“Don’t you dare talk about my father.” Every nerve in my body flared. What had Claudia told Tariq about him? Was there no secret she could keep? The times she’d broached the subject with me I’d shut her down. Where do you think Dad went the nights he didn’t come home? Claudia had asked me once, years ago. It’s none of your business or mine, I’d told her. Don’t ever mention it again.

“Claudia told me that your father’s flaws are not something you wish to discuss. But I will not hold back on the subject of Martin Sklar’s. The man has no conscience. Claudia has told me how he is ruining the life of his own son with his manipulations and lies. Did you know that he paid the mother of his son a tremendous sum of money so that she would agree never to see their son again?”

“She got it backwards. Martin’s ex wanted to be bought off. She didn’t care about Ridley.”

“That is not what Ridley told Claudia,” Tariq answered firmly. “He said that his father has kept him away from his mother and her family.”

I didn’t answer him. When the SUV stopped in front of Jesse’s building, I opened the door to make a quick getaway. Tariq grabbed my wrist and pulled the door shut.

“Let go,” I said.

“Will you promise to listen to me if I do?”

I tried to pull free but his grip was solid. “Let go of me right now.”

“Or you will do what?” He put his face close to mine. “Claudia made me promise not to tell you something that Ridley confided in her, but I am tempted to do it. She said you would go running to Martin Sklar with it if you knew. She has told me that you are as much a fool for him as you were for your father.”

Something in my brain snapped and I slapped Tariq’s face with my free hand. We stared at each other for a wordless moment before he released me. “I apologize, Lily,” he said as I slid off the seat and out the door. “I did not mean to—” The slamming of the door behind me blocked out anything else he said. I rushed into Jesse’s building and into the stairwell, not wanting to give Tariq the chance to come after me as I waited for the elevator.

Upstairs, Jesse bounded to the door when he heard my key rattling in the lock. “Hey, I just came in. Did something happen? You look kinda peaked.”

I grabbed him in a hug. I couldn’t let go for a long time. For the first time that day, I was with someone safe and sane and human.

❖