“Just a little shaken up. I’ll be fine.”
“I wish I were there right now. I wish I could ditch the tour and come back to you.”
I laughed softly. “No, you don’t. You love performing. You love being on tour.”
“I know,” he agreed easily. “But I’d still rather be there and know you’re safe. I wish you’d get my gun. This proves you need it.”
I didn’t automatically dismiss the idea this time. “Maybe you’re right, but I don’t feel comfortable with it.”
“Okay. Just…please stay safe—for me. I’m going to figure something out, and I’ll call you back when I do.”
I ended the call with Grant and suspiciously stared around at the road. I didn’t feel much better about what had happened. If anything, I was more paranoid. I didn’t know what Grant had in mind to help the situation, but I was shaky and uncertain as I drove away from his place. With Grant gone, I knew that there really was no protection from his father.
Fucking fuck, fuck, fuck.
Fuck.
That was the only word running through my mind after I’d gotten off the phone with Ari. I’d warned her this would happen. I’d told myself over and over that it could happen. But the reality of my dad being anywhere near my girl made my blood boil. It made me want to get on the first plane out of the next closest city and fucking find the fucker. I’d teach him a thing or two I hadn’t known when I was only ten.
Miller walked into the back room where I was attempting to get shit under control. I couldn’t handle the fact that there wasn’t any fucking privacy, especially not when no one knew about my dad, and I didn’t fucking want anyone to figure out the details.
“Bro, you okay?” Miller asked.
“Yeah. Fine,” I ground out. I knew I sounded anything but fine. My hands were shaking with the unbridled anger spreading out from my chest.
“Donovan is spouting off about you and Ari being in a fight about your dad,” he said softly.
“What?” I nearly screamed. “I’ll fucking kill him. He doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about.”
I stormed toward Miller, but he blocked my path.
“He wants a rise out of you. I didn’t want you to be blindsided when you walked back out there.”
“Get out of my way. I want to pummel his face in.”
Miller just stared at me—completely calm and completely in control as always. “I’m not going to let you do that. You should let this shit with Donovan slide. Obviously, something else is wrong that’s setting you off. Is it Ari?”
Fuck. I couldn’t tell him.
“No. We’re fine. I’m just…” I glanced away from him.
“Bro, I’ve known you nearly your whole life. I know you can’t talk to McAvoy or, God forbid, Vin, and you’ve got shit on your chest. You should probably say it now.”
I sank into the chair next to me and buried my head in my hands. “My dad got out of prison.”
“What?” Miller asked in surprise.
When I glanced up at him, the look on his face showed this was the last subject he’d thought I would bring up.
“I don’t know the details about that, man, but isn’t that a good thing?”
I sighed heavily and let out the secret I’d been holding back from everyone but my family and Ari. “He killed my mom, and I watched him do it.”
Miller’s mouth dropped open.
“That’s why he went to prison. He was supposed to serve twenty years, but he got out in thirteen for good behavior.”
“Fuck, man.” Miller staggered over to me and collapsed into the chair across from me. “Why did you never tell me?”
“I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t want anyone to know…to fucking pity me. My aunt and uncle and Sydney knew. Then, I told Ari at the ski lodge.”
“You should have told me. I feel like a shit friend now.”
I shrugged and settled back into the seat. “I couldn’t. I thought I could control it. The music helps, man, but now that he’s out…”
“Have you seen or talked to him?”
I nodded. “I talked to him on the phone after Ari’s birthday party and told him to leave me the fuck alone and not to contact anyone I knew, but he didn’t listen. He showed up at my place while Ari was there. I don’t know what the fuck to do, Miller. I have to call my uncle and get him to talk sense into my dad. I don’t want him to hurt Ari.”
Miller ran a hand back through his hair. “You think he’s going to do something?”
“He blamed me for what had happened with my mom because I ran into the room when he was holding a gun to her. He shot her and claimed it was PTSD from the war. Then, he told me he was coming after me when he got out. What do you think?”
“You have to go to the cops, bro.”
Fuck, why did everyone keep saying that?
The cops were fucking useless. They weren’t going to protect Ari. They wouldn’t do anything but serve a fucking restraining order that my dad could walk right through at any time. Yeah, he was an ex-con, but that didn’t mean the police would do anything more to stop him.
“I’m not fucking doing that. We’ll fucking figure it out without including those idiots.”
“What if you don’t?” he asked quietly.
I couldn’t even think of that. I couldn’t fucking think of something happening before I could figure out what to do. I needed to talk to my uncle and convince him to stop my dad. My uncle had seen and talked to him. He had to have some sway.
It already fucking felt like a ransom situation. I’d give my dad whatever he wanted as long as he left me and Ari alone. I couldn’t stomach the thought of him finding out how important she was to me, that she was my whole fucking world. I could imagine the look in his eyes and what he’d say to me.
He would take the one thing I loved most in life because I’d taken the thing he loved most. He thought it was only my fault. So, why should I get to find love and happiness when he was left without the woman he loved?
He’d never acknowledged that it was of his own doing.
If he’d gone and gotten help for what had happened to him…
If he’d talked to my mom about the problem…
If he hadn’t moved us away from all their friends and medical professionals and left us stuck in Middle of Nowhere, Tennessee…
If he had just done something…anything…