Page 113 of Heir

I wasn’t gonna fucking pounce on him.

Letting out a small sigh, he sat.

“First things first, you need to learn everything you can about the mom,” Dad said. He was right. If I were thinking straight, I would have a plan of action right now.

I rested my head on my hands and stared down at the cracked table. “I can do that.”

“And the uncle,” Dad said carefully. “I want to know what he’s doing in bed with the head of the Savkin Bratva.”

I had mentioned the uncle had Grigoriy Savkin over at his house. I had been researching that but couldn’t find a connection anywhere. Could it be who Gemma was hiding from? But why the fuck would she hide from him? What would her involvement be besides having worked for the bastard William Gallagher?

That was over two years ago.

I doubted she actually knew anything important.

Fuck, I was getting a headache in my forehead.

“Yeah, I’ll do that.”

“And I know you want to protect your girl, but we still have the shipment going out tonight and next week. I don’t need you for tonight, but I need your head on straight for next week. Are you good for that? Can I count on you two to make it work?”

“Of course you can,” I said.

Dad turned to Blue, who nodded, looking down in deferment. “Yes.”

“Good.” Dad stood up. He cupped the back of my neck and squeezed. “Everything will be fine. We’re gonna protect Gemma, okay?”

I nodded. I didn’t look at him as he walked out the door.

My mind was still focused on the sleeping girl in the office.

“How has she been?” Blue asked, taking me out of my head.

“Good.” I hesitated. “Is Gemma on a diet?”

God, even the words were ridiculous. She didn’t need to be on a diet. She was fucking perfect the way she was, but I had noticed the strange way she was with food, not eating much even if she needed to, and how she always made sure I took the first bite.

Blue winced. “Is she back on that again?”

I let one eyebrow raise in question.

He sighed. “Gemma has a very… unique relationship with food. Okay? Her mom’s been pushing her to diet since she was eight.”

My fist clenched as more puzzle pieces fell into place.

Fuck me, a diet for an eight-year-old?

What kind of bitch treated their daughter like that?

“You have no idea how often I had to sneak food into her bedroom by climbing up to her window at night because her mom had sent her to her room without dinner.”

I didn’t say anything as anger boiled my blood and turned my vision red.

“She got better when she moved to Massachusetts. She started seeing a therapist, and she was eating well. As you can guess, that went to shit when she moved back to California and started interacting with her mom again. I tried so hard to get her to see just how beautiful she was without needing to lose weight. But her mom got her claws deep into Gemma, man. You just need to ensure she eats a full meal at least twice a day. Sometimes she’ll forget to eat.”

I nodded. “I can do that. What about the other thing?”

Blue frowned. “What other thing?”

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