Waiting for news felt like hours, everyone sitting in a chair as others paced, Marco hidden in the cafeteria where he went to get something to eat.
"Where is she? Is she okay?"
Looking up, Justin cursed under his breath.
"Now is not the time for your bullshit."
"You were smart for leaving my daughter, now it's your turn."
"You son of a bitch," standing, Justin charged towards him grabbing him by the collar of his shirt as everyone rushed to remove him.
"Justin, stop!"
"James!"
Pulling him away, Bruce held Justin back as he tried to push his way through.
Justin wanted to strangle him, kill him even. There were a lot of people in his life he hated, but none, not even those from the hells of his past, came close to the man before him.
"Might want to work on that anger of yours, boy, before you get yourself hurt."
"Keep it up and who knows maybe you'll be lying in a grave next to all the other men I've killed," he growled, eyes glaring.
"Is that a threat?"
"You should know by now, things like threats aren't exactly my forte. All those men you hear about on the news? All me."
He straightened his back, all emotion erased.
"What?" a sliver of a smirk was found pulling at the corner of his lips as he cocked his head to the side. "Cat got your tongue?" He chuckled, "Not so ballsy now, are you?"
He straightened his jacket, standing tall even though everyone knew he felt threatened. "My daughter's better off without you."
"No – you know what? Fuck you. I was good to her." He laughed, "yeah, I fucked up—a lot. I do some fucked up shit and sometimes I even took it out on her 'cause I got a lot of shit going on in my head but I love your daughter. I protected her as much as I could and if I could go back, trust me, I would. Despite all this, nothing means more to me than her and her happiness. I'd do anything to make sure she never got involved."
Licking his lips, he took a step back, silence filling the room as he ran his fingers through his hair looking away for a split second in John's direction before looking back at James. "You don't have to like or understand me, I don't even like me sometimes, but we got a lot riding on us right now. I don't need you breathing down my neck. Tonight's about Carly and making sure she gets out of this alive."
Taking a step back, he took a deep breath, "but just so we're clear, your daughter has an equal chance of getting shot walking down the street as just being with me. You can't save her from everything. You may think you can, but if I can't then, how can you?"
"Where is she?"
"She called but her battery must have died, she's on her way. She stayed to call Carly's parents,"
"So, there's a madman loose and you thought it was smart to keep my daughter by herself? What if whoever did this to Carly is still out there?"
"You don't know how this works but if they hit us once, they won't go for it again. It would be a replication and that's not something they do."
"How reassuring," he scoffed.
"Look—" Justin began before John interrupted.
"Enough," John snapped, "enough with the constant arguing. My wife is in surgery right now and all anyone can manage to do is fight. Give it a fucking break." He turned to face Kelsey's father, "I get you don't like us, and that's fine, but if I hear you talk down to us one more time I will kick you out. You don't know anything about us or what we have been through so your opinions right now don't fucking matter."
