Page 15 of Apex of the Curve

I could hear Amber’s smile in her voice. “Absolutely! You want to leave a number or does she have it?”

“She should have it, but just in case…” I rattled off my cell.

“Okay.” She repeated it back to me.

“That’s correct,” I said.

“Alright Mr. Fenris, I have this all down and she’ll get back to you as soon as possible, okay?”

“Alright, thanks,” I said.

“Of course!”

The line went dead and I let my gaze wander over all the fine dishes and shook my head. This was way too much.

“First time anyone you brought home from Mitch’s like that has done anything like this,” my dad said coming fully into the kitchen.

“I see you wasted no time,” I said with a grin and he grinned back.

“It’s good shit, better ‘n’ what we got.”

“True that,” I said nodding.

“Right, so get to work, boy.”

I laughed a little and helped clear cabinets and hand washed the new dishes before putting them away.

“She’s got talent if she made these,” my dad observed.

“I don’t think it’s an ‘if,’ looks like she runs a whole damn pottery studio.”

“Yeah? Nice.”

“What’d you think of her?” I asked my dad, and he raised a bushy steel gray eyebrow at me.

“Seems like a lost soul,” he said carefully. “Seems like a good girl.” He eyed me equally carefully as when he’d spoken. When I didn’t say anything, he asked me, “Why, what you thinkin’?”

“Nothing, Pops. I don’t know…”

He harrumphed and shook his head, “Your mom was a good girl when I met her and I broke her damn heart.” He slid up onto one of the breakfast bar’s tall chairs and wrapped his hands around the big mug he’d pilfered from the pile before I could even get a look at all of it.

“You went to prison,” I said with a sigh. “Mom knew what she was signing up for when she married you,” I reminded him.

“Did she, though?” he asked and stared off into nothingness.

“Do I think she had herself convinced you’d never get pinched for nothing? Yes. Do I think she fell apart when you did?” I remembered. I’d been about seven, my sister nine or ten. It’d been ugly – Mom left scrambling, but a lot of that had been her fault. The club had tried to take care of us, but she’d blamed them as much as she’d blamed my pops, so she wouldn’t take their money.

“Shit fell apart,” my dad said in a tone that brooked no argument.

“Yeah.” I nodded a little sadly. “Yeah, they did.”

My dad had served eight years, and my sister had headed off to college right before he’d gotten out. Mom wouldn’t let my ass see him at first, but then Lacy had died and she couldn’t stop me if she wanted to.

My pops had been the path to revenge, but I’d carried most of it out on my own.

“You want my opinion, or don’t you?” he asked, and I shook my head.

“Naw, man, I don’t.”

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