Strong Enough (Tall, Dark, and Dangerous #1)(30)

I exhale loudly. “Fine, but, Dad, I’m a grown woman. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices because of secrets and I’m getting tired of being kept in the dark about things that somehow end up affecting me anyway. So I’ll go wait for you while you talk in private with someone I evidently don’t even know, but be prepared. I want answers and I don’t want to wait too long for them.”

With that, I pin Jasper with a glare thrown over my shoulder and I set out to find the kitchen, which is conveniently located about as far away from the entry as it’s possible to get in this small place. Not that I’m surprised. Nor am I surprised when I hear the click of a door closing and go to find both Dad and Jasper no longer standing where I left them.

I have no choice except to wait. Not really, anyway. Jasper is about as close-mouthed as they come and my father . . . well, he won’t tell me a thing until he’s good and ready. So I’ll wait, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to wait in the kitchen, like a dog afraid to get up when my master told me to sit. I get up and go make myself comfortable on the worn couch in the living room. Although a tiny act of rebellion (which is admittedly ridiculous at twenty-four years old), I feel better for having moved to anywhere but the kitchen.

I pick up a magazine from the shelf under the coffee table. It’s a medical journal dated three years ago. Weird. As I flip through it, something tickles my brain and I glance down at the couch cushion. The faded plaid pattern is oddly familiar and I think this might be the couch we had in our living room in Treeborn when I was still in middle school. Has my father had this place since way back then? Some secret bat cave for whatever he does that I don’t know about?

That thought bothers me. At times like this, I feel like I don’t even know the man who raised me, just like I don’t feel like I know the man who brought me here.

Jasper.

He was an enigma to begin with, but now? Now he’s . . . I don’t even know what he is. Or who he is. I have only questions, only curiosities. Questions and curiosities and a strange fascination that I worry could consume me.

My father is alive and well. Without that nugget of fear and doubt taking up space in my head, Jasper could take over. But now I have a different kind of unease to take its place, one also focused on Jasper.

Before, I didn’t have to care that I knew so little about him. It didn’t really matter because he was a means to an end. I didn’t need to know. But now he’s got history with my father. Dare I make the same mistake of getting involved with someone my father knows again? It didn’t work out so well with Matt. And Jasper has the potential to hurt me far worse. I never found Matt’s fatal flaw, but I feel sure he has one. All the men in my life do, it seems. But Jasper . . . I can’t even imagine what his fatal flaw might be. I have a feeling that he could end up being mine, though—the thing that destroys me. Compared to Jasper, loving men who don’t love me in return is child’s play. Loving him could be the end of me, the end of the only Muse I’ve ever known.

But it doesn’t look like that’s going to be a problem. Our arrangement has come to an end. Once money changes hands, I won’t ever have to see Jasper again. And if I can’t see him, I can’t love him. Right?

Can’t see him. Won’t ever see him. Never again.

Oh God!

The fact that thinking about that causes me great sadness is even more reason why I should be glad our association is over. I’m better off without Jasper in my life. That much I know.

Lost in thought, I jump when the door flies open and my father bellows, “Muse!”

“I’m right here, Dad,” I respond, my heart pounding in my ears.

“I’m going to need you to go with Jasper.”

And just like that, my plans—and likely my good, self-preserving intentions—go straight to hell.

—

“Don’t you think you should at least tell me why instead of just telling me what I need to do and expecting me to comply like one of your soldiers?”

My father is sitting on the couch, facing me, one hand on my knee as if to keep me calm. Jasper is standing near the corner like a stoic, iron sentinel.

“I promised you I’d tell you everything, but sometimes it’s better that you not know it all right away. It’s safer.”

Safer. Grrrr.

“How is it that I end up in the middle of such colossal messes when I have no freaking clue what’s going on?”

At least Dad has the decency to look ashamed. “I would never want to be a liability to you, sweetheart, but unfortunately being my daughter comes with a risk. If anyone wanted to find a way to hurt me, to get me to do something against my will, all they’d have to do is use you.” He starts to glance back, almost like he’s going to look at Jasper behind him, but then he doesn’t. His stormy eyes find mine again. “I’m sorry for that, Muse. I would never want you to get hurt because of me.”

And now I feel ashamed. I know he’s only doing what he thinks is best, what he thinks he needs to do to protect me. Being bitchy about it only makes it harder for both of us and makes him feel bad about being a good dad.

“I’m sorry, Dad. I know you’re doing your best. It’s just . . . I’m just frustrated. That’s all.”

“So you’ll go, then?” he asks tentatively.

I slide my gaze up to Jasper. His expression is fierce yet unreadable. All he needs is a sword and chain mail to be a dark knight on a mission for his king. And if I’m not careful, he could slay my heart in the process.