Page 51

In all honesty, I had forgotten all about Dash's words about what I had been doing in my sleep. I had had more important things to occupy my mind with, and that had been lost to the back of it.

"I forgot," I mumbled ungraciously.

Quinton scoffed. "How in the hell do you forget something like that?"

It was a good question, but I didn't like his tone.

I gestured rudely at Rain with my hand and snapped, "Oh, geez, Uncle Quint, I don't know. Maybe having my long-lost father show up out of the blue did it. Or, maybe it was the cat disappearing. Or, even better, Tyson dragging me out of bed, literally." I threw my hands up in the air, dropped them to my sides quickly and leaned forward to hiss, "Why don't you take your pick."

"I don't think I like your attitude," he snapped back at me.

"Well...well..." I sputtered, searching for an appropriate response to that.

"Welllllll…." he mocked, drawing out the word and scrunching his face up into something ugly.

"Children," Rain said calmly. "Perhaps we should-"

"Well," I spat out at him. "Well,fuckyou."

Quinton's eyes grew wide and his mouth flopped open in shock.

As for me? Well, I was in a bit of shock myself and imagined my eyes were as large in my face as Quinton's were.

I placed my hands over my burning cheeks as I stared into Quinton's too wide eyes. I could not believe I had just said that to him. How horrible.

"I'm sorry," I whispered in horror.

A quiet, rusty sound filled the room and my horror filled eyes moved to Rain. His head was thrown back, and his body shook with his laughter.

"Oh my god," I whispered. This just got worse and worse. "I'm so sorry." I wasn't sure who I was apologizing to this time, Quinton or Rain.

Rain stopped laughing but his body still shook with mirth. He grinned at me, and my breath caught in my throat at how carefree it made him look, how impossibly younger it made him look when he already looked too young to be my father.

"Don't apologize to me, Ariel," he told me. "I was waiting for you to slap him. If all you're going to do is tell him to fuck off, then more power to you."

"I-"

"Don't apologize to me either, baby." Quinton muttered. "I was an asshole and shouldn't have talked to you like that." His mouth cracked open wide and a huge yawn escaped his mouth. "I'm tired."

I believed him because suddenly he looked it.

"I, too, could use the shut eye," Rain put in.

He didn't look tired. He looked alert and ready to go at any given second.

"I haven't been sleeping good," Quinton told us.

Rain smirked at him. "If you would have left me the fuck alone at night, and slept like a normal person should instead of chasing ghosts, you might not be so tired right now."

“Yeah," Quinton shot back. "And you might not be standing there beside you daughter, either."

I flinched at his harsh choice of words.

"I was coming for her," Rain declared calmly. "Eventually. I just needed to sort a few things out first and figure out a way around the Council, and then I would have showed up here."

Quinton grumbled something under his breath I couldn't hear. Rain and I were probably both better off not knowing what he'd said, I knew I was.

"What's that?" Rain asked smugly.