Page 89 of Heir

I kept my gaze straight ahead.

“Having fun is when you take a girl back to your place. But I have never known you to let someone stay over like this. I’m guessing she was here last night?”

“Dad.”

“What? If you want me to stop you from seeing her, you’re not gonna get that from me.”

“Why are you here?”

“Can’t I visit my son?”

“You should have called first.”

He grimaced. “Yeah. I won’t be coming over unannounced anymore, so you don’t gotta worry about that.”

I shook my head, but I couldn’t say anything about it. Because I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that Gemma wouldn’t be here again. Not when I had been feeling so fucking antsy all morning since I’d left her here.

And not because I had left her here with all my shit.

Nope, I was antsy because I had left her here when I wanted to take her with me.

But there were no outsiders allowed at church. Dad had never even brought Emmy over, though he had brought her with him once and had her wait outside the clubhouse during the brief meeting.

“I’m surprised your apartment is so messy,” Dad said. “You won’t even let the twins stay over because you’re afraid of the mess they might make. As if those boys could get into anything.”

I shot him a look. “They have the Madden gene. I’m sure they could figure it out.”

He chuckled. “Fucking true.”

I smiled a little at the happiness in his voice. Emmy was good for him because despite his fuck-it-all attitude when I was growing up, I didn’t think I had ever seen him in this light.

Emmy made things better for him.

“Do you ever worry about Emmy and the boys?” I asked him.

He looked at me with inquisitive eyes. That was the thing about being his son.

Growing up, I didn’t usually get away with shit because he was always one step ahead of everyone.

I didn’t expect to be able to hide anything from him.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Club life is fucking dangerous. Aren’t you afraid of it getting to Emmy and the boys?”

“All the fucking time,” he answered gruffly. “I am fucking terrified of it getting to you and Braxton again. Don’t think I have ever stopped worrying about you for a second just because you’re a man now and can protect yourself.”

He cupped the back of my neck and pulled me close.

This was how he always showed his affection.

The neck was vulnerable.

But despite the shady things he got into, and despite his past and the shitty parents he grew up with—or perhaps because of it—he had never once put his hands on Braxton or me. Same with the twins and with Emmy.

We were the safest people in the world with Dominic Madden.

And now, perhaps that included Gemma.

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