Untamed (78 page)

Glass whirls on me, jabs a finger in my face. “God damn it, Duncan, is this your fault? Did you make my daughter run away?”

“No,” I say. “Get your fucking finger out of my face.”

His finger lingers there for a moment longer, but then he snaps it back and steps away. We’re in the living room at his house – I’ve never called it ‘home’ – and perhaps he is remembering the time he tried to shout at Dee, and I got in his way, put a hand on his shoulder.

“You’ll talk to me with respect, boy,” he says, starting to shake. “I made you. Without me, you’d just be some rat on the street, some fucking lowlife addicted to meth. Don’t you forget that!”

I lick my lips, ball my fists, but control myself. “Are you sure she’s run away?”

“Her bank account has been emptied, and her belongings from her room packed. She also stole about thirty-thousand in cash from my office safe.”

“How do you know she packed her belongings? You went through her stuff?”

“When you have a child of your own, you’ll understand,” Glass spits at me. “Where the fuck did she go?”

“She can’t go where she wants?”

“Not without my permission!” he barks, huffing, turning around and starting to pace up and down the room. “How do you think it’s going to look? What about my reputation? Johnny Marino doesn’t even know where his own daughter is.”

“She’s an adult,” I tell him. “She can do what she likes.” I say it because I’m indignant on her behalf, but deep inside it rips me apart that she left.

That she left
me
.

“That fucking girl stole what’s mine!” Glass roars, slamming his fist down on the dining table. He drains his glass of brandy and with shaking hands pours another.

I don’t know what he means by that…
stole what’s mine
. Is he talking about the money? No… thirty-grand is nothing to him. This is more… personal.

“Did she say anything to you,” I ask him. Glass’ behavior is unsettling, and alarm sirens are wailing inside my mind. There’s something else going on. It’s time I fucking found out.

“No.” he says.

I know he’s lying right then and there. “I saw you pull her aside just before the fight.”

“Oh, that was nothing, just a talk.”

I raise an eyebrow. “About what, Glass?”

“None of your God damn business is what.”

We stew in silence for a moment. I can hear Frank outside in the corridor shifting his feet.