Page 51 of The Heart

Not that I’m complaining.

Still, this can’t be normal.Can it?

I take a deep breath, squashing that obnoxious little thought stumble that’s been nagging at me all day, and focus back on shoving files into my briefcase.

A few minutes later, the office phone beside me lights up, signaling it’s from the admin desk that fronts all the offices on this floor.

“Hey, Leena. Someone is here to see you,” Sandra says.

“I don’t have any appointments today, who is it?” I ask, flipping through the notes on my desk, making sure I didn’t miss anything.

“He says he’s your dad… William Ward?” Her voice trails off. My entire body halts. “Leena? Should I…” she prompts when I fail to say anything.

“Um, send him in,” I stutter, not knowing what else to say. I quickly shoot a message to the group text I have with Sebastian and Luke and unlock the drawer that contains my loaded weapon. I start to fidget with my necklace just as the door begins to open.

My father steps into the room in a fucking suit, as if he’s the head of a large corporation and not running the underbelly of the city. He seems older than the last time I saw him, and I honestly can’t remember when that was. He chose his life of crime over me, and I’m fine with that.

I don’t need him anyway.

“Leena, honey. It’s so good to see–” he starts, but I’m not interested in hearing his fucking bullshit. If he wanted to see me, or hell, even talk to me, he could have called.

“Why are you here, Ward?” I interrupt, walking around to lean against the front of my desk, crossing my arms. He steps forward, just as the door behind him opens again and Luke and Sebastian step inside the room, looking pissed.

Good.

They come to stand on either side of me in a protective way, and I already feel better about this whole situation now that they’re here.

My father looks between the three of us, as if trying to figure something out. Then he looks annoyed that this isn’t going as amicably as he probably imagined.

“I have a job for you,” he says.

“No fucking way,” Sebastian states, crossing his arms.

“You know what’s been going on?” he asks.

This time Luke answers, “Yes. We’re aware.” His tone is clipped.

“Then you know it’s getting bad. I don’t have any extra hands to spare for this. Not anyone I trust for it, anyway. If I did, I wouldn’t be here,” my father says, getting increasingly frustrated.

“We’re not working for you again, Ward. And whatever shit the King of Hearts have with the other Cards is none of our fucking concern,” Luke says as he and Sebastian start walking toward him.

“If you’d just listen,” he pleads as they begin escorting him out of the room. They have him halfway out the door when he calls back to me.

“Leena, it’s Kathryn. They took her.”

The room goes silent.

I stare at him, my breath stalled.

“What do you mean,they took her? Whotook her,dad?”I say through gritted teeth.

But I’m terrified I already know.

The guys let go of him, closing the door as my father makes his way over to sit in one of the chairs in front of my desk. He runs a hand over the gray stubble at his jaw.

“That’s the problem. I don’t fucking know. It’s someone from the Deck, but no one is talking. All of my guys are tatted with our card, so it’s not like I can just send someone in for intel. With everyone switching sides, no one trusts anyone anymore. New members are being strip-searched for tats. My guys would be killed on site.” He shakes his head in absolute sorrow and utter defeat.

Kat has always been his favorite, it makes sense he would be this upset over her being gone. I wonder for a moment if he was ever this upset when I was taken. And if he was, why didn’t he do more to stop it? Or come and collect me sooner? Because it happened too many times for me to believe that he cared.

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