Page 13 of Freak Show

“Dad,” Briley said. “Let’s go on the lazy river with her.”

Briley pulled my hand, and we went down the stairs fast.

Finally, we made our way to the bottom, and we were heading toward where we saw her sitting at the edge of the steps right outside of the slide she’d just launched herself down.

“Did you see that?” one of the moms whispered.

Yeah, I’d seen it.

“Leave,” I snarled as I passed them. “She’s embarrassed enough, I’m sure.”

The mom who’d said it held up her hands. “Hey, I’m sorry. Your wife was hilarious, though. That video’s gonna be viral in an hour.”

I gritted my teeth.

“Hey, aren’t you Slone Day?” someone called out.

I ignored it and everyone else who started whispering about something else—i.e., me—and walked to where Caristonia was still sitting.

Briley walked up to her and sat down next to her, catching Caristonia’s hand. I walked up to the other side and took a seat.

I didn’t take her hand, even though I really wanted to.

“Um, since when did you get married, man?” another dude holding a toddler asked. “I thought you were single.” His eyes narrowed in on my daughter. “Oh, is this her child?”

I gritted my teeth.

I went out of my way to keep Briley out of the spotlight.

I’d seen what it’d done to Titus’s daughter, Annabelle, when shit had gone down with his own baby mama. Annabelle was splashed on every single gossip rag in the world.

Which fuckin’ sucked, because people were gross and disgusting.

I’d paid attention to how it had affected Titus when he found his daughter’s photo shared on one of those Saygram websites. It’d been shared by a sick fuck who had a hundred thousand followers. Every single one of those followers being a fuckin’ perv.

Titus had sued the fucker and won, but the damage had already been done. His daughter’s photo—an innocuous one of Annabelle in her diaper holding a football—had been just a fun little photo op picture with Titus’s game ball.

It’d ended up being sexualized by the perverts of the world, and Titus had been sickened—as had we all.

Needless to say, Briley was in a bathing suit today. I went out of my way to make sure that she was always covered—but I’d thought that it being some random hole in the wall water park, paired with no phones being allowed and my disguise, that it’d be enough to keep attention off of her.

“Baby,” I said softly. “Stay with Ari.”

I wasn’t sure where the nickname had come from, but it worked for me because one of the men who were crowding around asked who Ari was, and what her real name was.

I gritted my teeth, stood up and walked closer, before saying, “I’m trying to enjoy a day with my family. Please respect that.”

I turned to leave, catching the eye of Ari, and jerked my head toward our cabana.

Titus and I had gone and bought all of the private cabanas to ensure that our privacy was respected.

I hated that we fucking needed it.

Ari, sensing that I was about to lose my shit, squeezed Briley’s hand and started whispering to her. Meanwhile, I jerked my head toward the security guard that followed Titus and I around and gave him a “take care of this” look.

He stepped in behind me and stopped them before they could follow.

“Fuck,” I grumbled as I passed through the cabana.

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