"Very much so, sir," Jonathon spoke up.

"Dad," Kylie said. "Jonathon's girlfriend was mugged last week. You could understand how he might now be a tad overprotective."

Jonathon nodded. Holiday glanced at Kylie as if to say, good move. Burnett seemed to agree.

Her father sighed. "I'm sorry to hear about your girlfriend. Is she going to be okay?" he asked Jonathon.

"Yeah," Jonathon said, then flinched as if remembering his manners. "Oh, I mean, yes, sir, and thank you."

With most of the tension lessening, Kylie looked at her dad. "What are you doing here, Dad?"

He frowned. "I came to see you. I e-mailed you late last night and called this morning. You would have known I was coming if you had taken my call or read my e-mail."

"I'm sorry," she said. "It's been a crazy morning."

"She is attending school," Burnett added.

Her stepfather looked apologetic. "My company sent me down here for a meeting with a sister company that's not happening until two this afternoon, and I thought maybe I could steal you away and we could grab brunch together."

Behind Tom Galen, Kylie spotted Burnett scowl. The vampire had made it clear she wasn't leaving the school without him until they knew Mario wasn't in the vicinity. Burnett looked directly at Kylie and shook his head with determination. He wasn't just saying no, he was saying hell no!

"Uh, I already had breakfast," Kylie said.

"Well, we'd just grab something to drink," her stepdad said.

Kylie shot Burnett another quick glance. The man was still shaking his head a firm hell no.

"I ... I have classes," Kylie said.

Disappointment filled her stepdad's eyes. She hated hurting him. Today she'd already hurt Lucas, then Derek, now her stepdad. This wasn't a good day.

"Now, Kylie," he said. "I'm positive you can spare a few minutes of your time to visit with me."

She felt the tension building inside her and inside the room. Her stepdad wasn't going to back down, and from the looks of things, neither was Burnett.

This was not going to end well.

Chapter Twenty-three

Kylie concentrated on looking at her dad and tried not to focus on the scene happening behind him-the scene being a nonverbal argument between Holiday and Burnett. An argument that rivaled the old silent movies that included some very angry hand motions and some very unhappy and telling facial expressions.

"Uh," Kylie said, a complete stalling tactic because face it, she didn't have a clue what to say.

"Of course you should go spend some time with your dad," Holiday finally blurted out.

Burnett's jaw clamped down so tight, Kylie would bet his teeth had just shortened a quarter of an inch.

Holiday stood up. "However, Kylie has a test in her next class. How about you coming back in about an hour or an hour and a half and you two can go to lunch somewhere. I think Kylie was telling me the other day that there was a hamburger joint in downtown Fallen that she wanted to try. What was it, Burgers R Us?"

Kylie nodded, clueless about the restaurant Holiday had mentioned.

Burnett's expression lightened; either he was seeing reason, or he was on to Holiday's plan. Kylie just wished she was on to it, too, because she was clueless as to what was going on.

Her father turned to Kylie. "I guess I could go take a drive and come back around eleven. It is pretty country out here."

"That would be good," Kylie said.

"Okay," her stepdad said, and reached out and drew her in for one of his super heart-melting hugs. The warmth from his embrace seeped into her chest and it should have made her panic subside. And it probably would have if over her stepdad's shoulder she didn't see the sword falling point down from somewhere above. It hit with force and caused a sharp clank as it lodged itself, standing straight up in the middle of Holiday's desk.

Kylie's heart lurched and she felt her father flinch at the noise. One thought ran amok in her head. How was she going to explain this to her stepdad?

Burnett flew into action at vampire speed. He snatched the sword, knocked over Holiday's glass of tea, and then hid the weapon behind his back in one swift move.

Only a fraction of a second later, her father pulled loose and swung around to check out the clatter.

"What the fu ... frack?" Jonathon muttered, and then blushed when he realized what he'd almost said.

Burnett scowled at Jonathon. Holiday smiled and should have won an Oscar for her acting. "Dang it, I swear this is the second glass of tea I've knocked over today."

Her dad just looked back at Kylie, who hadn't breathed since the sword's miraculous appearance.

"I guess I'll see you in an hour and a half."

She nodded and inhaled.

"You're up for this?" he asked.

She got another gulp of oxygen into her lungs and hopefully to her brain."Are you going to walk me out?" he asked.

Feeling a bit like a bobble head doll, she nodded again, then added a smile to it, hoping to appear more convincing.

Her stepdad took one step and stopped and looked at her. "Are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost."

A ghost she could have handled, she thought.

"I'm fine." The two words came out squeaky. Unfortunately, she simply wasn't an awarding-winning actress like Holiday.

* * *

"I think it's doable," Kylie told her dad, and glanced up from the brochure of a guided hiking tour through the Grand Canyon-a trip he wanted to plan for them this summer. "It looks great." It wasn't really a lie, but she'd bet Chris, the vampire sitting a table away from her and her dad at the restaurant, might have heard her heart say differently.