“You don’t understand what you’re askin’ me to do,” Ozzie said quietly.
“I do and I’ll do my best to make sure nothin’ I do blows back on you. That said, shit happens and I’m focused on makin’ Kia safe so, if it does, you need to suck it up and think quick to cover my ass and yours.”
Ozzie stared at Sam and Sam held his stare.
Then Ozzie looked very briefly at me but he avoided Dad’s eyes before he looked back at Sam.
“You hurt Vanessa, I won’t cover for you.”
“I’d like to rip the bitch’s head off but that’s not how I work,” Sam replied.
Ozzie tipped up his chin then continued, “Whatever you get you also give to us.”
“Done,” Sam agreed.
“You track either the broker or his man down, you give them to us.”
Sam shook his head. “No f**kin’ way.”
“Then no deal,” Ozzie fired back.
“We get what we need from them; you can have ‘em. But not until we know shit is locked down and Kia is safe,” Sam returned.
Ozzie clenched his teeth. Then he nodded.
Then he added, “Heartmeadow is not the OK Corral. Your badasses do not have carte blanche to make it so. They see a threat, they call it in.”
“They see a threat, they neutralize it then they call it in,” Sam countered.
“Jesus, Cooper!” Ozzie exploded, “How exactly do you think I can cover for your crew if a man who is not licensed to carry concealed in the State of Indiana or you, who’s in possession of two firearms for which you don’t have permits, drills holes into a suspected assailant before he becomes an assailant?”
“That is not my problem, it’s yours,” Sam stated. “And it’s the whole reason for this head’s up and why Essie is not in here right now learnin’ about what’s goin’ down with her daughter because she also has the right to know. What she doesn’t need is to be accessory to anything that might turn bad.”
Oh man.
That didn’t sound good.
“Would I be an accessory?” I asked.
“No,” Sam answered, tilting his head to look down at me.
“Dad?” I pushed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Sam replied, this time giving me the wrong answer.
“But –” I started.
“Don’t worry about it, Kia,” Dad stated and I looked at him.
“I –”
“I want to know,” Dad said firmly and looked at Ozzie. “I want to know everything from now on.” Dad looked at Sam. “Everything.”
Sam nodded immediately.
Ozzie looked to his feet.
“Oz?” Dad prompted.
Ozzie looked at Dad. “You know I was only trying –”
“No,” Dad shook his head. “We’ll deal with that later, after Kia’s safe. Right now, no more hiding anything. This is my daughter. I want to know.”
Ozzie held Dad’s eyes a moment before he nodded his head.
Dad looked at Sam. Then he looked at me.
Then he commenced in breaking my heart.
Tears forming in his eyes, he whispered an agonized, “I didn’t look out for you.”
I pushed against Sam’s arms when I saw his tears, heard the tortured tone of his voice but Sam’s arms locked tight.
Dad wasn’t done and I suspected this was because Sam felt this was my due and Dad’s responsibility to say it.
But I didn’t want him to.
“Dad,” I whispered, still pushing against Sam’s arms.
“We all let you down,” Dad told me. “Me especially.”
“Dad, don’t,” I begged quietly.
“You said things have come up for you, they’ve come up for me and your mother too. And bottom line, we let you down.”
“Stop,” I pleaded.
“I can’t,” he said brokenly.
“I didn’t ask for your help. I kept my secrets. I –”
Dad interrupted me. “You ask for Sam’s?”
My head jerked. “Wh… what?”
“You told me you made it hard on him and there he stands. And there he stood when he laid it out for Ozzie how it was gonna go down. Did you ask for that?” Dad asked.
“I…” I shook my head, “No.”
“He’s lookin’ out for you. I shoulda looked out for you.”
“Dad –”
“I gotta say it, Kiakee. I let you down. Your mother let you down.” He held my eyes and the tears trembled in his as he whispered, “You thought you were contaminated. My beautiful girl thought she was contaminated.” He stared at me and his voice broke when he finished, “I let you down.”
I tore out of Sam’s arms and ran across the room into my father’s.
He shoved his face in my neck and I felt his body jerk in my arms as he swallowed a sob which made one tear from my throat so I shoved my face in his neck and let loose.
I held him, he held me and then suddenly Dad’s head snapped up and he ordered in a thick voice, “No. You stay.”
I pulled my face out of his neck to look over my shoulder to see Ozzie moving through the doors to the dining room, shutting them behind him but Sam moving to the couch and sitting on its arm.
I looked at Dad and lifted my hands to both his cheeks.
Then I whispered, “Please don’t let him get his claws into you. I couldn’t bear that, Dad. It happened, it’s over, we deal with what we have to deal with now, we bury it where it belongs because he’s dead and we move on. I love you. I always did, I always will. We all made mistakes, including me. You didn’t let me down. I didn’t reach out so you could hold me up.”
“Hon, I understand you see it that way but I’m your father and I knew. You didn’t say it. We didn’t see it. But deep down inside I knew and I didn’t do anything. I couldn’t –”
“Really,” I interrupted him, “we don’t have to do this.”
His hands came up, fingers wrapping around my wrists and he pulled them down between us and shook them while he said, “Yes, Kia, we do.”
I closed my mouth.
Dad held my eyes.
“Your mother and me, we talked about it all the time. We couldn’t figure out if you loved him and put up with it because you did. Or if he’d broken you and you were showin’ a brave face. Missy talked to us, told us you were not ready to go there and we just needed to keep an eye on you and be there when you were ready. She said if we pushed, we might drive you closer to him and deeper into that mess. But it went against everything I was not to step in. I talked to Cooter least half a dozen –”