Page 87 of Inked Daddies

“Dammit, Trick, you know I love my daughter!”

“And I also can’t ignore the fact that you and the guys rushed in to save my hide when things got dicey?—”

Preacher’s eyes flash. “Wesaved you? Son, that might be overstating it. You put yourself in harm’s way, same as Sam and Hugo.My daughteris the one who savedus.” He gestures toMarie with that same trembling hand, and she goes still at my back. “What she did out there…she saved us all.”

“Exactly.” I clear my throat, forcing my scattered nerves to settle. “Thanks for bringing that up. Obviously, she’s smarter than all of us. She saw an opportunity, and she stepped up. She’s…she’s incredible. I just wanted to make you say it out loud.”

Preacher glares at me like I’ve sprouted a second head. “I left the service for a reason. Settling down in Auclair was my shot at a normal life. It was her chance too. And the three of you are fucking that up.”

Sam’s voice rumbles behind me. “We’re not fucking anything up for Marie. She’s our mission now.”

Preacher exhales sharply. “Yeah, well, the mission I’m concerned with now is making sure my daughter isn’t…toyed with by three men who don’t know how to settle down.”

My stomach clenches at the wordtoyed.I open my mouth to protest, but Sam beats me to it.

“She is not a toy,” he says, each word weighted. “I’m not in the habit of messing around when it comes to something serious. If Marie decides one day that she’s done with us, we’ll respect that. But until she changes her mind, she’s ours.”

He saysoursin a tone that would make lesser men cower. Even I feel the hairs on my arms stand up.

Marie doesn’t miss a beat. “I’m not changing my mind. Iwantto belong to them, Dad. And they belong to me.”

Hearing her say that makes me happy. But Preacher clenches his fists at his sides, looking from Marie to Sam, then to me, then Hugo. It’s a five-way stare-down, and not one of us flinches.

Finally, he sucks in a breath through his teeth. “You think I want to see my daughter parading around with three men at once? You think that’s the future I pictured for her?”

Hugo steps in, voice soft. “She is your daughter, but also her own person. And if you look at her, if you really look, you’ll see she’s never been happier. That alone should tell you everything you need to know.”

He exhales a harsh breath, hands still fisted. “I don’t know how else to say this…I don’t like it. I hate it, in fact. But sheisgrown. And if I’ve learned anything from your little rescue mission tonight, it’s that she won’t listen to anyone once she’s set her mind on something.”

A short silence follows. Sounds like he’s giving up. Maybe this is the closest to acceptance we’re gonna get right now, but it feels like something’s still left unsaid—like Preacher’s holding onto a final trump card. Another ultimatum?

I hope not. I don’t want Marie’s happiness to come at the cost of her only family.

“Dad,” she says, tone gentler, “I appreciate you letting me live my life. Even if you hate it, it means a lot that you won’t keep trying to bully me out of it.”

“I won’t.” I watch Preacher’s throat work as he swallows. Anger creases his brow, and for a heartbeat, I think he’s about to snap again. But then, in an abrupt motion, he throws up his hands. “You want to thank me? Don’t. This isn’t me giving a blessing. It’s more like an admission of defeat.”

A pang hits my chest. I might be on the outs with him for the rest of my life, but at least he’s not throwing me through the nearestwindow or telling us all to leave and never come back. I guess that’s something.

Sam clears his throat. “Preacher, for what it’s worth, we do want your approval eventually. Maybe once things settle and you’ve had time?—”

“Time,” Preacher interrupts. “Right. I suppose that’s all I can give.” Then his eyes narrow, turning slightly to Marie. “And your mother’s not here to weigh in on this, but I’m sure she’d— Actually, I don’t know what she’d think. You Durand women always did follow your own drummer.”

Marie’s face tightens at the mention of her mom, but she nods slowly. “Yeah,” she admits, voice laced with old hurt. “Dad, can we not go there tonight? Everything’s already…messed up.”

“Fine. I’ll stop talking. But if you want to make this official, or whatever it is, you’ll do so under my disapproving watch. We clear?”

Before any of us can nod or confirm, he adds, almost as an afterthought, “And since she’s about to…” He breaks off abruptly, like he’s reconsidering finishing that sentence.

A prickling sense of alarm travels up my spine. Preacher’s about to drop some bomb. Sam must sense it too, because he straightens, folding his arms tighter against his broad chest. Hugo tenses, a flicker of confusion passing over his composed features. And Marie…well, I can’t see her face from this angle, but I feel her entire body go rigid beside me.

Preacher sighs, scrubbing a hand over his mouth as though he’s cursing himself for saying too much. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

I’m not one to let a thread like that go unexplored. “Since she’s about towhat? You said something about her mother not weighing in. But that’s not what you were going to say next, was it?”

The truth is, Marie’s smart. Too smart for the likes of me. Since she came back to us, in the back of my mind, I’ve had that doubt. The suspicion that she’ll realize it, and end things. Or maybe that she’ll want to leave Auclair and go back to school for another degree. Or that she’d do anything but be with us.

Now, with a hole in my leg, I’m not exactly doing my best work picking up on subtext.

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