My Hired Boyfriend (Completed)

22. Hella Scary

            CODA POV

            The cold air feels nice against my skin, the clamor of the beach house long gone.

            It was just me, in my car, driving alone.

            I thought Hazel was exaggerating when she talked about Addy, her best friend.

            Turns out, I was wrong.

            Addy was most definitely the scariest girl I have ever seen-not in the guns blazing kind of scary but the kind of scary that dug deeper than a knife.

            With guys, they mess with you physically-they’ll cut off an arm and toss it in the river but they’ll leave you alone after that, with women-

            Women, they mess with your mind.

            The minute my phone goes off, the terse ring of the phone quickly setting me on edge, I know there’s a problem.

            There was only one person who had that ringtone designated to them.

            Snatching if out of the cup holder, I take a glance at the caller ID, mixed emotions flying around.

            “What.”

            There is a slight static on the other end of the phone and I can almost see him lounging his leather chair, a glass of scotch by his table.

            “Coda,” he says with clear chastisement in his voice, “I was under the impression that you’d come back gratefully.”

            I inhale slowly, his voice still the same.

            “Well you’re mistaken Cordero,” I ground out, civil with a pinch of spite. This was the man who had fathered me when I was orphaned, sheltered me when I had no where else to go, yet he was everything I hated-everything I’ve come to despite.

            “Now that’s no way to treat your father now, is it son?” he tsks.

            “Don’t call me that,” I warn lowly, “And you’re not my father. Fathers don’t send their men down to follow their sons.”

            “I was only trying to protect you. From what I’ve heard though, it seems you don’t want to be protected any more,” he speculates.

            Furious, i tighten my grip on the steering wheel, roughly pulling the car over. “Protect me? Since when have you ever protected me? You starved me to try to teach me that things didn’t come easy in life, you made me steal to try to teach me that I had to work in life, you beat me to teach me to never lose into that position again and you’re telling me you did it all to protect me?”

            I was losing my calm clarity, every string snapping when it came to him.

            “Look where I have gotten you, boy. You were nothing when I took you in,” he reminds me, his voice low, a tone I’ve come to know as more dangerous than his yelling tone. “And here you are using everything I’ve given you-taught you- to spite me. Rick told me all about the little gas station incident-“ he spats.

            Rick-that sick bas-

            “I didn’t know you settled down,” he muses.