“Open the door.” The muffled voice through the glass has me trembling. It’s the same one as before—the same voice with the same authority I remember.
I flip the lock and twist the handle before taking a step back. Bracing myself, I do my best to prepare for the worst. Colin pushes open the door and steps inside. Looks could be deceiving because, at first glance, he looks like he could be one of Dad’s colleagues. Black slacks, shiny dress shoes, and a dark gray button-up with the top two buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He’s perfectly put together, not at all how I remembered as a child. His dark hair matches mine at my roots. It’s the sole reason I started bleaching my hair. I’d woken up one day, having hit puberty, and looked far too like my biological father than I cared to.
“Still not as tall as your old man,” he says, his lips curling into a grin.
“Y-You’re not—”
“I am,” he clips out, his tone all business. His gaze drifts over the living room before landing back on me. “I suppose he took good care of you in my stead.”
“Just go.” My voice is nothing but a whisper. “Please.”
His soulless eyes narrow on me. “Nonsense. You’re my son. I’ve come to retrieve you. Take you back home to St. Louis. Teach you the family business.”
I’m shaking my head as he speaks. “N-No. I don’t want to go with you.”
He clenches his jaw, a brief flash of annoyance flickering over his features. “Don’t act so surprised. I texted you. Tried to prepare you.”
“You were texting me this whole time?” I gape at him. “You threatened me?”
“No,” he growls. “The promises to see you on your birthday were me. The threats must have been Joseph. He was one of my men I’d recruited to find you, get your number and school schedule, and keep watch over you. But, he decided to use you against me in some effort to destroy everything I built.” His eyes narrow, darkness glimmering in his gaze. “I didn’t know he was also texting you and fucking stalking you, but he paid for crossing me.”
“I think you should go.”
He takes a step forward and cocks his head to the side, studying me. “He hurt you. Joseph hurt you to get to me. But I took care of it.”
Quickly, I scramble to piece together what he’s saying. “W-What?”
Is he saying…
The blood from that man—Joseph—feels like it’s hot and sticky on my skin again. Absently, I reach up to wipe it off, but nothing’s there but my own perspiration.
“Look,” Colin says, taking another step closer. “Before you graduated high school, I knew there wasn’t anything I could do. Your uncle has a helluva lot more money than I do. Fighting him for custody would have been a losing battle. But now—”
“No,” I bark out. “He’s my dad, not my uncle.”
“Don’t be like this. Tammy took you away from me when you were ten years old. I didn’t have a choice. She didn’t give me one. When I finally found you, she was dead, and her brother had adopted you. I wasn’t on the birth certificate.” He sighs heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. “Things got busy with my life, so I made a decision to let you stay. I knew eventually I’d come back for you.”
“Get out.” A growl rumbles from behind me. “Now.”
My knees nearly buckle at hearing Canyon’s voice. Protectiveness ripples from him like hot waves.
Colin’s gaze meets Canyon’s. “Ahh, the future stepbrother.”
“I said get the fuck out.”
“Not until I have what I came for,” Colin snaps. “Lose the attitude, kid.”
“Dad,” Canyon barks out.
Colin cracks his neck and scowls at Canyon. “I wanted to avoid all this. Dealing with them.”
“Too fucking bad.”
Bare feet slap the hardwood floors as Ryan rushes into the room with Ginger and Nutmeg yapping at his feet.
“What is it?” Ryan starts but then curses when he sees Colin. “Who the fuck are you?”
“You know who I am, Voss. I’m sure your fiancé told you all about who I am. Where is he anyway? Uncle Quinn?”
Dad chooses that moment to also fly into the living room. His face pales, and his eyes bug out from behind his glasses.
“Colin,” Dad chokes out when he steps into the living room. “Why are you here?”
At first, I wonder how Dad even knows it’s Colin, but a quick glance at our intruder and I know how. We look exactly alike. My stomach roils in disgust.
“You know why I’m here.” Colin smirks at Dad.
The absolute terror written on Dad’s face numbs me to my bones. If not for Canyon’s warm, unyielding presence at my back, I might collapse from the weight of the fear.
I always felt like my world was temporary; I just didn’t expect it to be taken away by Colin. In all my imagining, it was always Dad disowning me or growing bored of me. Not this. Not being forced back to the life I once hated.
“I’ve come for my son,” Colin says as though it makes all the sense in the world. As though by him saying it, I’ll just pick up and leave with him.
“Get out,” Ryan growls, sounding so much like Canyon, I shiver. “Now, or we call the police.”
Colin laughs, slightly cruel and mocking. “Ahh, to be threatened by a couple of prissy, rich queers who’ve never known what dirt feels like beneath their fingernails.” He steps closer. Canyon’s hand fists the back of my shirt like he’s ready to toss me out of the way to go war with Colin. “I’ve waited long enough. I’m done waiting.”
“I…I don’t want to go with you,” I croak out.
“It’s where you belong. You can finish school in Missouri.”
Just the mention of Missouri has memories flooding through me. All bad ones. Times when Colin and Mom would argue over me. Other times when Mom’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Tommy, would get tired of looking at me and lock me in the coat closet where I’d be forced to listen to them have sex. Or how he’d play games with me to see how long I could hold my breath with his giant hand clamped over my nose and mouth. The nights when one of her tweaked-out fuckbuddies would come into my room while she was passed out on whatever drug in her system and roughly fondle me in places no man should touch a child. Or how I’d get the shit kicked out of me by one of those men just for simply existing. All the times I’d catch a glimpse of a mouse streaking by along the wall, squeaking out in warning. Nothing but terror and pain and fear.
My entire body shudders so hard even my teeth chatter. Warm, strong hands grip both my shoulders, grounding me to the present. Despite my trembling, I lean back into the warmth and safety Canyon provides.
“In what world would you think you could waltz in here and take him away from me?” Dad bellows, his voice harsh and bitter. “Tammy left him, and I became the father he needed.”
Colin ignores Dad to step closer to me. “You have my number. Save it. We’ll talk again soon. This conversation isn’t over.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” Dad snaps. “Get the hell out of my house.”