“Sorry to say, man,” Abel replied gently, his tone stating he was sorry, “you won’t.”
“That doesn’t work for me, seein’ as she’s Lilah. A woman now, but she used to be a little girl I held in my arms and gave a bottle,” Snake shot back.
My heart twisted.
“Then you need to make it work for you,” Abel returned, “seein’ as you fall in order to keep her alive, she’s gotta live that life knowin’ you did that shit for her.”
“And she’ll feel it. I know it,” Snake retorted. “Then she’ll settle in the knowledge she had that kind of love.”
My heart twisted further and my lips whispered, “Snake.”
He looked to me. “You are not takin’ off.”
“Please understand,” I begged.
“Not gonna happen,” he bit off.
I drew in breath then looked to my dad. “Daddy?”
Dad looked whipped and my heart endured another vicious twist.
“Always knew,” he began, “one day I would no longer be the one whose job it was to shelter you from the storm. Hated havin’ that knowledge, knowin’ I’d have to give that over to the guy who’d claim you. Best job a man can have, bein’ a father, lookin’ after his little girl. Just had to hope like fuck the man that turned out to be was worthy.” He looked to Abel, then back to me. “Don’t know him all that well. I still feel in my gut that he is.”
Gratitude and bitterness mingled in my soul at what I thought he was saying.
“But no way, little girl,” Dad continued, “that storm turns into a fuckin’ hurricane, I’m turnin’ my back on you. Either of you.”
“Dad—”
“It won’t happen,” he stated inflexibly, surprising me. “You leave, we follow. We gotta fight, we fall, shit happens. But I will not live the rest of my years knowin’ my little girl lives a threat day to day and I didn’t do what I could to keep her safe.”
“It’s important to us to know you’re safe,” I replied and threw out a hand to the table. “All of you.”
“You known me your whole life?” Dad asked.
Shit.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“Then you know this shit you’re sayin’ is not gonna happen.”
Abel growled.
I squeezed his thigh and tried again.
“Please, Dad, see it from our perspective.”
“I do,” he stated. “But I’m seein’ you don’t see it from ours.”
“Dad—”
“Lilah.” He cut me off. “Give you anything, give you the world. I know you know that. But I will not give you this.”
I clamped my mouth shut.
Chen, sitting beside me, stood, and when he did, I tilted my head back to look at him, seeing his gaze on Abel and his face twisted with anger.
“I did not start training when I was six years old to face a threat only to retreat when that threat came real,” he declared. “Xun didn’t. Wei didn’t. Ma, knowin’ this shit could go down for sixty-six years, fucking didn’t. We’re prepared. They can bring it on. We’ll be here to face it.”
“A smart warrior knows his opponent, when he can face him and when he should not,” Abel replied.
“A brave warrior knows when it’s worth it to face a lethal opponent anyway, even if the odds do not favor him,” Chen fired back.
“Fuck,” Abel snarled, because Chen’s comeback was a good one.
“Do not say this shit to Ma,” Wei ordered, also rising. “Do not break her heart like this. Do not even mention this shit to her.”
“It’s her I’m lookin’ after. She’ll get it,” Abel returned.
“It’s her who will not survive a broken heart that never mended, which, if you do this, you’ll shatter,” Wei retorted. “And you fuckin’ know that shit, brother. You fuckin’ know it. She barely could live without Dad. You think she can end her days without you?”
“Wei—” Abel began.
Wei leaned across the table to his brother. “Every woman in our line for five generations has been born to you and has died with you. You can’t take that away from Ma. She’s lived knowin’ one thing in this life is true—that she’ll have you from the first breath she took to her last.”
Oh…my…God.
I felt Abel’s emotion roiling off him, but Wei wasn’t done.
“This family gave you everything. You don’t get to decide to take it away.”
I felt Abel’s emotion now beating into me and I leaned closer to him.
“You demand to have your dungeon close to Ma everywhere we go thinkin’ it’s you that needs to be near her so you can protect her. But you’re wrong, Abel,” Wei went on. “She does that shit. She finds these places so you can live close because she needs to protect you. Like her mother did. Like her grandmother did. I can go on and you know it. You’re ours. Centuries of you in this family made you blood, even if we don’t share it, and you don’t turn your back on blood. We know that. We’ve lived it. Generations of our women have given that to you. Don’t take that away.”
On that, Wei did not wait for a reply, he stalked out.
Chen followed him.
Xun scraped his chair back and did the same.
Snake, Moose, and Jabber followed suit.
When they were gone, Dad turned his eyes from the door and looked to Abel. “Think on this, son, and do not make any rash decisions. I’ll say it true…you take off anyway, I’ll follow you. And from what I heard at this table, I will not be alone.”