Page 83 of Broken Daddy

Then he lumbered to his feet and she tensed. She wasn’t sure what sort of mood he was in, but experience had taught her that when he came home after days away he was generally in a foul one.

So she watched him warily as he moved toward her.

“What are you doing? What are you looking for? Where have you been?” she asked.

“You need to shut the fuck up,” he told her, jabbing a finger in her direction.

God, she felt terrible. Her head was swimming and she needed to lie down before she fell down.

But first she had to work out what the hell to do about Derick.

Call me when he returns.

Vega’s words swam through her mind. But what did he want with her father? And what would he do if she did call him?

Nothing good, she was certain.

But what happens if you don’t call him?

What if he hurts you instead?

Better Derick than you.

Oh God. What to do?

“Derick, where have you been? People have been here looking for you.”

“Who?” He rushed to the curtains, carefully pulling them back. “Who has been looking for me?”

Did he think they were out there right now? What the heck had he done?

What sort of trouble was he in? And how was that going to come back on her?

Oh God.

Maybe she should call Vega, perhaps she could be done with Derick once and for all.

But how would she live with that on her conscience?

“Vega.”

“What the fuck? Vega? Shit.” Her father looked terrible. He had bloodshot eyes and his shirt was covered in stains with old sweat stains in the pits.

God. He stunk so bad that she could smell him from here.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing! I didn’t do fucking anything! Their games are rigged is all. Rigged. I was winning for a start, but then I don’t know what happened . . . my luck changed. No, it’s their fault. They did it. They got me hooked and they rigged it so they won.”

“You’ve been gambling? With what?”

“I have to pay them. Went to Mars, but he wouldn’t help. Said he’d already given me a loan and because of Rohan, he would give me more time to pay him back. But that he wouldn’t lend me anything more. Can you fucking believe that? Rohan is one of his . . . and he couldn’t give his old man an extra loan?”

“You w-went to Freddy?” she whispered.

She didn’t like Freddy much. He’d always had this weird vibe about him. But Rohan insisted that they were friends. And she’d been grateful to him for paying for Rohan’s lawyer.

Not that things had worked out