I snorted at my naïve little female. “That would be pot, baby.”
She blinked, her mouth opening and closing. “Really?”
“Really,” I confirmed.
“What about that?” she asked, pointing at a man and a woman that were chopping up something brown.
“Shrooms,” I rumbled, skirting a pair of passed-out people way too close to the fire for my comfort.
A fight broke out near the back of the cabins that led to the lake, and I had to sidestep a flying fist and push another out of the way so that they didn’t get too close to Sophia.
Sophia grinned at me, waving her now loaded crossbow in the air and gesturing at me not to worry about her.
I rolled my eyes at her naivety, knowing that she wouldn’t be much help in a crowd like this, and charged ahead, getting angrier and angrier the more I trudged on.
What kind of fucking work picnic/retreat was this?
I’d never…
“There she is.” Sophia pointed in the direction of another cabin. “Oh shit.”
Oh shit, was right.
“Stay close to me, and do not get separated. I do not want to have to rescue both of you tonight,” I growled in anger.
I narrowed my eyes and damn near kicked a guy in the throat when he came at me with a fuckin’ s’more fork in his hand.
“Damn,” he coughed when he hit the ground. “That didn’t go as expected.”
I heard a snort behind me, but I didn’t stop long enough to find out.
I finally got to the cabin where my daughter was being held by knife point against the wood wall.
“What the…” The guy whirled when he felt my hand in his hair.
I yanked so hard that thick strands of the mess came out in my hand.
“Get the fuck off my daughter,” I growled.
“Daddy,” Clem breathed.
“Who the fuck are you?” the man roared.
I found out what kind of help my woman could be a minute later when the man trying to come at me with a knife took a crossbow bolt to the fuckin’ dick.
Thwump.
There was a high-pitched scream.
The guy who’d had his arm raised to swing at me with a fist took my frustration at the situation as a whole. I swung my fist, and a meaty sounding thwack preceded him falling to the floor, out cold.
“We need to get out of here,” I muttered.
“You just decked my boss.” Clem paused. “And Sophia shot my boss’s boss in the dick. Do you think I’ll still have a job next week?”
I looked at her with the straightest face and said, “Yeah, Clem. You’ll have a job. Would you like me to find one that’s more suitable for you?”
Clem rolled her eyes. “They’re all so high and fucked up that I don’t think they’d notice who did this.” She hesitated. “Plus, I kind of have a reason for being here. I’m not quitting. I just want the fuck out of here until they’re all sober again.”
I growled in frustration, knowing I wasn’t going to change her mind at all.
Instead, I grabbed her by the t-shirt and tugged her along.
“What the fuck are you wearing?” I grumbled, looking at her.
“Where did you get that hickey from, Sophia?” Clem asked instead.
I sighed.
“Y’all are fucking annoying.”
CHAPTER 21
I need a cupcake.
-Sophia’s secret thoughts
SOPHIA
We fought.
As in, we fought hard.
I’d never, not in my life, thought that Haggard was unreasonable about anything, but apparently, in this, he was.
“I’m going back to work.” I said. “And your daughter is going back to her job. She wanted to work there, she’s going to. She has to have a reason, Haggard. When have you ever found your daughter to be unbending when it comes to you?”
As in, never.
If Haggard put his foot down, Clem—and sometimes I—obeyed.
Mostly because Haggard knew what he was talking about. If something was going to happen, or if he felt it was unsafe, then he was going to let you know.
But in this…in this? He didn’t sound reasonable.
“You’re not going back to work,” he growled.
I felt my eye twitch. “I’m going back to work unless you can give me a solid reason why.”
Because he was keeping something from me.
I didn’t know what, but I knew that it was something, and that something was bothering him more and more every day, to the point where he was lashing out at me and his kids.
Which wasn’t usual for him.
In fact, it was so unusual that I was getting really fucking tired of it.
I was tempted to go back home, but again, I didn’t want to see my father because I was still mad at him.
It’d been over two months now since my accident, and not once had he called, texted, sent me flowers, visited, or even asked about me.
All the while he was half a town away, living in my house, not caring that I was fucking his best friend.
And really, there was no way in hell he didn’t know.