Royally Chosen Christmas (Royal Sons MC #7) - Elle Boon Page 0,13
from him and his touch.
The creak of the swing warned her that he too stood. She tensed with the need to run at the sound of his shoes crunching over the grass.
“That doesn’t seem right or fair. I’m your father, and I need my baby girl now more than ever. I just lost my oldest child.”
Something about the way he spoke and how he stared at her, his eyes didn’t look sad like when his favorite team had lost a game, and really, she only thought he was upset then because he lost a bet. Her father hated to lose anything. The way he was coming toward her was more like what she’d witnessed when watching a predator in a documentary when it stalked their prey, scaring her worse than when she watched a scary movie at her friend Maureen’s house.
“Hey, you two. What’s going on?”
Talena turned at the sound of Scott’s voice coming from behind her, unable to keep the cry of relief from escaping her throat. She didn’t care what it looked like as she ran the short distance to him, flinging herself into his arms with a sob. “Scott, I don’t want you to leave me.”
“Talena, stop acting like a baby and come here.” Her father’s angry growl was like a whip cracking through the air.
She looked up into her brother’s icy blue eyes, begging him without saying a word. He’d always been her protector. How did she ask him to save her from a man who was supposed to be her dad, when she wasn’t sure if she actually needed saving? Angela didn’t come right out and say it, but she’d said enough to scare her, and now she was gone. Her world was turned upside down and didn’t look like it was going to level out.
“Mom told me to come get you. She said you needed to come in and get cleaned up before dinner. Why don’t you run on in while I have a talk with Gary?” He sat her on the ground behind him, his voice gentle, his touch even more so.
“Okay, but you’re not leaving without saying goodbye, are you?” she asked, uncaring if she sounded whiney. He was her big brother who she missed terribly when he was away. When he left this time she wasn’t sure what would happen.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, pipsqueak. Tell mom I’ll be in shortly.” He ran his hand over her head.
“Okay, thank you.” She didn’t look at her dad before running toward the house. In the last year she’d gone from loving her dad like a daughter would, to being wary, and now she was fearing him. With the loss of Angela, her life was spiraling, making her feel a lot older than she was.
“WHEN ARE WE GOING TO get to read Angela’s letter?” he asked Gary, knowing full well the fucker wasn’t going to allow anyone else see what she’d said. What the bastard didn’t know, was he’d already read a copy of the letter since she’d sent him one as well.
“Your mother and I already did. Angela was a very sick young lady, as was proven by the fact she committed suicide. I’m trying to keep that fact from your little sister. Now, what is it that you really want, Scott?” Gary said, puffing out his chest.
He would’ve laughed at the other man’s effort at intimidation if he wasn’t so fucking livid. All these years he’d thought, hell, he was sure his mother did too, that Angela was Gary’s biological child. That was until he’d read the letter that had been delivered to him in the event of her death.
“There’s several things I want, but let’s start with the main one.” He stepped into Gary’s personal space, bumping Gary’s chest with his own. “I want to make a few things very fucking clear, so you best listen really closely. If you so much as put one motherfucking finger on Talena, I will slice every inch of skin from you, slowly. I’ll make sure you’re awake as I do it, and I will then take great pleasure in removing bits of you, starting with the tip of your cock. From there, I’ll work my way down until you’re no more than a eunuch. I will of course cauterize you after I snip and slice so that you won’t bleed out. I have ways of ensuring you will live until I am done with you. Shall I go on? Trust me. I know how to