Chapter 35

BRIGGS

I closed my eyes, sloshing the whiskey around in my mouth, relishing the fiery spirit as it trickled down my esophagus. Layla was probably sleeping.

If I went up there, no talking would happen. I’d end up fucking her senseless again, like I had done in the shower earlier. I had to stop doing that.

But every time I got in her pants I turned into an animal, and she seemed to enjoy it, although she must’ve been awfully sore afterward.

An ear-splitting scream rent the silence in the house, and the sound came from the direction of Layla’s bedroom.

I took the stairs two at a time, my feet pounding down the hallway as I ran toward her room. Angry female voices spilled through the closed door.

I burst into the room, my eyes surveying the scene in front of me. Layla was clutching the blankets tightly against her chest, her face a sickly shade of gray.

My daughter was standing at the end of the bed, fists clenched at her side, chest heaving.

“How could you, Dad!?” she screamed.

“Quiet down, Kyla. You’ll wake the babies.”

“I don’t give a fuck!”

“Of course, you don’t,” I snapped. “Because you’re not the one who has to get them back to sleep.”

“Neither are you! You’ll go back downstairs and let your ~nanny~ take care of your kids. Just like you let mom take care of me. You have no problem blowing your load, but you don’t want any of the responsibility that comes with it.”

“What are you talking about? I’m raising the triplets on my own. And I was twenty years old when you were born. I wasn’t exactly in a position to raise a kid.”

“You should’ve kept it in your pants then!”

“Probably. But I was young and stupid.”

“You’re not young and stupid now! So what’s your excuse for banging your kids’ twenty-year-old nanny?”

“I want to know what was going on in here before I came upstairs. I heard a scream.”

Neither of them said a word, silence filling the room until the cries started, spilling through the adjacent wall and the baby monitor on Layla’s nightstand.

“I’m waiting,” I said, my eyes darting back and forth between them.

“I should go check on the babies,” Layla said quietly.

I pulled my phone from my pocket, firing off a text to Sonya. She replied right away. “Sonya will deal with the babies.”

Apparently, my entire house was awake.

“I need to get out of here,” Kyla tried to push past me. I blocked the doorway with my arm. “Move, Dad!”

“We aren’t done talking.”

“Fine!” she spat. “You wanna talk? Let’s talk. How about we start with the fact that you’re a disgusting pig?”

“What did you do to my girlfriend?”

“Your ~girlfriend~? Seriously? That’s sick, Dad! She’s young enough to be your daughter! Not to mention the fact that you fucked her sister. That’s all kinds of fucked up!”

“Answer my question, Kyla. What did you do to Layla?”

“You should’ve told me you were fucking her!”

“I was going to tell you about our relationship. I just wanted to wait until you got settled.”

“And earlier today on the boat, when I told you I was a lesbian and I wanted Layla, you didn’t think it would’ve been a good idea to tell me then?”

“I was in shock. I needed to talk to Layla before I told you. And I tried to tell you that Layla was straight, but you wouldn’t listen. You kept insisting that she’s as attracted to you as you are to her.”

“I thought she was! That’s why I came in here tonight.”

“Why did you come into her room in the ~middle of the night~?”

“To make my move.”

I glanced over at Layla. Her chin trembled, tears coursing down her cheeks. I wanted to go to her, hold her in my arms. But I had to deal with my daughter first.

“And what did you do when you got here?”

“Do you really wanna hear the details, Dad?”

“Yes!” I barked. “Now!”

“I crawled into bed with her. She was naked. When I started sucking on her nipples, she didn’t stop me. I thought she knew it was me.

“When I started eating her pussy, she liked it. She was moaning and thrusting at my face. I started fingering her. And then she said your name!”

“Let me get this straight,” I said, working very hard to keep my anger in check. “You thought it was okay to sneak into my nanny’s bed in the middle of the night and molest her?”

“She didn’t stop me. And she was naked.”

“She thought you were me!”

“How was I supposed to know that? If my dad and his ~girlfriend~ had been honest with me, all of this could’ve been avoided.”

“You shouldn’t be sneaking into ~anybody’s~ bedroom and climbing in bed with them. Regardless of who they are. That’s called sexual assault, Kyla.”

“Layla was obviously expecting ~you~ to do that. That’s why she was naked.”

“She’s my girlfriend!”

“She’s too young for you, Dad. What’s gonna happen when the media finds out? You’re a celebrity. You can’t do shit like this. Your publicist is gonna have a stroke.”

“That’s not your concern.”

“What about me?”

“My relationship with Layla is none of your business.”

She glared at me, nostrils flaring before she charged past me. I let her go this time. She needed to cool down.

I walked over to the bed and sat down, pulling Layla into my arms. “Are you okay?”

“Not really,” she whispered.

“What can I do?”

“I need to take a shower.”

“Okay. I’ll go get it started for you.”

“Thanks, Briggs.”

I waited on the side of her bed. She returned sometime later, wearing long pajama pants and one of my T-shirts.

“Feel better?”

“A little.”

“Where’d you get my shirt?”

“From your laundry basket,” she said, smiling shyly. “I feel close to you when I wear your clothes.”

“I have no problem with that. You can help yourself to whatever you want.”

“Will you hold me?”

“I can do that, honey.” I slipped under the covers, wrapping her up in my arms. She burrowed her head in my chest, her trembling gradually fading away as she drifted off to sleep.

I was dozing off when I heard the garage door go up. I grabbed my phone from the nightstand, texting Vlad.

Briggs

I heard the garage door. Was it you?

Vlad

Nope. I’m on my way there to check it out now.

A couple of minutes later, he sent another text.

Vlad

The Jag is gone.

I climbed out of the bed, careful not to wake Layla. When I went to Kyla’s room, I wasn’t surprised to find her missing. Vlad was in the kitchen when I came down the back stairs.

“Kyla took it,” he said. “I checked the security cameras.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, pinching the bridge of my nose while I tried to figure out what to do. Did my daughter even have a driver’s license?

“Do you want me to go find her?”

“Yeah. I’ll go with you.”

“Any idea where she might’ve gone?” Vlad asked when we reached the end of the driveway.

“No. She doesn’t know the area. And all these roads look the same in the dark.”

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I plucked it out, staring at the unfamiliar number. “Hello?”

“Mr. Westinghouse?”

“Who’s calling, please?”

“Officer John Keene from The Huntsville OPP. A vehicle registered to you was involved in a collision.”