I have to be strong.
“Listen, Mr. Jackson, thanks for congratulating me and for all the compliments that I wasn’t expecting. At all. But that’s not why I’m calling,” I say sternly. “I’ve heard a lot about you over the years and I have to admit that very little of that has been flattering. So maybe I’m making a mistake in calling you but I had to. I had to because I want to ask you something. I want to ask you to let Reed go.”
“Let him go,” he repeats. “Interesting choice of words. You don’t think I’m holding him prisoner, do you?”
I swallow. “I’m not sure what you’re doing but he’s your son. I’m a lot younger than you and I don’t know everything you know, but I’m going to have a child soon. And I know that I’ll love her. In fact, I already do. I already want to hold her in my arms and protect her from everything.” I cradle my belly where she’s sleeping. “I already know that I want to give her her every wish, every dream, every little hope. I want to know every beat of her heart. I want to ease every little breath she takes. I want to do that for her. Every parent wants to do that for their child, Mr. Jackson. And yes, we’re not perfect and we make mistakes and there are times when our children hate us but that doesn’t mean that we ever stop loving them or wanting what’s best for them. So that’s what I’m asking you, Mr. Jackson. I’m asking you to give your son what he wants. I know that you know that working at your company is not what Reed wants, and I know that you forced him into it. Because of me. Because of what I did. But it’s been two years now and I want you to find it in your heart to let him out. You can punish me if you want. But please let him go.”
“Okay.”
He doesn’t even think about it. He says it as soon as I finish what I wanted to say. And somehow I know that he’s bluffing. He’s completely bluffing.
He thinks I’m sweet and naïve, and I might be but I’m not that naïve.
So I insert steel in my voice when I say, “You will let him go.”
It’s not a question at all.
But he answers me anyway. “Yes. I will. You’ve made an excellent point here. So I’ll let my son go and do what he wants to do, whatever that might be. Dreams are important to me. That’s how I built this company. You have a dream too, don’t you?”
"Yeah,” I tell him hesitantly.
“Juilliard. Very ambitious,” he murmurs. “I told this to my son too. But if you need any help, I’d be happy to be of assistance. I know quite many people there. And you’re family, aren’t you?”
I don’t care about Juilliard right now. I don’t.
Even though his words are filling me with dread.
“So you’re going to let him go?”
“Yes. In fact, this will be his last job. The job I gave him today.”
“Job.”
“Yes, to sieze this lovely garage for me.”
My heart thunders in my chest at his words.
Halo moves in my belly again. Just like she was doing this morning, restless and angry and agitated.
Through all the chaos happening inside my body, I ask him, “What garage?”
And when he answers me, I know.
I know he’s the real villain.
He’s the real evil, the real threat, the real danger.
Reed’s father.
I sit there on the couch long after the call is done, my bones shaking. My breaths scattered.
It feels like an age.
Exactly like the night we had that fight and he made me promise that I’d never fall for him because he’d only break my heart.
The night I realized that I’d already fallen.
And exactly like that night, I hear the tires screeching in the driveway when he comes back. The sound of his Mustang door banging shut, his footsteps bounding up the porch stairs.
Tonight though, I haven’t locked the door.
I haven’t barricaded myself or erected barriers. Or walls.
I’m cut open and vulnerable as he enters through the door, carrying my favorite ice cream in a brown bag in his arms and I rise from the couch.
My phone slipping through my fingers and falling on the floor with a loud clatter that echoes around the house.
The glass house.
That belongs to his friend, Pete.
Reed glances down at the phone before looking up, “Fae, what —”
“I talked to your dad.”
I hit him with these words. Punch him.
Because he draws back.
For a second, that’s his only response, being pushed back slightly.
Before things happen.
Things like a flash of panic in his wolf eyes. The same one that I saw this morning, which confirms what I already knew after talking to his dad.
That is why Reed was so paranoid, panicked.
Because his father found out about me and Halo.
But the panic is only momentary. It’s replaced by anger.
Great, mighty anger that makes his arms loosen for a second so that paper bag slips out, before tightening up every inch of his body. Every single inch of his muscle, every bone and tendon and vein that I can see tightens up, stands out.
“What?” he spits out, his wolf eyes deadly.
“I… After we came back from Pete’s, I realized what your dream was. I realized that even you didn’t know. Or even if you did, you didn’t think you could have it. What you wanted. So I wanted to give it to you. I wanted you to have it, Roman, your dream. And so I got your dad’s number from Tempest and… and I called him.”
His vampire skin is stark white, leached of all color like his blood has frozen over.
Like there’s a chill inside of him.
That perpetual winter that makes him wear hoodies all the time.
White and pure and pristine hoodies that he loves so much.
“You called my dad,” he repeats in a low voice.
“Yes.”
He takes a step toward me. “After I told you not to.”
I clutch my dress, white, his favorite. “Yes.”
“After I made it clear that I didn’t want you anywhere near him,” he pushes out through clenched teeth, taking another step toward me. “After I made it crystal fucking clear that you’re not supposed to even think about it. You’re not supposed to interfere.”
I swallow. “You did but I had to.”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because you’re killing yourself by working there. You don’t want to work there. You want something else.” And then, I can’t keep it in any longer, I have to say it to him, I have to beg him not to do it.
So I go to him. I meet him halfway.
I clutch his hoodie. “Don’t do it, Roman. Don’t do what your dad asked you to do. Don’t destroy Pete’s garage. Please.”
His jaw tics, his eyes violent and aggressive. “Do you have any idea how dangerous my father is? How big of a psychopath he is? He’s a fucking criminal, okay? A goddamn criminal. And I have done everything in my power to keep you safe from him.”