Chapter 8

M y head feels like it's going to explode. The pounding behind my eyes is just irritated more by the sunlight streaming in through the slit between my drapes that didn't get closed all the way. Sitting up, I try to get away from the sunlight, but the movement only makes me nauseous. My eyes are open just enough to spot my desk trash can sitting beside my bed, and I have enough coordination to grab it before I puke all over the floor. There's nothing in my stomach, just bile and acid coming up, which makes me dry heave more. Placing the basket back on the floor, I squint my eyes, trying to see through the pain and figure out why I'm hearing something ring. It's muffled, but I can still make it out enough for it to be annoying. Being more careful this time, I move slowly, pushing myself up off my bed to follow the noise. When I open my bedroom door, I can hear it even louder and realize it's coming from my cell phone on the kitchen counter, right next to my keys and a note.

"Damnit," I swear, grabbing the phone to silence the call and switch the phone to vibrate. Through blurry eyes, I see I have ten missed calls and over a dozen text messages, most of which are from my father. Right when I'm about to sit my phone down on the counter to deal with him later, the phone begins to vibrate in my hand, his name flashing on the screen. "I guess he can't take a hint."

Sighing, I answer. "Hello," I state as clearly as I can. My voice is scratchy and my throat is sore.

"Is that any way to answer the phone for your father?" he snarls. "You sound terrible, but based on the pictures circulating online that shouldn't surprise me. I expect better of you, Illeana. You have done well hiding from the public light, and not advertising your whereabouts until last night. You are to come home this instant."

"What are you talking about, Dad?" I question, trying to wrap my head around what he's saying. Sure, I went out last night, but I didn't do anything that would be terrible or anything different from what normally happens when Morgan and I go out. Okay, falling asleep at the table was out of the norm, but that's it.

"There are online pictures circulating of you. We will discuss this and your behavior when you get home. Pack your bags; you most likely will not be returning to school this semester. I gave you a chance, and you blew it, Illeana. I expected better of you. You represent me with all of your actions. If I can't control my own daughter, how can the people expect me to help them?" His disappointment in me is veiled by his anger. Of course, he is more concerned about his image. He always has been, especially since Mom died.

"Dad, I think you're blowing this out of proportion. I'll come home next weekend, and we can talk about this. Just let me stay. The semester is almost over, and I have a test this week I can't miss." I'm hoping if I remind him what's at stake, he will back down. I added a business degree to my schedule to make him happy when it was the last thing I wanted. Writing has always been my passion, but he didn't think an English degree would help me find a job.

"I don't care, Illeana. I gave you a chance to stay in school by having Steel with you. It's clear both of you fucked up, so now you are to come home. If you aren't here by dinner tonight, I will come there myself to unenroll you. Am I understood?" He leaves absolutely no room for argument, especially when he hangs up the phone.

"Ugh, this is not my day," I sigh, dropping my head to the counter. The cool kitchen counter feels good against my forehead for a few minutes before I start to get chilly. Sitting here moping won’t solve anything. I have to go to my father's. Maybe then I can argue in person and convince him to let me continue at school.

Right when I'm about to get up to shower and hope it makes me feel better, three knocks ring out against my door. I know immediately who is going to be on the other side when I open it. A small part of me contemplates ignoring him completely, but I know he isn't going to go away. Taking a couple of steps from the kitchen to the door, I pull it open. "Steel."

"Illeana," he grunts before stepping into my room and forcing me to take several steps back. "Your father called me. He wasn't too happy with either of us. Care to guess why?" I can tell by his expression he's pissed. I'm also pretty sure he's asking me a rhetorical question, so I just stand here staring at him, waiting for him to continue. "Your little outing last night is public knowledge for everyone, and he is blaming me for your actions. I don't like being woken up by someone questioning me on how I do my job."

"Well, whose fault is that?" I retort, crossing my arms over my chest. When my hands brush against the fabric of my dress from last night, I feel my cheeks getting red. Shit, I forgot I was still wearing this dress. Now it looks even worse.

"It would be yours because you insisted on going out no matter what. Now, both of us are being summoned to your father's house. You have an hour to get ready before we need to leave. I expect you to tell him that this was your idea. I'm not going to sit there getting yelled at because you refused to listen to me." He doesn't wait for me to answer before he turns and walks right out my door, slamming it shut behind him.

"Could this day get any worse?" I mutter, dropping my arms and slowly making my way back to my bedroom. My head is still killing me, and I have a feeling it will be all day long. When I get back in my room, I see the pain meds and water sitting on my nightstand, waiting for me. "Damn, I should have taken those earlier." Quickly grabbing them, I swallow the pills down and then move into my bathroom, stripping out of last night's dress on the way. An hour isn't long enough to feel human again, so I need to be quick.

"Don't you think you should have packed a little bit more?" Steel questions as he places my large suitcase and duffle bag in the back of his SUV. I packed a decent amount of clothes and some things I just didn't want to leave behind. My backpack has all my stuff for school. I'm hoping I can calm my father down and get him to allow me to come back to school or at least do some online classes for a week and then resume in person. If not, then I guess I'll be asking Morgan to pack up the rest of my things.

"It's enough. I'm hoping I won’t need the rest. Plus, I have plenty of things at home, too." I shrug and walk around to the passenger side of the car, opening the door to the back seat to lay my backpack down. Keeping my purse with me, I close the door, open the front passenger seat, and climb inside. The sooner we get there, the sooner I can get back to campus. I honestly can't wait for the day my father no longer works in the public eye. My sister and I will finally live a normal life.

"Do you want to stop for food on the way or just travel straight through? We'll make it to your father's by dinnertime," Steel explains as he gets into the front seat and starts the engine.

Right when I'm about to tell him to just drive straight through, my stomach growls loudly. "Uh, I guess food," I blush and grasp my stomach. "Something fast food. My father is not a patient man and will not accept any excuse for us being late."

"McDonald's it is then," Steel replies as he begins driving away from campus and to my doom.

Thankfully, Steel doesn't try to push the conversation, instead choosing to let me stew in my thoughts silently. The most we speak for the start of the drive is so I can give him my food order. After that, he just lets me be, which is exactly what I need. It gives me time to think about the past couple of weeks and what's led to this moment.

Maybe I shouldn't have pushed back as much against my father and his request for me to have security as I did, but as a twenty-one-year-old, I have a right to live my life the way I want. I'm an adult. It's not like I'm out partying every night or failing classes. I have one of the highest GPAs in my classes, and I rarely go out to celebrate. Usually, it's only when Morgan is dragging me out to let loose, but none of our nights out has ever made the news. I can’t believe last night, of all nights, made the news.

After finishing my chicken nuggets and fries, I grab my phone and open Facebook to try to find the pictures my father said were posted online. It doesn't take much scrolling before they show up in my feed. Picture after picture of me dancing closely with the male from last night. The pictures wouldn't look too terrible if it wasn't for how short my dress was. In a few, you can see my dress ride up dangerously close to revealing everything underneath it and show the male's hand sitting high up on my leg as well as on the bare skin. Zooming in on one of the pictures, I can even see Steel in the background staring directly at me, or well, more glaring at the male who I was dancing with. It looks like he wants to kill the guy. I guess that whole saying “if looks could kill” is true in this instance.

Shit, now I can understand why my father wasn't too thrilled. It also doesn't help that this is the first time I've had pictures like this leaked to the media. Usually, everyone here leaves me alone. No one really knows who I am since I use my mother's maiden name for everything. Someone must have found out the truth and decided to take advantage of it. Knowing that I'm going to regret it, I open the news stories to see what they wrote about me.

By the time I'm done reading through the fourth story, I'm silently crying in my seat. The story they all were spinning is completely false, saying I'm a party girl who likes to go out and get drunk nightly. Some said the guy I was dancing with is one of many that I use for all sorts of different things. Even one story alleged that the male was attached to the Silent Death Family, a large gang that runs rampant in our state. Each story couldn't be further from the truth. Well, I have no proof the guy didn't belong with the mafia, but I want to believe that even while drunk, I wouldn't do something so stupid as link myself to them in any sort of way. I know the destruction that they cause in our state in their pursuit of control. I would never put myself in a situation that would bring me close to them. Especially when I'm still not convinced that they weren't behind my mother's death. No, I wouldn't be that stupid.

"We're almost there, Illeana," Steels calls out softly, his eyes never once leaving the road to look at me. "We need to stop at Rockport Security before we head to your father's."

"Thanks," I mumble, appreciating the warning so I can gather my thoughts and get my tears under control. I need to present a strong front to represent my family. We can't have anyone seeing a Granger cry in public. These stories are worse than anything I could have imagined, and now I see why he was so furious. It's going to take a miracle for me to talk him down and be allowed to go back to school. Pretty sure I'm about to have to become a nun just to stand a chance of finishing classes on time.

"Everything okay?" I ask when his phone vibrates in the cup holder for about the tenth time since he pulled me from my thoughts a few seconds ago.

"It's fine," he grunts, silencing the phone again.

"You sure? It seems like someone is really trying to reach you," I push, trying to find something else to focus on instead of my thoughts.

"Do you honestly care?" He snaps. "I mean, come on, Illeana. You know my phone is blowing up due to your actions. It was my job to watch over you and keep you protected. Your photos are all over the internet because I failed to protect you. My phone is blowing up with my partners asking me what happened and trying to do damage control. We've managed to get some of the photos taken down, but not all of them. Your father is furious and thinks that we are incapable of doing the job he hired us to do. So yeah, my phone is blowing up while we try to clean up this mess. This is exactly why I didn't want this job. I didn't want to play babysitter, but I was the only person available for the job. I read your file and figured it wouldn't be that hard to babysit a little goody two shoes whose only focus is on school, but you've managed to try to fight me every step of the way."

"Okay, clearly you're mad," I answer calmly, not really sure what to say. I don't want to make this situation any worse, and I know I'm the one to blame for this. I fucked up and now he is taking the blame for it as well. I doubt there is anything I can say to make this better. "I'm sorry that I caused issues for you. You're right, I was making this more difficult than it needed to be. I didn't want to change my routine for something that wasn't an issue at all. My father's career has touched so much of my life, but at Westhill University, it never felt like I was living in his shadow. At school, I'm able to be myself. This is the first time something like this has ever happened."

"Did you think that it never would? It was always a possibility. You've gotten lucky so far, Illeana, but luck always runs out. I told you when we met I didn't want to interrupt your life any more than was necessary. You may not know everything about why I was hired to protect you, but you should have trusted your father’s reasons and respected them. You made all our jobs ten times harder with this. I knew I should have stopped you, so in the end, this is on me. I was responsible for you, and I still let you go out." He shakes his head, making his blond hair drop into his face and cover part of his eyes as he sighs.

Not only is he disappointed in me, but also in himself. Shit, I really made a mess of things with this. He's right. It is my fault that I pushed him about going out. He's also right that I've been lucky. Having spent the last almost three and half years, having no one besides Morgan and the Dean know who my father is has been a miracle. Eventually, my identity would come out, especially at graduation when my dad showed up to watch me walk, but I've gotten lucky so far with being able to live my life hidden from the public eye while at school.

"I'm sorry, Steel. I fucked up. Badly. I'll make sure my father doesn't take it out on you. This is my mistake, and I'll take the heat for it." It's not much, but it's all I can give him right now. Steel has been a lot nicer to me than many of the guards my father has had on us throughout the years.

I should have thought about how my actions reflected on Steel. I took advantage of his niceness toward me, instead focusing on what I wanted and trying to ignore how hot the man was. He stayed out of the way in classes, not drawing attention to himself or me. He even helped me with my homework from time to time and brought me coffee when I was studying for long hours in the library. So yeah, this one is on me.

"It's fine; just talk with your father and do what he asks of you. I can handle myself and my job," he grunts as he slows the car down on our approach to the front gates of what I think is the entrance to the Rockport Security offices. "Illeana," he pauses, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. "Listen to your father and try not to cause too much of a fight. You have no idea what's going on right now, and I just want you to be safe, with or without me watching over you."

"You sound like once you drop me off later today, this will be the last time I see you," my voice cracks as I turn my whole body to look at him. Panic rises in me at the thought of him losing his job over me. "I won't let you lose your job, Steel."

"Don't worry about me or my job, Illeana. There are plenty of people who need security. You need to stay safe. There's a lot more going on behind the scenes than you were told. Don't go looking for trouble, promise me," he finally turns to look at me, waiting for me to promise him.

"Steel," I shake my head, worried. I know we still have a couple of hours before we confront my father, but it already feels like he is saying goodbye, and I don't like it.

"Promise me, Illeana. I'm going to do everything in my power to protect you, but you also need to protect yourself," he pleads, not bothering to step on the gas to proceed through the open gates until I answer him. "Illeana, I'm serious. I need you to promise me."

"Fine, fine, I promise," I answer, hating what he's asking me to do. I don't like being kept in the dark, and that's exactly what everyone is doing right now.