I look around and notice how filthy the place is; trash is piled all around the room. Chrystal’s father is sitting on the couch, not even bothering to look at us.
"Richard!” Chrystal’s mother yells and walks over to him.
Then he glares at her. “What do you want, Casey?” I can see the hate written all over his face. Then he looks over and sees all of us.
“These men just busted in the house!” she screeches, like she isn’t standing right in front of him.
He stands up and faces us. “What do you want?”
“Your daughter—” I start, but he holds his hand up.
“I am not telling you shit. I didn’t even know my daughter was being forced to marry that stupid motherfucker until my wife told me we had to leave our apartment. Nor did I know he fucking beat her until I saw a doctor’s report sitting on his desk.” He takes a step toward me, his eyes bloodshot. “Please kill me. I don’t deserve to live, not after I let shit happen, right under my nose, to my baby girl. For years I allowed myself to be used and abused by this bitch standing behind me.”
I was not expecting that. I assumed he and his wife were equally responsible for what happened to Chrystal. I had no idea he was an abused man who has been stuck in hell for a very long time. That doesn’t discount the fact that he let this stuff happen. But I think he’s suffering enough as it fucking is. I can see the pain written all over him.
“Now I can’t find her. I want to find her so I can apologize to her for failing her as a father.” I can see tears in his eyes.
I look at Torch and he shrugs. “Watch them,” I tell the guys, and I step out onto the porch to call Chrystal.
“Hello?”
“Hey baby.” I instantly feel better just hearing her voice.
“How’s the trip? Where are you, by the way?” she asks.
One part of me doesn’t want to tell her, but I need to see if she’s strong enough to be a part of the MC. She can be a part of the MC and be blind to it or she can stand by my side because that’s what I want from her. “Maryland.”
She gasps and a door slams shut. My guess is that she’s shutting her office door so nobody can eavesdrop. It’s silent for a few beats before she finally speaks. “Did you?” she whispers.
I stare out across the park and let out a deep breath. “Kill him? Yeah I did, angel.” I lay it all out for her.
My phone starts vibrating. I look at the screen and see it’s a FaceTime call from Chrystal. I answer it and sit on the edge of the porch so I can talk to her. She has tears in her eyes and is holding her stomach.
“Are you okay?” I ask. I don’t want to lose her before I even have her.
It may be stupid, it may make me a pussy, but this girl could own all of me, and I knew it the second I saw her sitting at her desk in my garage.
She laughs, wiping her tears. “Am I okay? I’m amazing right now. Do you know how it feels to be able to breathe and not be scared, Kyle? My baby will be safe.” Her voice softens at the last part.
Fuck me, I just can’t… Seeing those tears in her eyes. “Don’t cry, baby.” I want to reach through the screen and wipe away her tears.
“I may be crazy to be so relieved, but I really am, Kyle. I never thought for a second you would hop on a plane to Maryland the very next morning.” She laughs and holds her stomach, her smile doing shit to my heart.
“I have one more question, baby. Your dad? How did you feel about him?” His words don’t mean shit to me until she gives me the go-ahead.
She settles back in her seat. “My dad is fucked up because my mother did that to him. He used to be a really great dad back in the day, but he stayed away from home more and more because she is just awful. I’m not mad at him. I don’t blame him. He could have done better, but he’s the only parent I ever had. He took care of me when I was little, my mother did nothing. He didn’t know she was forcing me to marry him. She kind of used my dad as an excuse, because he worked so hard.” She looks behind me. “Wait, you’re at our old house.”
I nod. “I was coming here to beat the shit out of your dad, but then I noticed that he wasn’t the real devil…it was your mother.”
“My mother is pure evil, she doesn’t have one ounce of goodness in her heart. I wish my father were away from her so he could manage to start over and maybe be happy, maybe even be in the baby’s life. Maybe I can build some type of relationship with him.”
I smile because I can make that happen. “You got it, babe. You want to talk to him?”
She smiles widely. “Yes, please.”
I take the phone inside the house with me. Richard is still standing next to the guys. Casey is hovering in the back of the living room, pretending to be scared, but I don’t think she can summon up that emotion.
“Daddy?” Chrystal says, and Richard’s head snaps to my phone. Casey gasps and takes out her phone, probably to call Joshua. I smirk at that.
“Baby girl?” Richard takes the phone from me, and I watch it all play out. “You okay, honey? Do you need anything?” he asks.
“I’m fine, Dad. I’m living with Kyle. He’s taking really good care of me. The best.” Well shit if it didn’t make me feel a hundred feet tall when she said that. Richard looks at me and smiles. I want to rip the phone out of his hand so I can talk to her again.
“Let me have it,” I ask, almost nicely. He hands me the phone.
“Angel, I’ll call you later. I got shit to settle.” She smiles and hangs up. I slip my phone in my pocket and look at her father—then her mother, which makes me want to puke.
“Richard, it seems to me that it’s your lucky day. Chrystal said she wished she could have her dad in her life, in our baby’s life, in hopes of rebuilding your relationship. I’m offering you a choice to stay with us at the hotel and get on the jet with us tomorrow. I will help you find a place and a job and get your life in order.”
I step closer to him, getting in his face. “If you take the offer, you will crawl on your hands and fucking knees and bend over backwards to be there for her and be what she wants.” I smile, loving seeing the fear in his face. “If you don’t, I will end you. You will be right back here with that fucking witch, which I’m sure would be worse than death.”
“Richard, please don’t do this to me.” The witch slithers her way up to Richard and wraps her arm around his back. “Why don’t you take me with you, and I can be a good mother.”
I laugh, because that is the dumbest thing I have heard in my life. I arch an eyebrow at Richard.
“I take the offer.”
I smile and then I look at her. “You don’t ask shit of me. I don’t even want to look at you, and you better be fucking glad you’re a woman because, luckily for you, I don’t hurt women. Gather your shit, Richard.” He walks to the back of the house, and I go outside with a mission in mind.
I spot a woman with a permanent scowl on her face, who looks like she could even beat me up. “Come here,” I tell her and she makes her way over. “How much would it take for you to beat up the bitch in that trailer after we leave?”
Her eyes widen before she grins. “Shit, I hate that bitch. I’ll take five hundred because I have kids to feed.”