Jude clicked from one screen to the next, not really wanting to have that conversation. He had more important things to discuss with sister dearest.
“Yeah, well, I don’t respect any woman.”
“Ouch. Good thing I’m not a woman. Just a weak little daddy’s girl, according to cock-face Knox.”
“You just piss him off. That’s all.”
“Clearly. And why is that again? Because I work circles around everyone else, including you some days? Or is it because I’ve knocked him on his ass more than anyone else during sparring?” She giggled. “Stupid fucker.”
“It’s because you’re Grant Day’s daughter.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does.” Jude swiveled in his desk chair. “Shut my door. I have something to tell you.”
“I have something to tell you first.” She shut the door and lowered her voice. “I’m going to San Diego with Claire. Her cyber boyfriend wants to meet her now that she’s eighteen and she wants me to go with her. She’s telling her parents we’re going to L.A. for a concert and that’s what I’m telling Mom and Dad too.”
“You’re going to San Diego so Claire can have sex with some stranger?”
“Nobody said anything about having sex, and he’s not really a stranger. They’ve been dating online for over a year.”
“He could be a serial killer.”
“You think a serial killer is going to date a girl for a year and refuse to see her until she’s eighteen, only to kill her? I think out of your two brilliantly paranoid assessments, the sex scenario is more likely.”
“Rape.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “She’s an adult. If it’s consensual, it’s not rape. Besides, I’ll be there. Do you really think I’m going to let anything happen to her?”
“Then why are you telling me?”
She walked behind him and hugged his neck, giving him a loud, smacking kiss on his cheek. “Because we don’t have secrets. Right?”
He nodded slowly.
“Now…” she stood and played with her gum again “…what do you need to tell me?”
Twisting his lips to the side, he shrugged. “We’ll talk when you get back.”
“You sure? Is it about Tessa?”
Jude shook his head. “Indirectly, but it doesn’t matter until you get back.”
“OK. Dad expects you to track my phone, so when he asks for an update, don’t fuck up and say I’m in San Diego when he’s expecting me to be in L.A. Got it?”
Jude brought his middle finger to his forehead and saluted her.
“Nice. Is that what you did to Tessa after deflowering her?”
He spun around in his chair again and focused on his computer screen. Bursting her bubble would have to wait until another day.
Chapter Seventeen
Knight
Confronting Maddie’s professor didn’t go well. In college, parents trying to settle disputes between instructors and young adults was frowned upon. Of course he denied everything, saying Maddie came to him and asked for extra credit and he told her it was not an option for his class. Without proof it really was Maddie’s word against his. Ryn made sure to let him know that she was also going to talk to the Dean of Students just so the incident would be on record.
It was a risk, but she made sure the professor knew Maddie’s father played golf with the Dean of Students. She failed to mention that her asshole of an ex-husband saw nothing wrong with extra-credit blowjobs. Instead, she hoped he would decide it to be in everyone’s best interest to pass Maddie, even if she didn’t earn the grade. Ryn wanted her daughter as far away from that predator as possible. Period.
Before leaving campus she tried calling Jackson several times, but it went straight to voicemail. She needed to hear his voice to calm her nerves. Instead, she held her phone up to her ear, waiting for Preston to answer his phone. There was no doubt in her mind that he would.
“Calling to apologize for your meathead boyfriend?”
“I’m calling to ask why the hell you encouraged Maddie to give her sick bastard of a professor what he wanted. For Christ’s sake, why are you even in her life? She needs a father, someone to protect her from assholes like him, not a pimp. The thing is … I was so pissed when she told me what you said, but I wasn’t surprised. You’re a monster and I should have packed up my daughter and moved halfway across the world to get us both away from you. Instead, I stayed and not only have you tainted her with your bullshit about our failed marriage, but now you’re making her think she has to spread her legs to get a college degree!”
“First of all, she’s our daughter, which you seem to forget—”
“You never wanted her,” Ryn said through gritted teeth.
“I never wanted you either, but you got yourself knocked up with my child so I had no choice. But don’t sweat it, sweetheart, because you both have grown on me over the years and maybe it’s just my age or sentimentality, but I want us to work. I want us to be a family again. Maddie needs a father … a role model, and you need a man with more to him than just a punch card to the local gym.”