Page 62 of Honey Sugar
“Ivy Lynn!” Uncle Beau’s rough voice made me jerk away from Ivy’s soaking wet pussy and scramble to my feet.
What the fuck was he doing there?
Ivy’s olive green eyes went wide as she hopped off the counter and grabbed the first thing her hands came in contact with. She pulled my shirt on and I shook my head at her. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and snatched it off throwing it to me then she put her dress on. I nodded and put my own shirt on. The quiet shuffle in the kitchen was done in record time.
“Ivy Lynn!” Beau called out once more. His footsteps weren’t staggered or clumsy so he was sober. I glanced at Ivy while she straightened her wild curls.
“I thought you locked the door,” I quizzed.
“I thought I did too.” We made sure Uncle Beau didn’t have a key to the store. “I must have only locked the front. I was going to lock the back when someone pulled me into the kitchen and…”
“I know you heard me calling you,” Uncle Beau finally found us in the kitchen. Thankfully, we were fully clothed and feet away from each other. I was by the chiller and Ivy was near the counter. The same counter I had her legs spread on top of a few minutes ago. The image was white hot in my mind. Her taste was still fresh on my tongue too.
“I’m all the way back here in the kitchen getting ready for tomorrow. I didn’t hear anything,” she said.
“Titan, I didn’t even see you in the corner. What the hell are yall in here doing alone with all the lights out?” His thick brows fell low on his forehead as he stared at us. His green eyes swung from me to Ivy.
“Getting ready to go home,” I said, stretching my arms above my head. I tried to look Ivy over to make sure I didn’t leave any marks on her. Beau seemed to have hawk eyes when it came to bruises on his daughter’s skin. It was the only time he cared about her at all.
“Something ain’t right in the air in here.”
I walked over to him and folded my arms across my chest. “What’s not right in here is the fact that you walked in after business hours. Did you come in through the back door?” I asked.
“It was unlocked so you two must not have been paying attention. Where the fuck is my money, Titan?”
“Yourmoney? Oh, I don’t know. Where’syourjob?”
“Don’t fucking play with me. I know y’all have been making money since Liv died. The whole damn town shows up here every day. I want my money. Honey Sugar is just as much mine as it was Liv’s.”
“No, it wasn’t and no it isn’t. Honey Sugar belongs tomenow and I’m going to run it how I see fit, Daddy.” Ivy swallowed back her nerves but she still stood up for herself. I moved to the side and let her do her thing. I had a tendency to shield her from everything but she was getting her wings now so I had to let her fly.
“You’re going to give me the money like your mama did.” He glared down at her and it pissed me off. He was intimidating her and I knew she was terrified.
Her father had been terrorizing her all her life. When she was little, she wasn’t afraid of the Boogey Man or monsters under her bed. She was scared of Beau. To see her staring him down was amazing. I knew she was shaking down to her bones but she didn’t show it. It was something only I picked up on.
I knew her inside and out now.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been that close to her but it couldn’t be helped.
“No, I’m not. You don’t do anything to help out in the shop. I’m not handing money over to you.”
“I’m your daddy. You’ll do exactly what the hell I tell you to. I bet you if whatever boy you’re sniffing around behind told you to give him money you’d hand it over but you deny your own daddy.”
“TheboyI’m sniffing around behind has his own money. He’d never ask me for anything. He’s not you. If you want money then you need to get a job, Daddy. Mama told me to keep you out of the business. That’s what I’m going to do.”
“So, you can leave now,” I said. I was tired of the back and forth. Uncle Beau was going to have to find another way to get his drug money because Ivy wasn’t giving him shit.
“I’ll take you to court over this shit, Ivy. I don’t give a fuck if you’re my daughter or not. You’re keeping money from me that’s rightfully mine. If that’s how you’re going to play it then I won’t let you stay in my house on my property. I’ll have Liv exhumed so help me…”
My nostrils flared at his threat. I wanted to see him try to have my fucking aunt pulled out of the ground. I would shoot him where he stood. “You’re going to do what?” I snapped, taking a step toward him. I was fine with letting Ivy fight her own battles but I wasn’t fine with Beau throwing around the kind of threats he was. They were vile scare tactics and he knew goddamn well he wasn’t going to go through the trouble.
“You’d put me out and have my mama dug up because I won’t give you money that you have no claim to? You act like she wasn’t your wife.” The disgust in Ivy’s voice was thick. It fought for space in her throat with sadness. I wanted to shield her from it all. She didn’t deserve to feel that way.
“I’ll do whatever I have to do,” Beau said with a scowl. “You think you’re grown. You think you’re calling the shots. Let’s see how many shots you call when you don’t have anywhere to live. You gonna stay holed up in the apartment above the sweet shop forever? You and Titan?” He laughed at the thought. Uncle Beau must not have known about Aunt Liv’s will though. She left everything that once carried her name on it to Ivy. That included all the land and the house on Bayou Drive.
Everything was hers.
I stepped forward and shoved Beau. I’d had enough. Fury flared to life in his eyes as he shoved me back. I was trying not to hurt him but I had no idea why. He was a monster and I had no love for him in my heart. I guess all my love was for Ivy. I knew even though she loathed him, a part of her still saw him as her father. That meant there was still some modicum of love in her heart for him.
