Page 58 of Until Daddy

She was spending the day at the clinic. The regular nurse had an emergency and they needed Carissa to lead a discussion group on healthy children habits, or something like that. He’d been disappointed when she said she couldn’t meet him until the evening, but he understood.

They only had one more week left. Not long enough, especially since her shifts at the hospital were longer this week. She’d taken a few doubles to help out a few co-workers, and the shelter was having a booster day or something and she needed to be there twice to help give flu shots.

He could call off the time stamp.

But he wouldn’t. Forcing her wouldn’t get them anywhere. No, he’d have to wait the next week out and have the conversation. Until then, he needed to stop focusing on the possibility of losing her. How could he lose her?

Instead, he had to focus on his father.

He’d spent the week looking for a new location. Somewhere his father could build his hotel and not have to take down the shelter. But he was being a coward.

An absolute coward.

His father shouldn’t have so much hold on him. He’d worked hard to get out of his grip, but it seemed some small part of him still wanted a connection, wanted his father to at least value him as a son. Shouldn’t the fact that keeping the shelter protected was important to him mean something to his own father? Was money so much more important than his son?

“Hey, I wasn’t expecting you in today.” Garrick’s voice pulled Jamison from his thoughts.

“Yeah. Carissa’s going to be at the shelter most of the day, and I should start looking at a new project. Dark Lace wants to expand already. They want to open another club out in the suburbs. The BDSM community is pretty under-serviced out there, so it’s not a bad idea.”

“I heard about that. It might be the perfect thing to really sink ourselves into. You know, not just invest, but actually run.”

“What? You? I thought you wanted to just cash distribution checks.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t like Jade working at that ER. I never did. Some of the shit that goes on there during her overnight shifts makes me want to send an armed guard to follow her around. But unless we move out to the burbs, it won’t matter if she switches hospitals. Any hospital she works at in the city will be the same.”

“You’re talking like someone who’s going to get married and start popping out babies.”

“Fuck you.” Garrick laughed and then looked thoughtful. “It wouldn’t be the worst thing, leaving the city.”

“No. It wouldn’t.”

“Carissa still being evasive?”

“She’s as stubborn as you predicted.” Jamison offered a bottle of water to Garrick and opened one for himself.

Garrick had the decency to keep his chuckle low as he dug out his phone. As he swiped his screen, his brow furrowed. “One sec.” He turned his back and put the phone to his ear.

Checking his watch, Jamison reached for his own phone. It was four o’clock. Only a few more hours until Carissa was done at the shelter and would meet him at his place. He wanted to text her, see how her day was going, but he didn’t. She’d be busy and the sooner she finished her work, the sooner he’d get to see her.

“What? No. Absolutely not. She got herself in there, she’ll have to get herself out.” Garrick’s firm voice caught his attention. “I will not and neither will you. I’m serious, Jade, you are not helping. She’ll just have to call Jamison.”

Now his attention was completely grabbed. He didn’t interrupt the call, instead watched his friend’s muscles tense as he started pacing the room.

“If you do anything, it won’t be just a sore ass you’ll get. I’m not kidding.”

A few more words were exchanged and when he finally hung up, Jamison had a good idea of what had happened. “She went to the protest and got herself in trouble,” he stated flatly.

“Arrested. The idiot got herself arrested with about half of the other women down there. It seems they were in front of your father’s building when he arrived. He demanded to see their permit. I guess the organizer wasn’t there yet, and Barron had them all arrested. He came with police, Jamison. He arrived with them right behind him.”

“Of course he did. And did the organizer ever show?”

“She did but they’d already arrested a few dozen women.” Garrick stuck his phone back in his pocket. “According to what the flowerchild told Jade, she’s being charged with disorderly conduct. Since the permit wasn’t on the premises at the time, they can go ahead and charge them.”

Jamison looked at his watch again. “How long ago did all this happen? The protest was set for one.”

“They showed up early. She was arrested about an hour and half ago.”

He wasn’t sure where to put his anger. At his father for being such a greedy asshole, or his girl for being so damn disobedient.

---