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God help me.

All that dark, disheveled hair and the scruff of his beard. The absolute disregard for what just happened between us. It all crashes into me with the force of a brick to the chest. Then he turns, meets my eye, and says, “You also lost. So…”

“So?”

“Consequences.”

And then he leaves me.

I want to shower and put on layers to annoy him, but I don’t. There’s no time. I’ve learned that Callahan’s a man of hisword and he’s already annoyed. I don’t want to add salt to the gaping wound.

I lied to him, which part of me knows was pointless and stupid. I should have told him I met Dad alone. But that’d be weirder than him and Mom seeing me for lunch together.

At least then it could have been written off as Mom’s idea.

I shiver when I remember the hard, cold eyes of the man who rushed past me to get into the restaurant, like I was in his way.

Dad and Callahan both have me jumping at freaking shadows.

And Callahan’s reaction when he met me outside the house pretty much screamed he didn’t believe my bullshit story.

But if I’d have told him it was just Dad I met?

Callahan would know something was up.

I have to tell him.

But how?

How the hell do I tell Callahan what Dad said?

I can’t. I don’t even really know what he was really asking when he mentioned the whole thing about taking sides since he was so evasive.

My husband would interpret it in the way my heart is, and then…

Callahan will kill him.

I bite down on my lip and dial my father’s number.

Unusually, he picks up almost immediately. “Lucia?”

“Dad…” I don’t have much time for this call, but I need to tell him. “I can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

I close my eyes. “I can’t betray Callahan.” Pausing for a second, I gulp down a breath. “You raised me to be a real wife, a dutiful one, and now I am, so I have to be loyal to him. AndDad, I know I have to be loyal to you, too. The best way for that is for you both to talk and to stick to your deal.”

“And if he turns against me?”

“He won’t.” I don’t even need to think about that. Callahan’s hard but fair. I live with him, I see it. Roles reversed… I’d like to believe they’d be the same in that way. And that Dad would be loyal, too.

“He wanted to strike a deal with you and he came to the table with what you wanted. I know he’s a man who lives by his word, and the fact he put it all in writing means you can trust him. Don’t you think?”

Dad doesn’t say anything for a while; in fact, for so long that I’m tempted to hang up or panic. But then he chuckles.

“Good, good, you passed the test,” he says. “And I know family comes first, but loyal to us both, yes… yes, that’s the right answer. You’re the glue holding it all together, Lucia.”

I breathe a silent sigh of relief. “Is Mom?—?”