~ RIG ~
I grunted through the rest of my father’s instructions, only taking them halfway in. Cara had tensed, and that was making me nervous. I wanted to get off the phone, but couldn’t let him know that because then he’d want to know why. So it was a tense couple of minutes until I could finally stab my thumb at the end-call button on the phone, then drop it back to the quilt and turn to look at her again.
Cara watched me warily.
“Don’t, Car,” I breathed, taking her hand again. “Don’t let him get between us. I’m doing everything I can to make sure he’ll never hurt us—”
“I know,” she said quickly, squeezing my hand. “I know you are. I know you… I mean, my dad’s different, but still an asshole. And that’s what I recognized in you from the first time we talked about it, Rig. I
