Page 139 of The Bronze Garza
“Why?” I shake my head, confused. “I thought you said it’s all over.”
“It is.” He slides me a grin.“But you’re the boss’s property now. And the Garzas protect what’s theirs.”
With that, he speeds off.
“Sonofabitch,” I mutter.
Dad chuckles, and the bastard actually soundspleased.
ChapterThirty-Three
“Would you give me up?”
Lyra
The ensuing days pass in ahaze.
For me, after the shock wore off, it was easier to accept, adapt, and refocus, because I’d survived worse and gone through therapy. As a result, I’m more mentally equipped than I’d given myself credit for.
Losing Patrick hurts. A lot. More than I thought it would.
But every time I get the urge to go to the station and inquire about his well-being, I have to remind myself that the “bond” we had was never real. That he’d tried to have mekilled. That he wasn’t “Patrick,” but some cruel, heartless bastard named Yuri Popov.
It’s a struggle, but I’m coping.
For Dad, however, not so much.
Following the arrest, he spent three whole days in bed depressed, refusing to eat and shower, curtains drawn. He blames himself for all that’s happened to me, and as much as I tried to convince him of the opposite, assuring him that I don’t blame him and that I love him, it was never enough to pull him out of it.
Only when a livid Lysandra finally arrived, railing at him, both with her words and her fists, did he start showing signs of life again. Almost as if heenjoyedher anger.
Her ire has since abated and she’s been nurturing us both back to normalcy. We’re having meals together, entertaining together, deciding things together…as afamily.
It feels so good having her here with us again. And although I know it won’t last, that she’ll be leaving us again soon, the little girl in me is still gleeful.
But even with Mom here, Dad laughing again, and things slowly returning to normal, the house feels different. Tainted. No longer like home.
So, this morning at breakfast, we all agreed to put the house on the market.
“I’ve been thinking about getting my own place anyway,” I’d said. “And maybe travel with you for a little while, Mom.”
Mom had clapped her hands excitably at the prospect. “Oh, sweetie, I wouldlovethat!”
Dad didn’t like either idea. If he could keep me under his roof until I’m fifty, he would.
Later, I’moutin the front yard feeding the birds by the fountain, when he comes up beside me.
“I don’t approve of Torin Garza for you.”
I snort at that. “There’s nothing to ‘approve’ of, Daddy. It was a fun fling. It’s over now.”
This time, it’s him who snorts. “Sure, that’s why we can’t leave this property without being tailed by his men.”
“Uh, yeah, I’ll be having a word with him about that.”If he ever bothers to pick up the damn phone when I call.
“Lyly, I believe he’s a good man, I do,” Dad goes on as if he didn’t hear me tell him it was a freakingfling, “but I just don’t think he can give you a normal life. The life he lives, his line of work it’s...risky. You never know when... I guess, after everything you’ve been through, I just want you to have a happily ever after.”
Maybe I don’twanta normal life or a happily ever after. At this point, I’m convinced there’s no such thing. It’s a chimeric notion we all aspire for but never attain because it doesn’t exist. “I gave up on a happily ever after a long time ago, Daddy.”
