Page 33 of Vicious

No one said a damn word as I left the room, heading for the outside. I needed sunshine. I needed to feel the fresh air on my face as the sun soaked into my skin. Mainly, I needed to breathe. Walking towards the pier, I found a small crate and sat on it, watching the murky harbor water wave in the breeze. Sitting there, I wondered what it would be like to be a fish swimming in the vast ocean. Did they worry about anything or did they just swim free without a care in the world?

“She was protecting you. She never wanted you to know all this Linsey. She just wanted you to have the life you dreamed of. She loved and admired how carefree you were. She lived vicariously through you, dreaming that one day she could be just like you. That’s all she wanted. A life of her own. To be free.”

“I loved her, Fury. I would have helped her.”

“She didn’t want you tainted with this shit. If this day ever came, she asked me to tell you something. She wanted me to tell you to never give up and to believe in yourself. Your sister admired you Linsey. You were all she talked about when we were together. She wanted to be free like you. To live her life as she wanted.”

“You weren’t just the sperm donor, were you?”

“No, I wasn’t. I loved your sister. I wanted to marry her, but life got in the way.”

“The girls look like you. They have your hair and smile.”

“I know. Davina sent me pictures.”

Getting to my feet, I turned and faced the man who should have been my sister’s husband and said, “You are their father, Fury. They deserve to know you. You need to know them. If not for yourself, then for Davina. She trusted you with the biggest decision of her life. Davina wanted me to believe in myself, well I strongly believe in this. Those girls will know their father if it’s the last thing I do.”

Fury gulped and nodded. “Thank you.”

Thirteen

Vicious

It was late by the time I got Linsey back to the penthouse. She was mentally exhausted. All the information she learned today was too damn much for her. All I wanted to do was get her home and put her into a hot bath so she could relax.

The fucked-up part was that we never got through all the information. There was still so much she didn’t know and needed to. Mainly, she needed to know that someone on the board was behind the hit on her. I had gotten word from Matrix that though Peter Blackwell and his mother Agatha were still causing problems in Colorado, her cousin Alex had mostly shut them down. The only thing she had to worry about them was Davina’s will, which was being contested in the courts. I had no worries in that regard. I knew Alexander Galveston and his sister Sarah were on top of everything. Soon, that part of Linsey’s worry would be over.

“Dad?”

Looking over my shoulder, I saw my daughter standing there. Smiling, I reached out for her and sighed when she hugged my neck hard. “What are you doing awake, Elizabeth?”

“Are we going to live here now?”

“Yes. Is that okay with you?”

“Will Linsey and the babies live with us?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Good. I like Linsey.”

I chuckled. “I like her too. Tell me about your new school. Do you like it?”

My daughter shrugged her shoulders. “It’s okay. I liked it better when Linsey taught me. She’s way smarter than some teachers at the school.”

I chuckled at that. My girl was a smart cookie. I knew it from the moment I first looked into her eyes. Knew my girl was going somewhere, going to be someone. Never could put one over on my girl. “I know you prefer Linsey, baby, but right now, Linsey has some stuff she’s going through. She’s going to need our help. Think you can deal with those subpar teachers until we get Linsey squared away?”

My girl sighed. “I guess, but make it fast, Dad. My science teacher doesn’t even know the chemical element for water.”

“I’ll do my best. Now get on up to bed. You have school tomorrow.”

“Love you, Dad.”

“Love you too, baby.”

Sitting in the darkness, I watched the flames spark and dance as I worried how much more Linsey could take. My woman was strong, but was she strong enough to handle what needed to be done? Part of me wanted to walk into the boardroom and kill every motherfucker and just be done with it. The fact of the matter was that Duchene International was a privately owned company, which had its pros and cons. The biggest pro was that Linsey could do whatever the hell she wanted. She technically owned the company. The con was that if she did what she wanted, she could lose everything.

I wasn’t happy with how her family kept shit from her. As the spare, she was required to know everything about the company. Only she didn’t. Not only did her family keep shit from her, but the board as well. It was like she was being attacked from three different directions. The board, her family and the company. My woman needed help. She needed information fast and there was only one person I knew who could get it and get away without being caught.

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