by Rebel Hart
“You know that’s not how my father works.”
“And that’s somehow your fault? Come on, Max. Your father is a no-good criminal. A terrible father. A psychopath, really, who tried to kill his own son less than twelve hours ago.”
Mom interjected. “Wait, is that why you look so bad?”
Max gritted his teeth. “More or less.”
I reached up and cupped his cheek. I wanted to kiss him, to pull him close. But he wouldn't come to me. He wouldn’t get anywhere near me. I knew my own father was to blame for that reaction. Having my father here was causing Max to back away from me. Especially with the negative emotion he was putting off.
“Daddy, can’t you see? This isn’t his fault. None of this is his fault. His father is a terrible, disgusting man. But you heard Max. Right?”
I looked over at my father to search for some kind of answer in his eyes before I heard people murmuring on the other side of the wall. Something was stirring outside, and Max squeezed my hand harder as he turned to look at the door. Then his head whipped back around to me. And as my father stood up, Max dipped his lips to my ear, lowering his voice.
“I want you to know that I love you and everything’s going to be okay.”
I furrowed my brow. “What?”
He kissed my ear softly, lowering his voice to a whisper. “I love you, Danika Young.”
I shook my head. “What’s going on? Why are you--?”
“Max Ryddle?”
I didn’t even hear the door open. But when the hardened voice caught my ear, I knew exactly what was going on. I didn’t even have to look to know that a police officer was standing in my fucking hospital room. Tears rushed my eyes. Max slipped his hand away from mine. And no matter how much I clamored for it, he turned himself around and slowly moved away from the bed.
Away from me.
“Max, no,” I said.
The officer looked at him. “Are you Max Ryddle?”
He nodded, but he didn’t say anything.
“You’re under arrest.”
I scoffed. “What? No! You can’t arrest him, Officer. He did nothing--”
Dad placed his hand on my thigh. “Princess, just let the man do his--”
I slapped his hand away. “Don’t you touch me. Did you do this? Did you call the police?”
Mom gasped. “Danika. Don’t you ever hit your father like that again.”
I drew in a deep breath. “Answer my fucking question!”
“Bambi.”
My parents’ eyes widened as I quickly turned to face Max. I watched the officer slap handcuffs on him, and not once did he resist. Not once did he fight. Not once did he try to plead his side of things.
“Please,” I begged. “Max. Officers. Wait, this isn’t right--”
Max’s voice lowered. “Bambi. Gorgeous. Look at me.”
Tears rushed down my cheeks as my gaze found his.
“Max,” I whispered.
He nodded. “Everything is going to be all right. Trust me on that.”
9
Max
This isn’t going to be anywhere near all right.
It killed me to hear Dani sniffling as the two police officers walked me out of her room. I glanced over my shoulder and the faces on her and her parents would forever be etched in my mind. Her mother’s face was stricken with horror, her wide eyes mirroring the shock in Dani’s. Her father’s face was filled with regret. Sorrow. Confusion. Anger. A hell of a first impression on the one man who meant the most to a girl.
Dani’s face was filled with grief, determination, anger, and exhaustion.
I’ll never forget that look as long as I live.
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law…”
Everything moved in slow motion. Everything felt like a blur. And I knew who had called the cops. I knew who had done this to me.
No wonder Peter was out in that hallway for so long.
A call to someone’s boss didn’t take that long. But a call to the police to feed them information did. I didn’t feel betrayed, though. Not like Dani would if she ever found out. If anything, I understood. I understood his reaction, because it was the kind of reaction I would have had with my own daughter. Not that I’d ever have children one day. But sometimes I thought about it.
What it might feel like to lead a life that enabled me to have a family.
You’re the reason for all of this.
“Watch your head,” the officer said.
People rubbernecked around corners to watch me get hauled off. I flopped down against the hard plastic seat of the police cruiser and drew in a deep breath. And all the while, I thought about Peter. How dedicated of a father he was. How Dani didn’t see that in him. I wished with all of my might to be there. To tell her that she really had something special with her father. Instead of bringing the demons down onto her shoulders--like mine always had--her father was protecting her from them. Protecting her from the monsters who lurked in the dark corners.
Protecting her from men like me.
Dani had a great father in Peter.
And because of that, I knew I’d never win him over.
I hoped Dani saw it that way one day. I hoped she didn’t stay mad at her father forever. All he was doing was exactly what he was put on this earth to do: protect his family, provide for those who loved him, and to love the girls in his life with all his might. I knew Dani wouldn’t see things that way right now, but eventually, I hoped she would. She had a father who wanted to love her. Who wanted to protect her. Who wanted to pull her out of harm’s way instead of push her into it, like I had.
I wish I had a father like that.
My eyes fell out the window as the world passed us by. The cruiser inched away from the hospital, and it quickly fell away behind us. I couldn't think about Dani any longer. It made me sick to my stomach to think that I might never see her again. Because honestly? I wasn’t sure what my future held any longer. I knew damn good and well the guys hadn’t gone to my father’s house to clean anything up. I knew damn good and well my father’s cameras had captured most--if not all--of what went on last night. And I knew damn good and well it would take a fucking miracle from a lawyer I probably couldn’t afford to pull me even halfway out of the hole I’d dug for myself.
Dani was alive, though.
And that’s all that mattered to me.
I felt my anger bubbling, rising up the back of my throat. I felt the beast inside me rattling in its cage, begging for more, despite the poor condition of my body. In reality, the only person I was truly angry with was my father. He was the one who’d done all of this. He was the one who’d come after me. He was the one who’d tried to take out my entire fucking crew. He was the one who’d decided to gun for me because I wouldn't bow to his every whim.
I wonder if that man’s still alive.
“So want to tell us what happened last night?”
I held my tongue as the officers started asking me questions.
“Come on, Ryddle. Does you no good not to talk.”
“Just a bit. I mean, how in the world did that kind of carnage take place last night?”
I locked my eyes out the window on the passing landscape and kept biting further down into my tongue. I wasn’t speaking to anyone without a fucking lawyer.
Though I wasn’t sure how to obtain one if no one knew I had been arrested.
The officers stopped asking me questions once they figured out I wouldn't answer them. I kept myself tightly-lipped as we made our way for the precinct. I knew the rigamarole. I’d been through it a couple of times before, and multiple times with my men. Rupert was the worst of them, but he always found a way to wiggle himself out of things. I could only imagine what he had paid over the course of his lifetime in lawyers’ fees. Maybe I could place a call to Rupert and have him call that lawyer of his.
Maybe I stand a chance that way.
Either way, I couldn�
�t let the cops know what had gone on last night. I mean, they probably already knew I was involved. There was no way in hell they hadn’t already been looking for me after finding my father’s estate in the disarray we’d left it in. What I didn’t know was what had happened to Rupert. I hadn’t seen him since Dani and I were admitted. He hadn’t been at my bedside. He hadn’t come back in the morning. In fact, it hadn’t even dawned on me that Rupert hadn’t been around until my mind started wandering.
Is Rupert okay? Did he get caught up in all of this, too?
As the police cruiser pulled into the parking lot of the precinct, I closed my eyes. I lifted a silent prayer to a God that had cast me out a long time ago, hoping and praying that Rupert was all right. That he had managed to escape the police’s interest. That he hadn’t gotten caught up in the carnage my father had left in the wake of his death.
The praying stopped the second my door ripped open.
“Come on. Get out,” the officer said.
They led me inside and everything went blurry. I registered nothing as they processed me. Took my fingerprints. Made me sign all sorts of shit and officially placed me in the system. The bars of the cell rumbled as they opened. But the sound didn’t pull me from my trance. He shoved me into a holding cell with a few other men who looked just as bad as I did, and I moved into a corner, working my wrists to try and get the cuff stiffness out of them.
For the first time since being arrested, I actually took in my surroundings. There were five other men in this holding cell with me. And all of them smelled like various stages of rotting cheese. One man, sitting in the opposite corner from me, was clearly delusional. Or high. But definitely homeless. The man needed a shower. Possibly some food. He sure as hell didn’t need to be sitting in a damn cell because he wanted a short, illegal release from the reality of his existence.
I hate the law.
“Oh, man. That stri-joint was great.”
I nodded. “Glad to hear it.”
The drunk man grinned at me. “Had thi-cutie patootie on my knee right here.”
He slapped his thigh hard before he winced in pain.
“Shit, that hurt,” he murmured.
I snickered. “Maybe don’t do it again, then.”
He nodded. “What was I talk--who--ah, fuck.”
I watched the man as he realized where he was. In jail. In a holding cell. And not in that funky strip club of his. I wondered how many times he had ‘realized’ he was in jail, essentially.
I wonder if it even matters to him.
I looked at the man sitting on the bench in the middle of the cell and I crooked an eyebrow. He hung his head, almost in shame, as he sat there in his business suit. A nice one, too. Tailored specifically to him. He hiccuped before he started murmuring to himself. And between his slurred words, I caught ‘wife,’ ‘kill,’ and ‘doo-ee.’
And something in my gut told me this wasn’t this man’s first DUI.
I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. This mess was only the beginning. That much I knew. And while I hoped my guys wouldn't try anything stupid to get me out of here, part of me wondered what they might try. Curiosity played through several scenarios that might go into busting me out of this place. But the rational part of me willed them all to stay the fuck away.
Because, despite the fact that I wasn’t really sure my father had died, I knew there were still cogs turning in this bullshit nightmare.
If my father’s alive, nobody’s safe.
We had protocol for this kind of thing in the crew. If the president was to get killed or put away, then tradition designated that either the vice president or a former president would take over. And since I’d never designated a V.P. to stand at my side, that meant responsibility of the crew fell to John. Who would enlist Rupert to help him with things. What I needed to do, instead of dreaming about my escape, was trust that my brother had already taken steps to protect the Red Thorns and their families.
To protect Dani.
“What you in for? Huh?”
The homeless man’s voice caught my ear and everyone turned to face me.
“Look pretty beat up for a night out on the town,” he snickered.
I nodded. “Because I didn’t have a night out on the town.”
The man grinned. “You get into it with your girl?”
The drunkard slurred his words. “Shit, I’ve seen women do worse in my life.”
The man in the middle sniffled. “My wife’s gonna kill the hell out of me.”
I nodded. “Probably.”
I turned my back to the men and closed my eyes. I resisted the urge to sit down, lest they somehow think I was weak. The last thing I needed was for a bunch of men in this holding cell to perceive me as weak. Because I knew what happened in these places. People were cooped up for far too long and tensions ran high. People wanted out. Fights broke out and people got hurt.
The last thing I needed was another damn fight to bust through.
And the one thing I did need was lying in a hospital bed with parents poking and prodding at her a million miles a second.
I’m sorry I lied to you, gorgeous.
Because I honestly saw no way for any of us to get out of this all right.
10
Dani
I slowly panned my gaze over to my father. My eyes narrowed as he watched Max being hauled out of the room. He didn’t even fight, didn’t even attempt to protest the arrest. Did that not show my father the kind of man Max was?
“You didn’t call work, Daddy, did you?”
His eyes fell to mine. “I did.”
Mom sighed. “What did you do, Peter?”
He whipped around on her. “What any good man should do to his family. Something is going on, and it isn’t right. That man has dragged our daughter--”
“--out of a fucking pool to save my life, Dad! Come on!”
He glared at me. “You curse at me one more time and I’m pulling you from the semester.”
Mom gasped. “Peter. I’ve had enough of this. Rein it in now.”
He balked. “Are you kidding me right now, Rena? Our daughter almost died! She did die!”
Mom nodded. “Yes. But she didn’t. The entire reason why she’s here and not downstairs with the M.E. is because of the man you just called the cops on.”
I lifted my hand. “See? She gets it. Why in the world can’t you?”
Dad held his hand up to me. “I won’t hear another word of it. And if you so much as sass me one more time, you’re done for the school year. You'll come home, recuperate, and we can re-enroll you next year. I won’t stand for this.”
“I’m not yours to control. I’m not a pawn. You can’t force me to do anything.”
Mom yelled. “Enough, you two!”
My back stiffened as Dad stepped away from my bed. I glared at him with heat rising behind my eyes before I shoved my elbow into the red button by my bed. Mom’s eyes welled with tears. Dad hugged her tightly as Mom shook her head. And as a nurse came trolloping into the room, Dad spun around on her.
“Is everything all right? Do you need to take vitals or something?” he asked.
The nurse looked at me. “You rang?”
I nodded. “I want them out.”
Mom took my hand. “No, honey. Please. Let us stay.”
Dad narrowed his eyes. “Don’t do this, Danika. Think about your education.”
I snickered. “The only reason why you agreed to pay for it was because I was following in your footsteps. I’m shocked you haven’t held it over my head before now, since I changed my major without consulting you in the first place.”
Then I turned to the nurse.
“When can I go?” I asked.
Dad interjected. “When you’re healthy and ready to--”
The nurse lifted her hand to him, silencing his words.
“If your vitals are fine and your lungs still look clear, you’re good to go.”
I nodded. “Then get i
t done. I have somewhere I have to be, and I’d like to not put it off.”
Dad growled. “You’re not going anywhere.”
I shrugged. “You want to know the difference between you and Max, Father?”
I slowly looked over at him and watched his face fall.
“The difference is that you love with control. And he loves with freedom. If anything, you’re more like Max’s father than the father you think you are.”
Mom started crying. “Please don’t do this. We’re just worried about you. Talk to us. Tell us what you’re going to do.”
I nodded to Dad. “He lost that right for you when he called the cops instead of giving Max a chance.”
The nurse piped up. “Let me get your vitals really quickly and then we’ll get an ultrasound for your lungs. In the meantime, you two can wait in the waiting room.”
My father stood his ground. “I’m not going anywhere so long as my daughter is in this bed.”
The nurse nodded. “That’s fine. I’ll have you hauled out in handcuffs, then.”
He balked. “But--the only thing I’ve done in this situation is worry about my daughter!”
“Security!” the nurse exclaimed.
Mom clapped her hand over his mouth. “Shut up before I leave you to the police. I’ve had enough of this.”
I sighed. “Take her, too. I don’t want to see either of them until I’m out of here.”
My parents put up a good fight. A fight admirable of any parent worried about their daughter. But they had just made things worse without realizing it. Instead of treating me like the adult I was blossoming into, they were still treating me like some ignorant, idiotic eleven-year-old. And I wouldn’t stand for it a second longer. It took two security guards to get my father out of the room. But, once he was removed, my mother wasn’t far behind.
Then the nurses got to work.
After clearing my vitals and talking with the doctor, I was free to go. I checked myself out and accepted my clothes from last night. Clothes the staff had been kind enough to launder and dry for me. I knew I’d still have to battle my parents in order to get out of here. I knew I’d find them downstairs.
