Loud. Jovial. Nothing ever got him down because he wouldn’t let it.

I knew that voice.

Enzo Concetti, Senior.

My father.

“Shit,” I whispered, not tearing my eyes from Benny.

“Your dad,” Ben confirmed what I already knew. “I wanted to slam the door in his face but couldn’t. Decided to call but you showed.”

“Fuck,” I got out before Dad descended.

Regardless of the fact I had a purse and computer bag, which would make any embrace awkward, he wrapped his arms around my waist, picked me up, and shook me.

“My baby girl!” he shouted.

I couldn’t move my hands so I just looked down at him and greeted, “Hey, Dad.”

“Heya, gorgeous.” He grinned up at me, then dropped me to my heels, let me go, turned, and clapped Ben hard on the shoulder, leaving his hand there and squeezing. “Girl, you scored yourself the good Bianchi.”

Ben’s face turned to granite.

As for me, my insides shriveled up.

Dad seemed not to notice Ben’s response, or the unbelievable inappropriateness of his words, and squeezed Ben’s shoulder, swaying it forward and back while saying, “No offense to the dead or that other one, uh…Manny.”

I watched as slowly, Ben looked down to the hand on his shoulder before he turned his eyes to me.

This forced me to jerk out of my horrified stupor and cry, sounding desperate and, therefore, loud, “Let’s take this inside.”

Dad, who gave Ben one more sway while I held my breath, hoping Benny wouldn’t blow before Dad let him go, said, “Excellent idea.”

Thankfully, Dad let Ben go, but regretfully, he did it in order to move toward my front door.

I caught Benny’s eyes, giving him a nonverbal, yet still screaming, I’m so sorry.

Ben reached out and took my computer bag, then with his free hand, grabbed my hand and started me up the path my father was already taking.

“How’d you find me, Dad?” I called to his back, shifting the handle of my purse to my shoulder.

He stopped, turned, and smiled at me.

In that glance, I saw what I’d known a lifetime: I got a lot of him—dark hair that was shiny and lustrous (even without product); light brown, almond-shaped eyes with lashes I never had to curl because they were naturally curly; good bone structure.

Dad was tall, though, and I wasn’t, not really. And I got Ma’s curves and her light skin.

Looking at him now, well past his prime, he looked better than most men in their prime could ever hope to look. Vital. Strong. Handsome.

“Was it a secret?” he asked on a big smile. Sharing it was all the same to him, if it was or wasn’t. He didn’t give a shit. If I didn’t want to see him, he was coming anyway.

I knew this because he did.

But actually, it was a secret. He was one of the many reasons I escaped Chicago. So it was not great news he found me in Brownsburg.

Before I could answer, he went on, turning back to the door, “Enzo Junior.”

At that moment, I decided that once I found a way to get rid of Dad, calmed Benny down, fed him, and had sex with him, I was heading straight out to the drugstore to buy a big, fat, red Sharpie. I would then go home and use it, crossing my brother’s name off my Christmas list.

“Babe,” Ben said low and with a weird hint, not of anger…of warning.

I didn’t like the idea of what amounted to a further warning, especially when the bad news had already picked me up and shook me not a minute before.

Still, I looked up from watching Dad disappear into my apartment to catch Ben’s eyes.

The instant I did, he said, “Not a lotta time, cara, but brace. He’s not alone, and you get in there, don’t figure you’re gonna be happy.”

What did that mean?

I had no chance to ask.

We were at the door.

Luckily, I braced. Further to that fortune, Ben tightened his hand in mine, and for once, he moved into my house before me.

This gave me a view to what was inside so I had a moment to process it, the kick it dealt to my stomach, and partially recover before I had to face it.

Standing among the calm, muted blue, green, and purple colors of my furniture, and the fêng shui hand I had at decorating that was uncluttered and reflected the subdued tones of my furniture in harmony with my personality (or what I wanted my personality to be, which was far from subdued), stood my father’s woman.

I didn’t remember her name because I’d only met her twice. Once when Dad stopped at my apartment in Chicago when she was with him. He’d dragged her up, but he was only there because, “Baby, your daddy’s seriously gotta pee.” He did his business while she and I made awkward conversation. Then he came out, gave me a kiss, and they took off to wherever Dad preferred to be without him even telling me her name.

The second time, Enzo was in town and we were all together—Nat, Davey, Cat, her husband, Art, Enzo, and the girl he was dating at the time (who he also broke up with during that trip, making the trip home less than enjoyable, freaking Enzo).

Of course, this dissolved into pandemonium when Cat said something that set off Nat. They started fighting, loud and foul-mouthed. Enzo tried to play peacemaker and got sucked in, so he got loud and foul-mouthed. Dad lost his mind because we were “embarrassing” him in front of his woman, and he kicked us all out, even me, and I wasn’t doing anything.

That had been at least a year ago. Maybe two.

But in the end, I’d long since learned not to remember their names. They came, they went. When I was younger, I would latch on, hoping one would have staying power and maybe give me what I didn’t know at the time I’d needed. Most of the time, they were pretty cool and a few of them were very loving, sometimes genuinely, sometimes doing it thinking they could get to Dad’s heart through his kids.

They never stuck, though, and after a little girl gets heartbroken repeatedly at losing woman after woman who drifted through her life, she learned.

I learned.

So I didn’t remember this one’s name.

Dad got older, but his women’s ages stayed the same. The problem was, he had age, experience, and although not much maturity, he had some. His women usually didn’t, at least the last part, so he got bored of them easily.

This one had lasted a lot longer than most.

And I was seeing she was probably going to last even longer (though this was not a guarantee) because she was obviously very pregnant.

My brother had two women who were imminently going to give him children, as well as lawsuits for child support.

And my father’s next child would be aunt or uncle to someone who was their same age.

Now.

Seriously.

What the fuck was up with that?

I didn’t realize I’d frozen just beyond my small foyer until I felt Ben’s hand give mine a squeeze.

When it did, I looked from the woman standing in my living room to my father.

“Tell me this is a fucking joke,” I demanded.

“Frankie,” Ben said softly beside me.

I felt him get close, but I didn’t tear my eyes away from my father.

“Francesca,” Dad clipped, the jovial, nothing-gets-him-down-because-he-wouldn’t-let-it look evaporating and anger replacing it.

I looked quickly to the woman, who I noted distractedly was very attractive, but she had also turned very pale. “No offense to you. You’re probably awesome. But…” I looked back to Dad. “Are you fucking serious?”

“We came down to share our good news with you personally, spread the joy, and this is what we get?” Dad asked back sharply.

I, again, quickly looked at the woman and repeated, “Again, no offense to you…” My eyes returned to my father. “But, just sayin’, next time, spread the joy over the phone.”

Dad planted his hands on his hips and returned, “I do not believe you’re actin’ this way.”

“You don’t?” I asked, leaning back and pulling my hand from Ben’s so I could throw both up. Then I lifted one and pressed a finger to my face. “Well, let me see…why would I react this way when you’ve gotten a woman pregnant?” I threw my hand out and finished sarcastically, “Oh, I know! You’re bringin’ a kid into this world, and you’re the kind of man who had another kid who got shot and you” —I leaned toward him, screaming— “did not even go see her in the hospital!”

I heard the door close behind me, meaning Ben closed it, but he got back to me quickly and I knew this when I felt his arm hook around my waist. He pulled me back a foot and then positioned in front of me, slightly to my side.

I was totally pissed way the hell off, but still, him doing that…

God.

Seriously.

Benny.

“You got shot?” the woman asked, her voice sounding dismayed, and I looked around Benny to her.

“Yeah, it was on the news,” I shared.

“I don’t watch the news,” she said quietly, her eyes going to Dad. “Did you know this, Enzo?”

“Yeah, he did, since my ma called him the night it happened,” Ben put in but didn’t allow further reaction to this news. Being the awesomeness of Benny, he immediately moved to end our brief scene. “Now, congratulations on your news. Wish the best for you,” he said to the woman, then turned to Dad and went on, “But this didn’t go too good and you got a long drive ahead of you, so I’m thinkin’ we should cut this here before it deteriorates.”

Ben’s rational suggestion was ignored while the woman stared at my dad and my dad, who read her stare, stated, “Sweetheart, that happened to Frankie around the time you told me you were havin’ my baby.”

“And I told you I was havin’ your baby and you seemed pretty excited, Enzo, but you didn’t take me on a six-month-long celebration cruise with no phones, Internet, or Morse code machines,” she snapped back, and I felt my body jerk and my eyes get big.

None of Dad’s women ever spoke to him like that.

Not a one.

Except maybe my ma.

“Chrissy, sweetheart, I didn’t want anything to—” Dad started.

“Do not utter another word, Enzo Concetti,” she hissed, leaning toward him. Then her eyes cut to me, and Ben crowded me, even as I pressed into the side of his back at the look in her eyes. “Are you okay?” she asked, then tossed a hand my way. “I mean, after the shooting.”

“Uh…yeah. It was ages ago.”

“Was it random?” she bit out.

“Um…no. I was kidnapped by a crime lord and taken to a lakeside community. I escaped and ran for my life through the forest with another lady. The crime lord caught up with us and shot me. Then Ben” —I made a lame gesture in the air beside me to indicate Benny— “and his cousin, Cal, the boyfriend of the lady I was with, shot him. Seein’ as Cal shot him in the head, he didn’t survive. Though, Ben shot him in the gut, where the guy shot me, and I can attest that, even if that was all he’d had, he wouldn’t have been doin’ very well for a while. Luckily, though, he’s dead, and I don’t say that because I’m a bad person. I say that because he was a crazy person and he shot me.”

When I was done rambling, her narrowed eyes slowly cut to my father.

“She was kidnapped and shot?” she asked.

“Chrissy—”

“Did you know about the kidnapping?” Chrissy demanded.

Dad didn’t say a word, but he looked uncomfortable.

Ben said a word, though, and it was, “Yep.”

Chrissy looked fit to be tied for a good long time. While I reached out a hand to catch Benny’s, trying to breathe in the air clogged by a pregnant woman’s fury, I fought back the desire to laugh. Hard.

Finally, she looked to me, and the further fury on her face made me press closer to Benny.

Then it faded clean away and she whispered, “I’m sorry.”

I stared at her wondering if that just happened.

Ben was not quite as dumbfounded.

I knew this when he stated, “You don’t have to be. You didn’t know. You aren’t blood.” Ben jerked his head Dad’s way. “But he should be.”

“I—” Dad began.

“Shut it,” Benny suddenly barked with such ferocity, my whole body jerked. “You do not get to do this. I didn’t know where Francesca would be at when I let you in, but now I know. So now I’m gonna tell you, this is the last time you perpetrate a scene like this with Frankie. You were not a good father. You are not a good man. You’re selfish and stupid, thinkin’ for however many years you been on this earth primarily with your dick. Your girl laid in a hospital bed after draggin’ her bleedin’ body through leaves, and that was after she ran for her life, and you got the fuckin’ balls to show at her house unannounced and drop a bomb on her, not even sayin’ word fuckin’ one about what she went through without the support of her goddamned family?”