Page 24 of Under Pressure

“What?” she asked, the word coming out on a croak.

“You don’t have to marry him, sweetheart,” he said.

Her gaze darted to her dad’s employees, who were, thankfully, all deep in their work, and listening to . . . Metallica now. She faced her dad again. “I want to marry him. He’s safe.”

“Safe?” Dad arched his thick, blond brow.

Safe as in if he decided to leave, it wouldn’t hurt her. She liked that. Liked it a lot. Losing people was just too hard. Emotionally, she felt she’d taken all the losses she could handle in her life. Plus, Jonah was fun to be around. “Safe,” she repeated.

“He’s an extreme sportsman.”

“Well, we have that in common then.” She tied her shoes.

Her dad leaned forward just a little. “What about love?”

“You loved Mom and look how that turned out.”

Dad clenched his jaw, tensing the muscles there. “That’s not fair.”

Blue stood and placed her hand on his forearm. “I thought you liked him?”

“I do!” He ran a hand over the back of his head. “It’s just that I remember what you’re like when you’re in love, and this isn’t that.”

“Dad,” she groaned and tried to sidestep him, but he grabbed her arm.

“Vittoria—” Dad snapped his mouth closed, and this time, they both glanced toward his guys. They still weren’t paying attention. Dad huffed out a breath and faced her again.

This time, she arched her brow. It’d been a while since he’d slipped up and called her by her old name—he usually only did it when he was really, really frustrated. “You okay?”

His iron grip on her arm, while completely non-painful, didn’t loosen an inch. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he looked at her. “Your mother and I didn’t pick our marriage. I did love her, but the reason it never could’ve worked was because she didn’t love me. I don’t want that for you. Either side of it. You deserve better. We ran so you could have better.” He made a sweeping gesture with his hand. “Do you think I’d be here for any other reason?”

Guilt churned in her stomach. He had given up so much for her. He loved this job, but he was right. He never would’ve chosen this if not for her.

“Have you ever considered trying to contact Sean?” he asked.

Blue’s spine went stiff as a board. Almost ten years since they’d broken up, and she still couldn’t escape him. He always seemed to be there, just around the corner, waiting to ambush her and ruin her life all over again. Sean and her little brother were her constant specters. The one who’d left her and the one she’d left behind.

“No, Dad.” Even to her ears, her tone was sharp—she pulled her arm from his grasp, and this time he let her go. “Sean’s gone. Long gone. He left, remember?”

“You left each other.” Dad folded his strong arms. “And if he hadn’t, you never would’ve gone to design school in Paris like you wanted.”

She stepped aside and headed for her bike. “Yeah, he’s a stinking saint.”

Dad called after her. “If you hate him so much, why do you still have his sweater?”

She froze at her bike and almost glanced down at the massive sweater engulfing her and keeping her warm. Instead, she grabbed for her helmet and shoved it on. “I’ve got to go, Dad. My boutique opens in an hour.” She swung her leg over her bike and settled onto the seat. “See you later tonight?” She turned the engine over, and it roared to life.

He nodded as she backed out of the garage. Dad had never been big on details; he was a big-picture kind of man. It’s why he’d been so successful as the Consigliere for The Outfit, and in part why they’d had to run. He had a way of seeing how things would play out before they did. He’d known exactly what would’ve happened to Blue if they’d stayed, and he’d been willing to leave his son to protect her.

Still, Dad hadn’t seen the end of her relationship with Sean buthadnoticed the sweater. Great. What else had he noticed? She thought of Jonah and just hoped Dad wasn’t paying as close attention to her relationship with him as he had with her relationship with Sean. After this conversation, she was betting he’d been paying closer attention than ever.

3

Chapter 3

Sean

After an extremely early morning on the ocean searching for theRey Del Mare, the sunken ship from the country of Isola de la Famiglia, Sean Clayton was tired. He’d been feeling that way a lot lately, especially since his nonna passed a couple weeks back, but chalked it up to his ongoing assignment for the SEALs of playing bodyguard to a runaway prince and current undercover barber of The Palms’ Retirement Community, Ryker Rockefeller, searching for said princes’ ship, and having to pretend to lead a normal life as a “retired” soldier even though he wasn’t actually retired. He and his unit had been doing this for over a year now.

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