Page 16 of Savage Protector

“Did they get to you?” he asked, lifting a thick eyebrow. “One of the other families? Is that what this is about?” He was still determined to keep up the charade.

“Don’t insult my intelligence,” I warned in a low voice. “We both know what this is all about and has been from the beginning. You want her back not because she’s in danger from another family but because she’s in danger from you. And you know how I know that? There’s still a code. There will always be a code.”

His nostrils flared, and his jaw ticked, but that was as much emotion as he revealed. “Times have changed.”

“Have they changed that much? Let me ask you this,” I continued. “Frankly, I should’ve asked you this in the first place. Why are you not protecting her if you thought she was in danger? You should have told her from the beginning you would do everything in your power to keep her safe. You must have houses stashed away, properties that are untraceable to you.” I paused, taking his silence as confirmation before continuing, “You have the financial resources. If you gave a shit about her and her safety, you would have taken care of that from the beginning. You didn’t. Why didn’t you do this yourself?”

“I’m a busy man,” he gritted out, a flush now beginning to creep over the collar of his crisp, white shirt.

“If a woman I genuinely cared about was in danger because of something I was into, you had better be sure I would do everything in my power to protect her no matter how busy I was.”

He scoffed openly for the first time since this charade began, rolling his eyes. “Don’t tell me what I do and don’t care about. You drop off the fucking map for fifteen years, and then you tell me how to conduct my life?”

This was the real Dominic, and he reminded me a hell of a lot of someone else. Someone who had been dead for a long time.

And I knew because I had watched him die.

And just like that, my father’s voice echoed in my head. “He was a rat! A fucking rat! What, you think I wanted to do this? You think this didn’t break my fucking heart?”

“Cut the bullshit.” Dominic slammed his palms on the table, breaking into the flashback of that terrible night and the memory of my father’s strained shouts before pushing himself out of his chair and leaning toward me in a way that was probably supposed to be menacing. “Did you find her or not?”

“Answer my question first.” I stood as well, my fists hanging by my sides. He was flushed, breathing hard, the opposite of my calm demeanor. Anyone who knew me, though, would know I was anything but calm. “Did you lie to me when you told me the reason she ran?”

“Now I know you found her…” he snarled. “Because you wouldn’t ask that question unless you had. She filled your head with a bunch of shit, didn’t she?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Let me tell you something.” His shoulders heaved with every ragged breath, reminding me of a rabid dog on a leash. The leash that was about to snap. “If you don’t think I’m going to track your every fucking move from now until the day you fucking die, you have another thing coming. Because if you are not my friend, you are my enemy.”

“Tell me something I didn’t already know,” I replied.

“So that’s fine with you? After everything we shared?”

I had to laugh at that. “If we shared anything real, you wouldn’t have put me in this position.” And he wouldn’t have manipulated me with that bullshit cover story about her hearing too much and going on the run. Pretending this was all about her protection when he was the bastard she needed protection from. I didn’t dare blurt that out and confirm what he already suspected, that she had told me everything. The less I confirmed, the better.

“A position you can’t handle,” he sneered, puffing out his chest. “You couldn’t hack it in the family, so you punked out. Cut ties. Ran off. And now you have the nerve to stand here, acting like you’re superior when you’re nothing but a pussy who couldn’t handle his shit.”

“You should know about not being able to handle shit,” I murmured, knowing I was making a mistake, unable to help myself. “Your dad couldn’t hack it either, which is probably why he turned rat.”

That did it. His face went lobster red, his eyes widening until they almost bulged from his head. “Fuck you,” he spat, shaking. “How dare you? My father⁠—”

“Disappeared without a trace one night and was never seen or heard from again. Now you tell me…” I invited with a smirk. “Does that normally happen to somebody who’s loyal? Faithful?”

“You don’t know a fucking thing.” The man was vibrating with rage so intense it made sweat bead at his temples. “You’re out of your goddamn mind, coming here and insulting me this way. Is it jealousy, maybe? Because your father still speaks to me? Treats me like a son?”

“If it makes you feel better to think that,” I offered with a shrug. “Go ahead. But I’m not handing that girl over to you. End of story.”

“That is not the end of story!” he bellowed as I turned my back on him and began to walk away. “Don’t you show your back to me, you son of a bitch! You don’t leave until I tell you to go.” His voice bounced off the walls, filling the space, making my head ache.

“I don’t work for you, remember?” When his guys stared at me, I stared back, daring them silently to try to stop me. They exchanged a glance before inching aside, giving me room to step through the door while their boss continued to rant and rave behind me.

He should have been glad. He had no idea how much worse that could have gone for him.

How much I knew about what had really happened to his old man.

How my dad, his best friend, had lit the match to set the fire that killed him in retaliation for him being a rat.

How I had witnessed the whole thing.