Page 11 of Connor's Claim
She gifted me a nod. “I remember. You said something about being in the club on behalf of your father. He’s the mayor, am I correct?”
Cassie gave a comic little gasp. “Shade kidnapped the mayor’s daughter? Bad boy. Will your da be worried? Are the cops about to swarm us?”
For unknown reasons, the question sideswiped me. I opened and closed my mouth, trying to form a diplomatic answer and say the right thing, as I always did. An unbidden truth popped out instead. “My father won’t give the tiniest damn so long as the voting population doesn’t hear about it and I show up to work on time.”
Horrified at myself, I fluttered my fingertips at my lips.
Silence followed, Genevieve stalling in whatever she was going to say.
“I don’t know why I said that,” I managed.
Cassie gave a small and sympathetic laugh. “I only exist because my da bought prostitutes and deliberately got a handful of them pregnant to make an heir. Because I was a girl, he barely acknowledged my existence.”
My heart panged. “That’s awful.”
Her shoulder rose in an easy shrug. “He’s dead, and I wipe away my tears on handfuls of his cash while living in his stately home, so who’s laughing now?”
Genevieve peeked between us. “I love my dad, but he recently stole all our savings and rent money to go on a drink-fuelled grudge mission. Just today, he texted me to ask if I could get my boyfriend to pay for him to go on holiday. It’s not as bad as what you two just said, but still, some men shouldn’t be fathers.”
Cassie said, “But without their fuck-ups, we wouldn’t be here.”
A kind of solidarity settled over me. It was unexpected and strange, born from an equally bizarre night.
Cassie gestured from the hatch behind me to where I stood. “How does Shade fit into this if it’s not to piss off your da? Is stealing ye away in the middle of the night some fucked-up proclamation of love?”
“God, no. He hates me.”
“There’s no love lost, then?”
I hesitated, because on my half, all the love I’d ever felt for anyone had been lost when he’d walked away. But confessing that secret to strangers went far beyond what I could easily share.
The reason I’d tried to see Genevieve was to get Connor to talk to me. Ten minutes of his time so I could ask him to his face why my father wanted him, then work behind the scenes to make the arrangement go away. After everything Father had done to him, it broke me to imagine him having any power over Connor again.
Yet now we’d spoken, I couldn’t imagine him telling me anything. Which meant I needed to get the information from another source.
“That is one loaded silence,” Cassie said.
Genevieve cut her a look that had the younger woman quiet down. She came back to me. “If there’s anything you need help with, just ask. While you’re here, we’ll be neighbours. Our apartment is right across the hall from Shade’s. Seriously, if you want out of whatever’s going on, call me. I’ve got your number, let me dial it now, then you’ll have mine.”
She pulled the phone from her jeans pocket and squinted at the screen. “Shit. Arran’s hunting for me. Something to do with my brother. I’d better go.”
“Wait,” I said in desperation. “Do you know anything about how this place works? There’s a deal my father struck.”
Using the word ‘deal’ was a guess, but Genevieve paused.
“Not much. I might be dating Arran but I don’t pay much attention to the details of how he runs this place. I can ask him?”
I chewed my lip. She noticed.
“How about I ask subtly?” My relief must’ve been apparent, because Genevieve dusted off her hands. “Consider it done. I’ll report back when I have something to share. I take it you don’t want Shade to know about this?”
“It’s better if he isn’t aware of my snooping.”
She nodded and held out a hand to Cassie. “You’d better come with me and say hi, otherwise Arran will be storming up to drag you back from the edge.”
“Ugh, men are so dramatic.” Cassie rolled her eyes but climbed off the wall.
Both women retreated to the fire escape.