. I don’t want her pulled into your other illicit activities, your arms-running and all the other underground shit you’re knee-deep in.”

“I have no intention of pulling her into any of that.”

“Keep her head above water.”

“She’s already under my protection.”

He started, seemingly surprised by that, and looking relieved too. Although, he couldn’t accept that all the way as he stepped up close until we were nose to nose and growled, “If things go south, if you don’t do right by her, if she gets pulled in too deep, I will intervene. I’m sure you have a file on me like you do with everyone, so you’ll know how detrimental my involvement will be. I’ll be watching and if I don’t like what I’m seeing, I’ll take her from you all. Believe me, she won’t be found either should I need to go that route. Not even by you. When I hide someone, they disappear off the face of the earth.”

I gritted my teeth.

I didn’t take well to threats.

He was fucking lucky that he was Skylar’s father and I was aware of how close they were, how much he meant to her.

“Message received. I’ll see to it.”

“All right,” he said, stepping back, then blowing out a breath. “Not how I wanted our first encounter to go, but I have to protect my baby girl.”

“I understand the sentiment.”

He nodded as we both stared out over the gardens again. “Sebastian and Caleb. Your brotherhood.”

“Yes.”

“It’s admirable what you’ve done there, how you’ve guided and protected them since you were teenagers. It’s hard to know when to let go and when to pull them in tighter, isn’t it?” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “If I’d gone the latter route with Skylar back then, I might have been able to prevent everything that came crashing down. And now, this path she’s on… it’s not right for her. She’s not her mom. She simply wasn’t built that way.”

“She’s coming around. She’s recognized it now. The next step is voicing it to you both, then getting back on the right track.”

“She told you this?”

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