Page 48 of Wreck Me

“I should ask you the same question. Or rather, I should ask my daughter. Isla, why is this lowlife in the apartment I pay for? Have you truly been keeping company with someone like him?”

“Someone like what exactly?” I prodded. “You don’t know me, and with all due respect, you have no right to make assumptions about who you think I am.”

“I don’t need to make assumptions, boy. I know exactly what type of person you are, and that’s all I need to know.”

“The type of person I am? Based on what, exactly? The way I look?”

“Exactly. You can tell everything you need to know based on how they carry themselves, and you are exactly the type of person I do not want my daughter around.”

I went to open my mouth to speak again, but the bastard cut me off by holding up his hand like he could command me with just a gesture. And unfortunately, because his actions surprised me, he did just that.

“You come from nothing and probably have some sort of parental issues. You go to Ridgewood University on a scholarship awarded to you because of your unfortunate home situation, and you work a terrible job—if you even have a job, making less money than necessary to take care of yourself, let alone take care of my daughter.”

“Father! Stop. You have no idea the type of man Caleb is, he—”

“No car. Still lives at home, unless you count freeloading off my daughter and subsequently, off me. But it ends now. You are the type of boy who will ruin my daughter's life by bleeding her dry.”

Rage boiled within my body, my hands curling into tight fists by my side. This man—Isla’s father—I’ve never wanted to bury somebody so badly. “You think you have me pegged—”

“I do,” he cut me off, reaching into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, producing his cell phone. “You have sixty seconds to get out of this apartment and out of my daughter's life. If you won’t leave, I’ll be calling my contact at Ridgewood Police Department and having you arrested for trespassing on private property.”

“You can’t do that!” Isla shouted, pulling away from me to turn toward her father.

“I can. My name is on this apartment, Isla. If I say he’s not welcome, he’s trespassing.” He glanced down at the silver watch on his wrist. “Thirty seconds,” he said with boredom.

Fuck.

My world came crashing down around me. I knew something like this would happen. Being with her was like playing with fire. But I was a pyro, so fully addicted to this woman I’d play with fire until the world burned down around me. Hell, I’d burn it down for her.

Isla crashed into me, wrapping her arms around my waist as I brought my hands to her face, rubbing my thumb against her cheek.

“Don’t leave, Caleb. He won’t actually call them. He’s bluffing.” We both knew he wasn’t, and it killed me to know I had to leave. I couldn't risk getting arrested when my dream was to join the police force and become their forensic analyst.

“I have to leave, Starlight. I can’t get arrested.” Tilting her head back, I brought my lips down on hers and kissed her deeply—audience be damned. My eyes shut as I let myself imagine I had just gotten home from work, was able to say hello to my girl and deliver the good news I had to share with her, and pretend we weren’t dealing with a tyrant right now.

“Thomas! How are you?” Isla’s father spoke, presumably into his phone, as I continued to kiss his daughter as though he wasn’t in the room. “Hey listen, I need you to send an officer to my daughter’s apartment. Yes, she’s fine, but unfortunately we have a young man trespassing…”

As he kept spewing lies to whoever he had on the phone, I leaned down to Isla’s ear so only she could hear me. “I’m going to leave, but as soon as he leaves, call me. We’ll give this a few days to blow over and move forward. Everything will be okay. I promise.”

She nodded her head as I wiped her tears away with my thumbs and leaned forward one last time to kiss her on the forehead. Releasing her, I ignored the feeling of her father’s eyes on me and left the apartment, closing the door behind me as I went.

He may have won the battle, but I planned on winning the war.

I loved his daughter, and his disdain only fueled my fire more. She was mine, and no man, especially not her piece of shit father, was ever going to keep me away from her.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

“How could you?” I seethed, turning back to my father, my cheeks still wet from the tears Caleb had attempted to wipe away. The anger I felt coursing through my body was unsettling. I had never been so upset in my life, and I had no idea how to control the rage within me that was beginning to feel like physical pain. Every morsel of my body wanted to collapse onto the floor, but I refused to let my father see the weakness I felt.

Rolling his eyes, my father gave me his back and walked over to pull a chair out from my small table. Sinking into it, he frowned when the chair creaked under his weight, and brought his leg up to cross his left foot over his right knee, relaxing back into it with finesse. His body language told me he was readying for this fight like a boxer entering the ring: full of confidence and ready to go for the jugular. “Relax, Isla. I ended my call with Chief Collier. He’s not sending officers over.”

“That’s not the point!”

He scrolled through his phone, not bothering to look at me as he spoke. “Contrary to what you may believe, Isla, I have your best interests in mind. I’m working on setting you up for instant success, so you won’t have to run my company. You can stay at home like your mother—enjoy shopping and spa days, brunch with other incredibly dull housewives. You’ll have money, and a husband to take care of the company. I don’t see why you would fight me on all I’m giving you.”

“I don’t want the life you’re trying to force me into, father. I’ve already told you what I want from my life, and that’s being a veterinarian, not running your company. I have no interest in living in a mansion or marryingBlake Bradleyand becoming a trophy wife. I want to have a career I love, a husband I love, and go on adventures with the family I’ve created. Even doing everyday things like grocery shopping and laundry would be preferable to being miserable in a life that isn’t mine. Living life as a mirror image of you and mother is not one I imagine ever having for myself.Youmade sure I would never want that.”

He stopped scrolling and snapped his eyes up on mine. “What is that supposed to mean?”

---