Page 41 of Catch Him

“Just. Answer. The. Question.”

He scowled at her. “Yes, I loved you. Love you now. I’m your father, for pete’s sake.”

Sinead nodded. “Then you need to understand me right now. If you ever loved me, if you ever cared if something bad happened to me, then I need you to be my dad right now.”

He stood and Sinead was reminded of her father’s size. Bill O’Hara was a big man. Older but still thick through the chest, big beefy arms. It was how he got people to give him money.

Bill O’Hara was the very definition of … or else.

“The Dress Guy hurt you?” he growled.

“Yeah, he hurt me.”

“You need me to take care of him?”

She smiled, something she didn’t think she would ever do again. But her dad was standing in front of her, asking her if she wanted him to go beat up David Whitmore. Then she had the bizarre thought that it would please David to know her father was sticking up for her.

“No. You were right. Something that looks too good to be true… is.”

“Fucking asshole. Seriously, tell me where he is and we’ll have words.”

“He’s gone. He’s in the wind.”

Her father nodded.

“I’m suspended,” she said. “Probably going to get fired.”

“He played you?” her father asked, clearly surprised.

She shook her head. “No. Heplayedme.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

Do? There was nothing to do. This whole time she knew the pain was coming. But she thought it would be a poignant pain. A heart-aching pain. Something that would eventually melt into fond memories and the nostalgia of a good time in her life.

She didn’t think it would be this.

Emptiness underneath anger.

“I’m going to go to bed.”

For a few days. Weeks. Months. Then she would see about the rest of her life.

Her dad grunted and sat down again, his eyes turned to the TV again. “If it were me and I gotplayedand lost my job because of it? I would do something about it.”

“Good night, Dad. And… thanks.”

“Yep.”

Sinead made her way back to her bedroom, left her clothes behind and crawled under the covers.

Do something about it.

If she could do something about it, what would she want to do?

Pain. She would want to inflict the pain she was feeling on David.

She would want to see his suffering and know she was the one who caused it. The anger inside her burned. A blue flame of heat that flickered.