Page 14 of Beautiful Secrets
As soon as this Scot stops at an intersection, I can slip out of the back door of his car.
A cell phone rings through the vehicle’s sound system, almost giving me another heart attack. I hurriedly take my finger off the trigger, and breathe out a silent sigh of relief that I’d had enough focus not to fire a random shot into the car’s floor.
“Cole?” The moment my father’s voice booms through the car, my hand starts sweating against the gun’s grip.
Relax, Mika. It is not witchcraft. It is Bluetooth.
“I said give me until tomorrow,” Cole grates out.
He doesn’t sound happy. In fact, he sounds furious. What was the meeting about?
Nope—I do not care. I am leaving this life—and all the drama and politics that go with it—far behind. I don’t give a crap who this Scot is; I definitely don’t care what they met to discuss. The only thing I care about is him taking me away.
“That’s not why I’m calling,” my father says.
Oh God.
“Then what?” Cole snaps.
“Do you…” Dimitri clears his throat. “Do you have my child?”
For a moment, the only sound is the hum of the SUV’s tires against the road. “Come again?” Cole says.
“My…My child. Do you—”
Cole barks out a laugh. “Why the fuck would I take your kid?”
I bristle.
A kid? I’m twenty-six!
There is interference on the line before my father’s voice comes back.
“…just turn around and we can sort this out. We will talk. Man to man.”
“Look, Dimitri, I don’t know what game you’re playing, but I’m not biting.”
Beep.
Did the Scot—Cole—just hang up on my father?
A cold, heavy ball forms in the pit of my stomach and drags it to my feet.
This is bad.
“Crazy fuck. And I’m the one that got sent to the fucking asylum?”
What is he talking about? Oh God. Was my father responsible for having this man committed? I’ve never heard of him doing something like that before. Was it some form of punishment?
The tires hum. I do my level best to stop breathing.
“Why would he…?”
There comes a faint noise from the driver’s seat.
My chest grows tight.
It comes again, louder.
