Page 24 of Dagger

Freya’s lips pursed. She studied me for a moment, obviously thinking about her next move.

Our relationship had always been fraught. I’d wrapped my only daughter in cotton wool and treated her like spun gold because she was precious to me. I mostly kept her out of club business because I wanted her free and clear of the danger that came with it. My girl always thought I favored the boys, but she was wrong. From the first second I held her in my arms, I knew she was special.

And I was right.

Freya was beautiful, intelligent, and if she had a dick, would probably be runnin’ the club already. She was quick, super smart, and could wrap most people around her little finger.

My daughter’s eyes suddenly dipped, and she glanced at something to her left. “Umm—”

“Hi, John,” a Stevie Nicks-type voice sung from off-camera.

I cursed under my breath as I watched my ex-wife appear on the screen and sit next to Freya. “Christ.”

“He won’t help you,” Adele teased good-naturedly. “He gave up on you a long time ago.”

“Have you been listening in?” I demanded.

“Yep,” she confirmed. “You’re lucky I let Freya talk to you at all after the way you treated her the last time we saw you. If you’d have called from your cell phone instead of Kit’s, I would’ve made her ignore it.”

“Christ,” I muttered again, feeling suitably chastened.

Kit laughed. “How’s the doghouse? Is it cold in there?”

Bowie shook his head, smiling. “Poor bastard.”

“So, you and Elise finally got your shit together, huh?” Adele glanced at Freya. “Maybe now he’ll lighten up a bit instead of sucking all the joy out of the room. I swear his aura’s turned black lately, probably because of the shitty way he’s been treating people.”

I heaved out a frustrated sigh.

Adele was a good woman, but she was away with the damned fairies half the time. God knows how we lasted as long as we did. We had fuck all in common except the kids, though if anything was going to keep us together, our offspring would do it.

“Wouldn’t say we had our shit together, Dell, not yet anyway,” I explained. “We got shit to discuss, which is why I wanted this convo. Want everyone to know my intentions and hopefully get on board. No more secrets, no more lies, no more in-fightin’.”

“Well, maybe you should stop causing all the damned problems, then,” she retorted, turning to Freya. “At least now he’s extracted his head from his ass I won’t have to entice everybody to New York for Christmas.” Her face came back to study mine. “Tim told me to buy everyone plane tickets and rent a big Airbnb for us all. There was no way I would’ve come to the clubhouse while you were behaving like a miserable bastard.”

Kit let out a whistle.

“Oh shit,” Bowie muttered.

My gut stabbed painfully. “Christmas is mine.”

Adele waved her hand dismissively. “Codswallop.”

I reared my head back. “Huh?”

“It’s my word of the day,” she informed me. “It means bullshit.”

I couldn’t help grinning at my ex-wife. “You’re a nut.”

Adele’s stare softened. “You may have told me that before, once or twice.” Her bright blue eyes flicked between mine. “Have you gotten over your meltdown now?”

My lips quirked. “Yeah. Sorry, Dell.” My stare slid to Freya. “Sorry, Frey.”

“You have to apologize to Colt, too,” Freya said haughtily. “What you did to him was shitty, too, Dad.”

A sigh escaped me, and I ran a hand over my face. “I’ll accept him, Frey, because you’ve chosen him as your ol’ man, but he still lied to me, and you both sneaked around. Should I have gone as far as I did with the punishment? I guess that’s debatable, but I won’t apologize. He knew the consequences of bein’ with you, and he also knew the consequences of lyin’ and goin’ behind my back. The best I can offer is to draw a line under it and move forward.”

Freya’s eyes narrowed. “You’re so stubborn.”

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