Chapter 1

This cannot be happening I thought as I lay awake in the luxuriously furnished bedroom and smoked yet another cigarette.

I stared at the ceiling and tried for sleep, but sleep was the last thing on my mind, it came way after my husband at home in the house we'd bought, it came after the good, well paid job I'd given up and it even came after the man in bed with me, the man I'd made love to hours before, the man I was aching for now!

It had all started three months ago with a lawyer's letter from New York telling me that they'd been charged with looking for the daughter of a Mister John Slaughter of Buffalo near New York, if the letter was a mistake I was to ignore it, but if I could confirm that I'd been born in New York nineteen years ago, they'd be grateful if I would call collect.

There was a New York number and a contact name!

"It's him Freddie" I said excitedly, "It has to be my dad"

Freddie had been as excited as I was, he'd helped me all along in trying to find my dad because he knew how much it meant to me,

"Ring them babes" he told me, so I looked at the clock and knew it would be just after nine in the morning in New York, my hands were trembling as I picked up the phone and punched in the number.

They asked me what seemed like a million questions, did I know the names of my late mother? Did I know my father's name? When was I adopted? When was I taken to the U.K?

Then finally, the man said that all his questions had been answered to his satisfaction and thanked me,

"We have to confer with our client miss" and he put the phone down,

It was the very next day when our phone rang, my arm shot out like a striking snake,

"Hello?"

"Piper?"

It was him, I knew it was him, stupidly I couldn't speak, my lip trembled and my eyes flooded with tears, Freddie took the receiver from me and told him that I was crying,

"Give her a minute" the voice said, "I guess I could cry myself right now, it's been a long time"

Eventually, I pulled myself together just long enough to say "hi" and then I broke down again and Freddie took over yet again.

He told me later when I was calm enough that I was flying out from Heathrow the following day, John my dad had asked him to go too, but he just couldn't get the time off work,

"Go yourself babes" he said, "Go and see your father"

We made love that night like we'd never done before, at least how Freddie had never done before, I lay beneath him, my legs wrapped tightly around his back whilst he ploughed into me.

It was nice and I won't deny that I enjoyed it, but I was disturbed that it wasn't Freddie's face that I saw as I orgasmed, I'd never seen my dad, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why it was his face I'd imagined.

"Be lucky sweetheart" Freddie said as we parted at the airport and I climbed the steps into the vast jet liner that was take me to where I needed to be.

A million thoughts raced through my head as I sat back in the seat, he might not even like me, I might not like him, he might be happily married with a big family, I might not like his wife, his kids, my half brothers and sisters, he might be a down and out, looking for a hand out, no, I told myself, that's being stupid, he'd paid my fare at the New York office, first class too, whatever he was, he certainly wasn't a bum!

It seemed to take forever to get through immigration control at the airport, but finally the lady stamped my visa and I was in!

I walked through into the massive concourse and I saw him, head and shoulders above everyone else, I just knew it was him and he saw me too, I don't know how he knew, but he ran towards me and shouted,

"Piper?"

"Dad?"

Then I was lifted off my feet and crushed half to death by the big bear of a man who smelled of fresh aftershave even through his neatly trimmed beard,

He repeated my name over and over whilst I just held him and cried, people stared at us but I didn't care, he tried to put me down but I clung to him, I didn't want him to put me down, I wanted him to hold me, kiss me and...

Finally, he set me down gently and held both my hands in his massive paws,

"Are you Piper?" he asked softly and I nodded, still unable to speak,

He put a finger under my chin and looked into my eyes,

"Yeah" he said even more softly, "You got my eyes Piper"

His own eyes were wide and as deep a blue as my own, like mine they were full of tears and I knew he wasn't far off crying just like me.

"Daddy" I croaked and he smiled, no he didn't smile, he opened his mouth and a rainbow appeared to light up the whole world,

"Say that again baby" his voice was as deep as I'd always knew it would be and I smiled,

"Daddy" I said again and then he broke.

I felt like a little girl with my tiny hand in his paw as we left the airport and went into the enormous car park, my head came up to just below his shoulders where a mass of long, black hair tumbled untidily around the open collar of a denim shirt, I saw thick chest hair sprouting inside the shirt and I couldn't help noticing his physique as he stopped beside a gleaming new Jaguar.

He pressed something in his hand, the car beeped and the boot opened gracefully, he picked up my big suitcase as if it was a paper bag and placed it carefully inside,

"I've got to make a very quick call into work baby" he said apologetically, "But you can come in with me, I need to show you off"

I didn't have a clue as to what he did for a living, but about half an hour later, he turned into a long driveway past a sign that said,

"Slaughter Inc." and parked in a space with his name on the wall on a brass plaque.

We gripped hands again and walked past a uniformed door guard who greeted him with a very informal, "Hi John"

Dad grinned at him and introduced me,

"This gorgeous little lady is my daughter Red"

Red shook my hand and even took off his hat,

"I'm mighty glad he found you at last Piper" he grinned, "He's been like a bear with a sore ass for the last five years"

Dad thumped him playfully and Red grinned, I just gathered they were old friends, we walked through into a sumptuously carpeted reception where a middle aged lady at the desk rose up and greeted me in the same manner as Red,

"Well thank the Lord he found you young lady, I was about to quit working for him, he's been impossible"

"Yeah well, you know where you're well off" dad laughed and swatted her backside as we went through into an office,

"What do you do here dad?" I asked and he laughed, "Well baby, since I found out that you might be in England, I've done very little except look for you, I got about forty people working for me here and I got another thirty offices across the country, but I've called in just to let them know that I ain't doing nothing for the next month, I've got a very important little lady to entertain"

"What, you mean this is yours?" it was a dumb question and I knew it, but I needed to make everything clear as it was told to me.

"Only half of it Piper, well I own 51% of it to be exact, I got a partner who owns the other 49%"

"Are we going to see him?"

"Yeah" he nodded and smiled, "But it ain't a he, it's a she"

"Okay then" I laughed, "Are we going to meet her?"

"Stand there and look at that cabinet" he said, "Press that little button on the top"

I did and it opened up to reveal a well stocked bar with a mirrored rear,

"Say hello to my partner" he said softly and I just gaped at my reflection,

"Who is it daddy?" yet another stupid question,

"I do believe that her name is Miss Piper Louise Slaughter"

My jaw dropped open, I half expected to hear the thump as it hit the floor,

"You mean?" and then the room started to spin...

The water in the glass was ice cold as it trickled between my lips, I sat up and felt ridiculous,

"I think I fainted daddy" I said weakly and Pat, the receptionist helped me unsteadily to my feet,

"He's a fool" she laughed, "I told him that he should have done it differently, it was always going to be a shock"

She looked up at dad and said,

"See, Mister smarty pants, I told you so"

I laughed at the easy relationship he seemed to have with all his employees and they with him, never once did I hear any of them call him anything else but John, even an hour later after I'd met the entire staff of that particular office, I was still smiling, they were like a big bunch of friends, one guy, I think he introduced himself as Jim, said to dad that he thought they'd got the job to demolish an old apartment building, so at least I knew that we were in demolition or associated with it anyway.

"Right you guys" dad yelled, "We got a plane to catch now, I'll see you all in a month"

It turned out that I owned 49% of the plane we caught and I giggled with pleasure when the pilot let me take the controls whilst dad filmed me, I didn't have a clue as to what the hell I was doing but it was great fun anyway, a dream come true, just twenty four hours ago I'd worked in an office and my mind was still trying to come to terms with me being a multi millionaire, it was incredible, unbelievable and to my undying shame, I didn't for one second think about Freddie back in London!

His ranch was more like a five star hotel than a ranch, there was a full size swimming pool out the back as well as one inside, (heated of course) five beautifully furnished bedrooms each with an en suite bathroom and shower, there were two Jeeps, two horses in a corral and away in the distance I saw another smaller house,

"That's where the hands live" he told me, "I'm gonna ride over after supper to tell them thy can have a couple of weeks off now I'm back"

Supper as he called it was barbecued beef steak, fried eggs, mushrooms and hash browns, he cooked it all himself whilst I showered and reappeared in jeans and tee shirt,

"You wanna beer?" he asked and told me to get a couple out of the huge fridge in the kitchen,

"There's enough beer in there to get an army drunk daddy" I laughed as we each took a sip and I smiled up at him as he slipped an arm around my waist and I laid my head against his barrel like chest,

"It's been quite a day daddy" I said and he grinned as he reached into his shirt pocket,

"I started doing this as soon as I found out that you were alive, you know your mom was killed don't you?"

"Yes" I nodded, "Was she pretty daddy?"

"She surely was honey" he drawled, "But she loved walking on the wild side and that's what killed her"

"Tell me about her" I said as he heaped half a cow onto each plate followed by the rest of it, I looked at my plate in awe and thought that I'd probably be there next week still eating, but dad just laughed and told me to eat what I wanted,

"I got another twenty thousand head or so"

"Tell me daddy"

"Well we was at school together and like me, she weren't too clever, neither of us went to high school, she stayed at home and worked in her daddy's store while I got me a job fetching and carrying in the oilfields over by Galveston way, we was both just sixteen when you was conceived, her daddy wanted to shoot me, but I came home with over three thousand dollars that I'd saved and we got married, I went back to the fields and by the time you was born, I'd saved over six thousand dollars, we was seventeen then and I was making even more money by working weekends with an old guy who owned a little demolition company, I was pretty big for my age and he asked me to work full time with him on a job he'd got near where we lived with your mom's parents, well I knew I could go back to the fields if it weren't no good, so I gave my job up and drove over to her daddy's shop early on a Saturday morning"