Page 19 of Caution to the Wind

My heavy bootsteps rang through the halls of the already empty school. Teenagers didn’t loiter long after the bell, and only a few stragglers remained in the hall. I was just down the corridor from the principal’s office when a pair shootin’ the shit at an open locker caught my attention.

“You make it worth my while, maybe I’ll tell you.” A snot-nosed teen was leerin’ down at a dark-haired girl, his expression filled with teenage lecherous intent. One of his hands was perched on the girl’s ass, squeezin’ like he’d never touched a woman before.

“I can do that.” The purr was practiced, breathy and filled with sexual promise.

It surprised me a teenager knew how to talk like that.

“Just tell me I can finally meet him,” she continued in that husky voice. “You’ve been keeping me on the line for months. I want to meet him.”

The guy laughed, his dark eyes dartin’ to me as I drew closer so the next time he spoke, it was in a whisper, “What’s a girl like you doing dealing anyway, huh?”

“Maybe I need to make some extra cash.”

He snorted. “Your daddy’s CEO of Barrington Grouse Oil. You don’t need shit.”

Shock skittered down my spine.

That breathy little bimbo wasMei.

Before I could curb my baser instincts, I stalked toward the kid and moved her away from him with one palm curled around her shoulder. She spun into me, a snarl marrin’ her small red mouth ’til she saw it was me.

And then she went white as a ghost.

Which was fittin’ ’cause I was about tokillher.

“Get lost,” I bit out at the startled, pimply-faced teen who thought he was some hot shit drug dealer.

He tripped on his own feet in his haste and banged into the open locker. I watched as he fell, then popped to his feet, looked back at me in panic, and broke into a sprint only to trip again ’cause his fuckin’ pants were ridin’ too low.

Only when he’d finally flown out the doors to the back field did I train my furious gaze back on the reason I was even in the school in the first place.

Mei stared back at me, her composure gathered enough that she had the audacity to jerk her chin in the air righteously.

“You shouldn’t scare students like that, Henning.”

Flames of molten fury licked at my heels. My teeth ground so hard pain radiated through my jaw.

Usin’ the hand still curled around her shoulder, I pushed her with controlled force up against the lockers and planted my other hand just under her throat between her delicate clavicles. She was so slight, I could’ve pinned her entire body there for hours without tirin’. Realizin’ that just made me even angrier.

She was so delicate, so young. Didn’t she understand how fragile that was? How fuckin’ precious?

“I’ll scareyouwhenever I damn well please,” I growled, usin’ all of my six-foot-four height as a tool to overwhelm her. “What the fuck do you think you’re doin’ with some lowlife drug dealer, Mei Zhen? Please fuckin’ tell you me you aren’t involved in that shit.”

I only used her full first name when she’d pissed me off. I didn’t even do that with Cleo, but then again, my daughter was a golden child, and she rarely did anythin’ worse than misplacin’ the remote control.

It was Mei and Mei alone who seemed able to rattle my legendary calm.

“It’s none of your business,” she had the gall to say to me.

“You wanna look me in the eye and say that one more time? You wanna pretend we’re not family when it suits you to do so, Mei, then we aren’t really family.”

“Well.” She bared her small, straight teeth at me. “You’re not my dad.”

“For fuck’s sake, did I ever say I was?” I countered. “Florent is an asshole, but he’s your dad.”

“So what are you?” she demanded, and suddenly, I felt as if I’d lost sight of the argument. There was vulnerability in her large, hooded eyes that panged at my heartstrings like an ill-struck chord.

“Your friend,” I said, but there wasn’t much muster behind it ’cause I couldn’t stop wonderin’ why she looked sad beneath the anger.