Page 58 of The Girl and the Cobra

“What? Is it wrong I’d like to know more about him since you two are spending so much time together?” As he asks, he picks up his drink and cocks a brow at his daughter, and as Mabel sighs softly beside me, therefore admitting he’s right, he takes a sip.

“What do you want to know?” I say. I’m an open book, or as much as I can be, considering most of my past I can never tell him.

Mike shrugs. “Where are you from?”

This much, at least, I don’t have to lie about. “Cypress.”

His face twists in confusion as he must think on it. “Cypress. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of it. Where is it?”

“Not close” is my answer.

Mabel must sense her father is on the offensive tonight, because she jumps in and says, “We’re from the west coast, so we’re not from around here, either.”

“Is it a big city? Small town? Or… what?” Mike needs to know more.

Memories of Cypress flash in the back of my mind, so vivid it’s like I left the city yesterday. It’s a city by every definition of the word: huge skyscrapers, traffic that’ll make you pull your hair out, especially around rush hour, and crime levels an area like this could never dream of.

I say, “Big city. Real big.”

“I know you’re twenty-six,” he says, shooting a fast glance at Mabel, as if wordlessly reminding her that I’m too old for her. “Did you go to college?”

“No. I skipped it. There was no need. I…” I pause, feeling a pang of something strange in my gut. “I was supposed to work with my parents.” Work with them, work for them, take over their position on the Black Hand once they retire. Things were supposed to be very different than what they are today.

Mike perks up at the new bit of information. “And what did your parents do?”

Shit. I guess I should’ve had answers on the ready, pretty lies to tell him to make him happy—because I sure as hell can’t tell him the truth. “They… worked in security. Personal security. It was a family business.”

“Was?” Mike picks up on that lone word. “What happened?”

I can feel Mabel staring at me, and I slowly meet her gaze as I tell her father, “They died.”Because I killed them.“And I lost everything.”Because I dared to want to change my sister’s and my fate.

“I’m sorry,” Mike tells me. “Is that how you wound up as a patient of Dr. Wolf’s?”

“Yes.” Except there was a whole lot of death and mistakes in between.

“Dad,” Mabel says gently as she grabs my hand beneath the table. “Can we talk about something else?”

Whether or not Mike sees the fact that she’s holding onto my hand, he doesn’t address it. Instead, he nods once and says,“I’m sure it’s painful to talk about. We can talk about something else… such as the fact that my daughter seems to like you an awful lot. What exactly is going on between you two? Don’t lie to me. Be straight.”

I can feel Mabel’s tension in the way her hand tightens around mine. She’s nervous. I suppose it makes sense, given her recent history and the teeny, tiny addendum that she’s never been in a relationship before and therefore never had to introduce anyone like that to her parents.

The table is awkwardly silent after that. Mabel is probably trying to think of a way to say it without blurting it out or rambling. It’s a weight I’d gladly take off her shoulders.

“Sir,” I say, adopting a serious, earnest tone, “I care about Mabel a lot. More than I ever thought I could care for someone else. I understand you’re worried about her, and you only want the best. That may never be me in your eyes, but I can promise you that I will never hurt her. She is—” I pause as I glance at her. “—everything to me. And if there’s one thing about me you should know, it’s that I never say things I don’t mean. I was raised to be very direct.”

I don’t think he was expecting something like that to come out of me, because he leans back and does nothing but stare. After a while, he glances between Mabel and I, and whatever hardened resolve he came into this dinner having cracks and fades as he visibly relaxes.

“That’s… I appreciate you saying all that, Tristan. I do. It’s just rough for me, especially because Mabel’s all I have left.” Mike forces out a smile, but I can tell it’s not quite all there. A deep-seated sadness lingers behind it, a sign of everything he’s gone through these past few months.

And I can’t blame him for any of it. Losing his son after finding out the dark, dangerous deeds he was capable of. Losing his wife shortly after. The hate and ridicule that probably camewith it. The blame, similar to the self-blame Mabel carries. And now, losing Mabel to Wolf and me. His life has been a rollercoaster lately. His mistrust makes sense.

“I understand.” I squeeze Mabel’s hand beneath the table. “I lost everything, too. Until I met Mabel, I thought my life was over—and then she came in and showed me it wasn’t.”

“He makes me feel the same, Dad,” Mabel says. “He makes me feel good.”

Mike leans forward, sets his elbows on the table as he balls up his hands into fists and leans his mouth on them. His gray eyes dart between us, blinking every few seconds. “Okay,” he says. After a few more seconds he repeats, “Okay.”

It must be a good thing, because Mabel grins at him and tells him, “I love you, Dad.”

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