I Belong to You (Inside Out #5)(75)

Approval fills Mark’s eyes, and it pleases me, as I know it will my father. “I’d expect nothing less.”

It’s a perfect answer, but my father quickly makes it known that he is not going to let Mark off that easily. “I still have questions.”

I pat my father’s chest. “Of course you do. You always have questions.” I flick a look between the two men. “I’ll let you two work it out.”

I move to the counter and face Anna. “What can I do?”

“I just need to make a salad. Can you slice the tomatoes?”

“Of course,” I say, moving to the fridge.

“You invest all that money you make?” my father asks Mark, as I set several vegetables on the counter and find a knife.

“How do you know I have money?” Mark counters, not missing a beat.

“I had you investigated a couple of weeks ago.”

I whirl around, the blade in my hand. “You did what?”

My father glances at the knife. “Easy there, baby.”

“I’m serious, Dad. You had him investigated?”

“Hell, yes. You work for him under unusual circumstances.”

“I’d do the same,” Mark comments.

I turn my full attention to Mark, the Master himself, and grimace. “Yes, you would. Yet I’m in love with you. Someone help me; I need a sanity pill.” I go back to my tomatoes.

Anna snickers, and Mark dives back into the verbal wrestling match with my father. “In answer to your question, yes, I invest.”

“Any tech stocks in your portfolio?” my father asks.

Anna and I exchange an eye roll at my father’s obvious baiting.

Mark throws the bait back in my dad’s bucket. “Are you asking if I invest in your company?”

“Exactly.”

“I did, but I sold it last year.”

“Why?”

“Better numbers elsewhere. I’m holding out for your next financial report to opt in again.”

Ouch! I glance over my shoulder at the same time my father looks in my direction. “He’s honest. You know I like honest.”

I let out a relieved breath. “Yes, I do.”

“And now I know why she has no filter,” Mark comments.

“I have a filter,” I argue. “And a brain to know when to use it. I just choose not to with you.”

“Don’t I know it,” he comments dryly.

“She had to learn to speak her mind to survive around here,” my father says. “And for the record, I’d really like to comment on the stock situation but I can’t. We can talk after the report.” Then he says, “Now, on to the most important topic of all.”

I hold my breath, waiting for what’s coming.

“Is your father going to go all the way to the championship this season?”

I smile and return to my chopping.

“If he doesn’t,” Mark replies, “my mother will get well just to kick his ass.”

“That’s the truth,” I mumble.

My father chuckles, something he rarely did before Anna came into his life. “You know,” he says, seeming to think out loud, “if anyone can convince Crystal to go to Paris, it’s her.”

“That’s it,” I say, abandoning my slicing duties to face both men, hands on my hips. “You two plotting against me is not the kind of bonding I was hoping for. It’s my pre-birthday celebration.”

Anna joins me, proving that her pride in being the keeper of family traditions will not be tested, even by a Smith and a Compton. “It’s her birthday party,” she states. “I’ve worked hard to make tonight special.”

My father, the man who taught Daniel how to be a hard-ass, softens instantly. He winks at Anna. “And you did a wonderful job. We’ll go join Daniel and Scottie for a drink so you can’t hear us talking.”

Mark gives me a wink of his own and follows my father.

Great. Now they’ve moved to another room, where I have zero control over where they go with this Paris conversation.

Anna steps to my side. “Mark sure won your father over quickly.”

I cast a suspicious glance at the doorway. “Yes, he did.”

*

Fifteen minutes later, the table is set and Anna sends me to round up the men for dinner. I walk out toward a double stairwell and head down to the level where the den—and the bar—is located. I’m on the final step, still hidden by the wall, when Daniel’s voice lifts.

“I’m protective and I won’t apologize for it,” he says. “She watched her damn father beat her mother to death. So I’m telling you, man: You hurt her, you’ll live to regret it.”

I suck in air and grab the railing, feeling like I’ve been kicked and betrayed. Damn you, Daniel! This isn’t how Mark was supposed to find out about my past!

I turn and run back up the stairs, desperate to get away before someone sees me. I reach the main level of the house and Anna is in my line of sight, headed my way. Needing a few minutes alone, I round the railing and begin climbing the stairs to the next level.

“Crystal!” Anna calls from behind me, but I keep climbing the stairs, fighting the same windstorm of emotions I felt often those few years when Daniel had lived with me. He’d shoved family down my throat, when I’d had one foster family after another take me in and throw me out. Even Angela, Hank’s first wife, had died before the adoption. I’d liked her, and wanted her to love me.