Page 136 of Blade

Micah tightened his hold on me, kissing my shoulder.

“What I kept from all of you was what he said during the attack. What he was saying made no sense. I thought he was just acting crazy.”

“Take your time, sweetheart,” King allayed.

“He kept saying ‘you owe me, you belong to me, she said I could have you. We had plans, you screwed it all up’.And something about getting the land back. He wasn’t making sense. So, I just put it out of my mind,” I explained, shrugging my shoulder.

“Today, he said the same things, only they were a little different.‘I came to collect what should have been mine. She told me I could have you. She said we would get married, we would have babies, that would connect us forever. And there was nothing that asshole could do. She lied to me. She took you away’.He said because ‘he had me’the plan wasn’t fixable.She called him when I came back and told him I was still a virgin and that he could have me if he hurried.”

I looked down at my hands and my cheeks heated.

Letting the men in the club know I was a virgin was one thing, but saying it in front of my dad was mortifying.

I felt Micah’s hand on my back.

“That was when I had my suspicion. That whoevershewas knew who Micah was to me. Then he confirmed it.”

I looked at my dad. He was leaning forward, his elbows on the table. His hands clasped in front of him. His gaze focused on the table.

“He said‘She told me once the old bat died, we could get the land back. We’d sell it and everything else she had would be ours. We could leave this place, get away from him for good’.That was when I knew for sure.” I reached over, placing my hand on my dad’s arm. “That he was talking about my mom.”

Silence surrounded us.

Nobody moved, no one said a word.

King, Micah and I had already heard him threaten my mom once. I didn’t know if the others knew what my dad was capable of. Despite only knowing him for a short time, I could see what he was capable of when it involved me.

“Are you sure, sweetheart?”

Without looking away from my father, I nodded. “I’m sure.”

Keeping his gaze fixed on the table, my father rasped, “Ghost, what have you learned?”

Ghost looked up at King. When he nodded for him to go ahead, he confirmed what I suspected.

“Beck is right. Grant told us everything. This went back to when they were in high school. Connie devised a plan once Grant came to town. It seems Grant’s grandparents own a large chain of hotels. His family is worth millions.”

I watched my father unclasp his hands, balling them into fists.

“From what Grant said, Connie had a plan for Grant and Beck to end up together, putting them in line to inherit all that money. He didn’t know why she cut the plan and moved away, but she got in contact with him again when she found out Beck was coming back here.”

“She knew I was here,” Micah muttered into my neck. “She never wanted us together, even before we were together. She never wanted us to be friends.”

“No, she didn’t. After you died, she was awful. She always insinuated that your family deserved what happened.”

“Well, she wasn’t wrong regarding my father.”

“What else?” my father growled.

“Connie helped him get away from the hospital,” Jingles told us. “He also said the land was here, that the clubhouse is on. She wasn’t happy Willow sold it to us. Connie wanted it back so that Grant could approach his grandparents about building a hotel resort here in Diamond Creek.”

“She is nothing but a money grubbing, gold-digging whore. I would wish I’d never met her, except then I wouldn’t have my daughter.” My father looked up at Jingles. “Did he say where she was?”

It was Ghost who responded this time, “He said he didn’t know where she was staying, but that she couldn’t be far.”

“Ok, big brother, how do you wanna handle this?” King directed to my dad.

He looked up at my uncle, and I swung my eyes back and forth between the two. Neither said a word, but I knew they were communicating.

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