I wondered if my contempt showed on my face because Jill’s big brown eyes narrowed into slits.
“What? Do you want a tour or something?” she snapped.
I jerked my chin to the lanky bloke standing in the house my daughter slept in. He had a buzz cut, eyes so dark they were almost black, and a tattoo of a bleeding crucifix on his sharp cheekbone. There was something in the air around this guy. Something seriously off. “Who is he?”
“None of your business.”
“It’s my business while Kelly is here. Who are you?”
“People call me Crux.” He gestured to his face tattoo with a smug grin, like I was supposed to be impressed.
Jill rolled her eyes. “This is Dorian.”
So, this was the fucker who made my daughter uncomfortable?
“Dorian. Right. Well, this is your only warning, Dorian. You go anywhere near my daughter, and you’ll have me to deal with.”
Dorian sneered at my calm threat as he rounded the island. “You really don’t want to mess with me, mate.” He had a Liverpudlian accent. Good. Maybe that meant he’d fuck off back to Liverpool soon.
“I’m not your mate. And I’m not impressed or intimidated by you. You might think you’re a hard man. But I’m something scarier. I’m a father. A very protective one.”
Dorian caressed Jill’s thigh, grinning at me as he touched her between her legs like it would bother me beyond the fact thathe was a crude bastard. “I’m not interested in teen girls.” He winked.
Rage blasted through me, but I knew from harsh experience that letting my rage rule me led to chaos. For most of my life, I’d done a good job of holding the reins steady on what I considered the animal within. But since becoming a father, it had gotten harder to pull back the beast when my daughter was threatened.
I took a step toward this fucker, vibrating with fury that I had to leave Kelly here. “Did you know there are sharks in the Inner Hebrides? Well, I have a whole fleet of fishing boats there … If my daughter tells me you’ve even breathed in her vicinity, I will cut off your dick, take you on one of my boats, dangle your bleeding body into the water, and have a front seat to my first-ever shark attack. And the only ones who will hear your dying screams are me and the sharks. Do you understand me, Dorian?”
Jill gaped like she’d never seen me before while Dorian covered the flicker of fear that betrayed him with a laugh. “Your ex is funny, babe.” He slapped her thigh before saluting me. “Nice meeting you, Shaw.” He winked at me cockily before swaggering out of the kitchen.
“Are you insane?” Jill jumped off the stool.
Shaking with the confrontation and my building fury, I waved a hand to shut her up. “I’m going upstairs to say goodbye to Kelly.”
“You already did.”
“I’m just making sure that thug isn’t anywhere near her.” I strode out of the kitchen.
“After that threat, he’ll be too scared to come back to the house, you prick!”
I smirked to myself as I took the wide staircase that curved upward onto the first floor. I kept going, past Kelly’s floor and up to Jill’s suite on the second. Hurrying quickly into Jill’s hugebedroom, I gave the room a sweep, curling my lip at the musky scent of sex. Other than clothes scattered everywhere and an unmade bed, there wasn’t any evidence here that proved Jill’s incompetency as a parent.
Moving into the huge marble-floored en suite, I checked the medicine cabinet, but it held nothing but over-the-counter meds.
There was nothing.
Fuck!
By the time I made it back downstairs, I could feel the sweat soaking through my T-shirt beneath my jacket. Not from fear but from panic.
I had to leave my daughter.
I couldn’t leave her.
It would break me beyond bearing.
Jill strolled out of the kitchen as I hit the entrance. She leaned against the doorframe, crossing her thin arms over her chest. She looked gaunt and had dark circles under her eyes. If I felt anything soft toward her, I might be worried. But this woman had pushed me to the point of hatred. I hadn’t known I could feel that way about anyone anymore.
“How much?” I asked quietly.