Page 26 of Tainted Blood

“Don’t be like that,” he scolds me with a smile.

“I’m looking forward to it as long as she’s not trying to set me up with anyone.” I give him a warning look. It’s not like she wants me to be married off, but she wants me to have a happily ever after like she has with my father, so she tries to introduce me to eligible men.

“Why? Is it because you and that MacNamara fellow are more than just acquaintances?” he asked with his thick, Italian eyebrow raised.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I refuted.

“No? So that trip to the hotel with him wasn’t anything?”

The color drains from my face. “You know about that?”

“You think I’d let my daughter go around unprotected?” He shakes his head and chuckles. I should have known I was being watched like a hawk.

I sit there for a moment trying to process that my father knows what I did at the hotel and with who. With who…with who…Damn it. He set it up. “That’s why you sent me to the club. I knew it. You wanted me to meet them.”

“I hoped you would meet one of them, but I hadn’t expected you two to behave so inappropriately. I thought he would speak to me before taking you to a hotel.”

“He doesn’t know who I really am, or at least he didn’t. I’m sure he knows exactly who I am now.” I let out a deep sigh.

“Dearest daughter, you need not be so upset. I understand you hadn’t wanted to marry a man like me, but we can’t help who we’re meant to be with, Calista,” he says, cradling my hands in his. “I want you to be happy no matter who it’s with.”

“Thank you, Dad, but I’m happy to be alone for now.” That’s a boldface lie.

“I don’t want that for you. You’re too special not to share your love and to be loved, Princess.”

“Thank you, Daddy, but I believe you’re a bit biased.”

“Maybe, but I am the boss, so I’m pretty sure my opinion carries more weight.” I smirk and hug him, shaking my head.

“I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too.” He kisses the top of my head. It takes another ten minutes before we’re there, and he tells me all about my brothers, who are getting older. My oldest little bro is now twenty. He’s already a lot to handle and ready to take up the mantle from my father when it’s time. It scares me because it’s dangerous, but it’s better to be a tiger than a deer.

We pull into my father’s estate, and my mother and oldest brother are waiting on the porch with grins. I climb out and return the grin before running up the stairs and landing in my brother’s arms. “I missed you both,” I say.

“Maybe you should move back here,” my mother says.

“I love Chicago.”

“Maybe we could branch off there,” Michael says, brows bobbing with a smirk.

“How about no,” I grumble, jabbing him in the gut with my fist.

“Fine, but you know it would be a way to protect you.”

My dad grunts and shakes his head. “No, it would be a way to start a war. It’s not like it’s unclaimed territory. It’s Chicago, for God’s sake. There are at least three families and as far as I’m aware, one is going to be disappearing.” My brows jump as I stare at my father.

“Which one?” I ask with a gasp.

“I thought you didn’t want to know anything, Princess?” he says with a bit of snark.

“That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be prepared, given I have to go back home.”

“The Espinoza Family.” A wave of relief washes over me.

“Come on—let’s have some lunch, and then we can talk about boys,” my mother says. I shake my head as my dad chuckles. “I’m never giving up,” she adds with a playful grin, hooking her arm around mine.

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