The Complete Series Boxed Set (44 page)

“Frank,” he said,
clearly amused
.

“Fang.”

“Uncle Fang it is, then.” Frank made a quiet chuckle. “I’m sure your other daddy thinks that’s about right.”
His lips twitched with a condescending amusement that made Dylan momentarily homicidal.
 

Dylan frowned. “Why would Mike think that?”
If Frank thought he was being funny, he was wrong. If he thought he was a master of manipulation and that the
comment would undermine Dylan, all it had done was to make him more suspicious. Frank fail.
 

Frank swallowed audibly. “I think we got off on the wrong foot earlier today. I went to see
h
im at his office and he seemed very angry. I’m going to assume he’s a hot-headed guy—”

“
You assume wrong.” Dylan’s words sounded like a gong in a Buddhist monastery, ringing forth and permeating every cell with the vibration of the refusal to be ignored.
 

Frank cocked one eyebrow, refusing to back down, and yet… “Then perhaps I caught him on a bad day. He seemed abrupt.”

“Perhaps he didn’t like what you had to say.”

“Had he allowed me to say it, I might think as much,” Frank snapped back with a smile. “
But he didn’t.”
 

“Why didn’t you come straight to Laura? Why go to Josie, then Mike, and now here?”

“Jealous?” Frank asked.

“Of…?”

“That I didn’t come to you first?” Frank shrugged, as if
that
were the problem here.
 

L
etting the question hang in the air, Dylan took long, slow breaths through his nose, not rushing. Frank pretended to scan the room and bent down to pick up one of Jillian’s stuffed animals, a caterpillar of different colors. Dylan knew damn well Frank was monitoring his every twitch, every sigh, each breath and each blink. The
blasé
attitude wasn’t working.

Thank God Frank had decided to come when both he and Mike were home with
L
aura and the baby.

That gave Dylan pause, cracking his facade slightly. Why did Frank decide to come today, knowing full well they were here?
Damn it, he wished he had time. Time to
talk privately with Laura. Time to catch up with Mike and learn what happened. Time to get Jillie settled more.
 

Time to
think
.

I
nstead, he was being stared down now by Frank, who had made a calculated decision to change his entire demeanor, pinpointing Dylan in place and trying to mindfuck him.

Might work on Laura, but on him? No
pe.
 

“I don’t care who you came to first,” Dylan said, his words belying his attitude. Because he didn’t care—not one whit. What he cared about was—

“And you came to Josie first, Uncle Frank. Why?”

Laura’s interruption jarred both men, Frank practically jumping an inch off the ground as her soft, feathery voice inserted itself between them.
Dylan couldn’t help but take in her appearance: hair wavy from being wet, skin flushed with the excitement and anxiety of this situation, body wrapped in a gorgeous maxi dress that covered her, neck to ankle, in curvaceous rapture. If Frank weren’t here, he’d ogle and admire.
 

Pro
t
ect and defend
was more his approach in this instance.

“
Because you ignored my emails,” Frank said in a fake hurt voice.
Oh, please
, Dylan wanted to hiss, trying to catch Laura’s eye. The guy was a walking phony.
 

She was looking at Frank so solemnly, chin down and eyes upturned, that he caught a glimpse of what she must have looked like as a chastened child.

Oh, hell no.
No way she was falling for Frank’s crap.
 

“You wrote her an email for the first time in years and waited two days before barging into her life!”
Protectiveness rose up in him like the swell of a tsunami, taking over half a mile of inland beach as it destroyed everything in its path. Laura had done nothing wrong. Not one fucking thing. And yet this guy was dismantling
her, emotional brick by emotional brick, right before Dylan’s eyes.
 

“I should have replied,” Laura said in a shaky voice.

Frank’s eyes gleamed with victory, his mouth stretching into a facsimile of gentle caring. “You’ve been busy. I understand.”

D
ylan’s head exploded. “
Get
out
.”
 

“These two really are a pair,” Frank mumbled. Dylan had no idea what the hell that meant until Mike walked in the room, wet hair matching Laura’s, angry face matching what Dylan imagined he
himself
looked like.

“I said the same words to him a short time ago,” Mike said q
u
ietly. Too quietly. Dylan’s alert level rose to flashing red.
Mike was trying to say something without words, but all Dylan could sense was danger.
 

L
aura’s eyes jumped from Frank to Dylan to Mike,
her emotions changing as she looked at each man. Then she said:
 

“Frank, you really need to see this from our perspective. You emailed me, waited less than two days, appeared at my place of business and questioned my work associate, then you went to Mike’s workplace. Now you appear here, out of the blue, and you act as if you’re the injured party.” Laura took a slow, deep breath, eyes unwavering, staying on her uncle. Her voice shook. Her hands shook.

But damn if her essence wasn’t ramrod straight.
She was feeling the fear of saying what she needed to say and doing it anyway.
Attagirl
.
 

Dylan caught Mike stand a little taller, dip his chin a little lower, and fixate on Frank, as Laura finished her words. He wanted to cheer for her.

Frank’s next words, though, made everyone shake.

“I do not see anything from your perspective, my dear, because your perspective is untenable.” He took two steps closer toward the door, then paused to make eye contact with each of them. “I learned about your…
arrangement
from a business associate who remembered hearing about your dating company on talk radio. When I put two and two together and realized that the Laura Michaels they discussed on the radio was my little Laura, I was appa
l
led.”

So
that’s
where this was going. Dylan didn’t hold back rolling his eyes. Mike joined him.
Frank had stainless-steel balls to come in here with a morality play. It wasn’t just about the money.
 

It was all about shaming them.

Not gonna work, bud
, Dylan thought.
Never in a million years
.

“You think I came here for money,”
Frank
said with a jerk of his head toward Mike. “And you think I came here to scare you or creep you out,” he said to Laura with such an even tone that Dylan felt like this was quickly turning into the monologue in a bad B-movie.

“But I came here because I am deeply concerned about the welfare of a poor, innocent child—”
H
is eyes cut over to Jillian. “
W
ho is the victim in this mess of a relationship you claim to have.”

Of all the statements Frank could have made, this was the most incendiary he could possibly have spat out. The words whipped through the room like a wildfire on a windy day, igniting Mike, Dylan, and Laura.

She sprinted across the room and swooped down on Jillian, scooping the baby into her arms. “Leave now,” she ordered.
The look she gave Mike and Dylan made both move, instantly. Poke the Mama Bear and watch out.
 

Mike and Dylan were at Frank’s sides in second
s
, bookending him but not touching him. Yet.

“Are you threatening me?” he asked, clearly amused. Any normal man would have
backed down, but this guy was a piece of work.
 

A piece of disordered, entitled work.

“
W
e’re not
anythinging
you,” Laura snapped. “But if you think y
o
u have the right to wa
lt
z back into my life and judge me in my own home, critiquing how I choose to live my life, then you are wrong, Frank. Dead wrong.”

H
e pulled his arms away from Mike and Dylan as if they’d touched him. Hands burning, wanting so much to grab the guy and shove his
f
oot up the man’s ass, Dylan held back.

And then Frank said: “
Sharon
would be so disappointed. And so would my
m
om and
d
ad.”

Tears pooled in Laura’s eyes and Dylan’s heart cracked in half. If he could have, he’d have yanked it out of his chest and beate
n
Frank to death with it, but instead h
e
swelled with pride as Laura said in a cold, deadly voice:

“
O
n the contrary. Grandma and Grandpa were dis
a
ppointed in you. Did you know that Grandpa called you ‘Shiftless Frank’? It was only when you came for family gatherings that they put on the whole fawning bit. When you were gone, Grandma cried into her pillow. When you wired Grandpa for money, he took it from their own funds and boasted to Grandma how your ‘new investment’ would pay off ‘this time.’” Her fingers made air quotes, face twisted with mocking sarcasm.

Frank didn’t respond. At all. His face was as blank and polished as a granite counter.

“And then when it didn’t?” A shrill laugh filled the room. “They’d eat rice and beans for the next month. Grandma would take half her heart medication instead of the full dose, making it s
t
retch.” She handed Jillian off to Dylan and marched right up to Frank, finger in his face.

“You have a lot of nerve coming in here and judging me. Trying to shame me.
I
t worked, though, didn’t it? After Mom died?”

Frank’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t look away.

“You shamed me and bullied me into giving you
half
of her estate, and I did. I really felt like you ‘deserved’ it. And now you think because I’m with two guys who have more money than you ever imagined, I’m some kind of mark you can pressure.”

“I’m here because your daughter is being raised in depravity,” Frank finally responded, chin jutting out. “And I’m certain child services would be very interested in…this.”

Dylan broke out into a laugh he didn’t know he had in him. “You’re threatening to call child services because we…what? Have a clean, loving home for our daughter? Because Laura lives with two men? Good luck, buddy.
N
ot only will you be laughed off the phone for making a call like that, we’ll countersue you so fast
that
judgmental chip
on your shoulder
will boomerang through the air and slice your head off before you can say ‘boo.’”

Frank just snorted and ignored him, eyes on Laura. His face shifted to concern. “I know it was hard after
your mom
died, honey. But this? This isn’t the kind of life you were raised to have. Not you, and certainly not my great-niece.”

“I asked you back at the office how much you want to g
o
away,” Mike said. “You get one check, Frank.
O
ne. Make it a good number.”

The room grew still, the only sounds Laura’s ragged breath and Jillian’s little baby noises.

A stillness filled the room, making baby Jillian pause and gawk, first at her mother, then at Frank. Her great-uncle’s eye
s
narrowed, then flared, as if the muscle in his body were expanding and contracting on instinct, uncertain which way to move.

Dylan felt the same way.

Mike’s challenge hung in the air, and as Frank’s eyes moved to Laura, Dylan wanted to see genuine emotion in them. Something that tied her own flesh and blood to her, a deep-seated need inside Dylan to believe that family actually meant something to the man, and they’d all misjudged him.

“I’ll be in touch,” Frank said, cutting the entire conversation short by turning on his heel and heading toward the front door. Dylan looked at Laura, whose face was a mask of alarmed fury, and Mike—who was nothing but stone.

And then a parting shot from Frank. Of course.

“
R
emember, Laura—I tried.” Frank’s voice cracked as he stood with his hand on the doorknob, face consumed by an express
i
on of grief. “I tried to
see you. Tried to reconnect. Wanted to know Jillian. Wanted to…” As his voice trailed off he looked down, shaking his head, making a
tsking
sound that triggered a violent impulse in Dylan.
 

The man was playing her like a fucking violin.

“You’re a grown woman now and can make your own choices. But Jillian—” He made a dismissive sound, not quite a sigh, not quite a gasp. “I cannot abide by watching my own flesh and blood, so innocent—”

Mike stormed across the room with a speed Dylan never imagined he possessed
and
ripped the door open.
Alt
hough he didn’t technically touch Frank, the force of the air moving around him seemed to push Laura’s uncle out the door like a gust of wind.

The snap of the closed door ma
d
e Dylan and Laura jump, and then
Dylan’s
own swiftness kicked in and he was by her side, his hand on her elbow. Tears pooled in her eyes and she was shaking.
He felt gut-punched, so impotent and filled with a murderous impulse that he shifted his gaze to the door, grateful it was closed.
 

The grinding sound of spurting gravel and rubber on stone told him Frank was leaving. The air lightened, and Jillian began shoving her little dimpled hand down the front of Laura’s shirt, oblivious to the drama that had just unfolded second by painful second.

Dylan felt like he’d just been through a witchcraft trial that had ended with acquit
t
al.