Page 25 of Bound by Family
“If I want to.” Booze doesn’t sound half-bad at the moment.
“When I met your mother, I held a gun to her head.”
“I know this.”
“But what you don’t know is that I claimed her the moment our eyes locked. Come hell or high water, that woman was going to be mine. I didn’t give her a choice. Of course, she could have beat the hell out of me, or at least tried.” He chuckles. “The point is, when you know, you know. But you’re young and have your whole life ahead of you. You sure as shit don’t need to be settling down anytime soon.” My father latches his fingers and places his hands behind his head as I take in his words.
I have no plans of settling down. It was just a feeling I had when she was near me. It doesn’t mean shit.
“I’m not.”
“But, you find the one that makes your life whole, better not fuck that up. That’ll be your biggest regret. Young or not, I taught you to think about everything—every angle.” I let his words penetrate deeply. “Enough of this heart to heart shit. Get some shut eye. We’re leavin’ at eight.”
“Got it.”
My father rises from the chair, stretches, then heads to the door. “And, son?”
“Yeah.”
“Life will lead you where you need to be, or you need to man up and lead it where you want it to go.” He turns toward the door and walks out, his message remaining in my thoughts.
CHAPTER NINE
BRISTYL
Stomping out of my office, my temper is on fire, and Stone is my target. The mechanic shop is fully stocked with everything one would need, and it’s the top place my brother will be. I’ve had enough of his shit. Hell, I’ve had enough with a lot of things; he’s just on top of the list. Lucky him.
“Stone!” My voice is loud, garnering the attention of pretty much everyone in the place, including my father, but that doesn’t stop me.
“What?” he barks back, wiping his hands off on a greasy towel. The classic Plymouth Barracuda is looking nice, but I’m not telling him that. He’s been restoring it for ages, working on it whenever he has down time.
“I fucking told you to give. Me. The. Receipts! I’m missing twelve! Twelve, Stone! I’ve had it. I keep asking and keep asking, and do you do what I ask? No! You completely ignore me to the point that, right now, I have to go to the bank and straighten the books out, because they don’t want to do that many over the phone!”
I’m fully aware I’m losing my shit, but there’s been a lot on my mind the past couple of weeks. The main one: a man who shouldn’t be in my head, but won’t go away and leave me alone. Instead, he invades my dreams. He’s always there. When I close my eyes, when I take a shower—hell, when I drive to work! I’m losing my mind. It has to be the case, because this shit isn’t right.
Add in Leah calling me four, five, six times a day, apologizing for what happened, even though I told her it’s all over now. She’s disconnected her online dating thingy and even changed her phone number to make sure Nick can’t find her. Thank God she didn’t give him her address and faked a last name. At least she was thinking there. TheI’m sorry’sare getting old. Like, way old.
Then this damn bruise on my leg. I didn’t think it was that bad, but the asshole really grabbed me hard, leaving his handprint that turned a greenish purple. Wearing jeans for a week to cover it in this warm weather hasn’t made me happy, either, but no way will my father or brothers find out. It’s over and in the past.
Mr. Draker finished what he said he would, but he didn’t put in enough shutoffs, so now he has to go in and redo it. I mean, how fucking hard is it? Six machines, twelve shutoffs. Six hot, six cold. Done. If I knew how to solder a pipe, my ass would be over there fixing it myself.
Everything is just piling on top of each other, and these receipts have put me over the edge. It feels like I can’t catch my breath.
“Calm down, Bristyl,” Stone snaps, pissing me off more.
“Do you want to go to the bank and sit with that mean teller who has the personality skills of a gnat? Want to sit across from him and go line by line on the credit statement? Because if you do, I’ll be more than happy to let you,” I fire back.
“I have the receipts, just calm your shit.”
“All of them?”
“Yes. What’s crawled up your ass lately? The past week or two, you’ve been a royal bitch.”
My skin prickles. I can feel the top on the kettle about to blow, allowing the steam to rupture.
Several guys around Stone’s car stop to stare at us, but I’m too pissed off to give a shit. The fucks have all gone.
“You …” I take a step closer to Stone, getting in his face.
