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“If you care for her… you’ll stop whatever the fuck you think is going on between you two.” He punches the bar. “For fuck’s sake!”
“You’re alive because of her,” I admit. “Only her. Had I not seen her hopeless face sitting on that side stoop, I would’ve kept walking, and you’d be in a bratva meat house by now.”
“You said she reminded you of your family!”
“She did! But then I realized it’s something different. She’s different.”
“Arosso, I swear to God.” The bottle cracks in his hand. “Arh.” He balls his fists, blood leaking between the fingers. “I’ll strangle you and take my chances with the Russians.”
Here we go, round two.
I ball my fists, feeling fire run through my arms like old times.
“Stop!”Quinn rushes down the stairs. “Stop it!”
She jumps in the way of her father and pushes him. “Dad, you’re bleeding.”
He grunts, eyes focused on coming after me.
“Hey!” She slaps him lightly in the face, enough to get his attention. “Dad.”
“No!”He shoves a finger in her face. “You’re not dating a fucking mobster,ever.”
“Have you learned nothing sitting down here staring at the darkness for weeks?” she asks. “’Cause I have being dragged around by the mobandpolicemen. There’s good and bad on both sides. And him? He’s our guardian-freakin’-angel. Cut off his wings and we’re all screwed.”
“You put your rescuer on a pedestal. I raised you smarter than that,” he growls, not hearing her in the slightest.
“No,” she protests.
“Yes.”He places his hand on her shoulder and forcefully drags her to the side, leaving the space between us wide open. “This ends now, Arosso. No more bullshit while I sit in a fucking basement and you put my daughter in harm’s way. Install me back into the precinct. Use me as bait, and let’s get this inevitable show rolling.”
“What, you just walk back into your office after missing for months? The ‘cartel’ just up and let you go?” I speak the obvious. How this hothead is the head of homicide is beyond me.
I’m being too harsh.
“You need to sit the fuck down and listen to your daughter.”
“Dad.This isn’t the precinct where you have an army to delegate. It’s just me and him, and you,” Quinn says. “And Sil—I mean, Arosso isnotthe problem.”
He grunts. “Seems to me he’d like it to stay this way forever.”
As ridiculous as it sounds, Iamclinging onto my last days of life, aren’t I? Could’ve figured something out and pulled the trigger weeks ago.
“That’s crazy, Dad.” She puts a hand on his belly and another on his arm to calm him.
“It’s not.” I look up. “He’s right, too.”
Her eyes go wide at me.
“I knew the answer for a while now, and just chose to delay… to spend more time with you.”
Her cheeks flush pink immediately. I love how her skin does that. It’s impossible to hide anything on that face.
“Suppose your father is right. I’m no good for you, and this can never work. So might as well get this over with.”
The words destroy me to say, but I need to say them for her to eventually move on. She’s just a kid, for fuck’s sake.
Then again, our pull is so strong. I doubt she’ll buy it.