Crystal was still laughing over his threat when he felt his first jolt of alarm. For the second time in mere days, his parents stood facing him. Visiting him at home was so unlike them that he could only blink for a few moments as he attempted to regain his composure. “Good morning, son,” his mother said brightly, but again there was a hint of apology in her expression before she motioned for him to invite her inside.

He stayed where he was, blocking their entry into his home. “This isn’t a good time,” he stated firmly. “I had no idea you were back in town, so I’ll have to call you later and arrange another time.”

“We never left,” his father spoke up, already sounding well on his way to being intoxicated at ten in the morning. “I’m sure you can spare us a few moments. We wanted to follow up on what we were discussing on our last visit.”

His mother turned to his father and put a hand on his chest. “Honey, let’s go have breakfast and let Mark finish with whatever he’s in the middle of. It was rude of us to barge in on him. We should have called first.”

His father snorted his disdain. “He’s not some business associate, Celine. He’s our son. I don’t think we need to make an appointment to talk to him.”

Then at the worst possible moment, Mark felt a hand on his back as Crystal asked in a voice filled with concern, “Is everything okay?” He shut his eyes briefly, hoping his parents hadn’t heard her, but luck wasn’t on his side at all.

“Who do we have here?” his father asked as he pushed his way closer.

“Um—hi, I’m Crystal,” she stammered, looking taken aback by his father’s loud demeanor.

Instead of taking the hand that Crystal had hesitantly extended, his father let out a startled oath before bellowing, “Are you kidding me?” His eyes were drilling Crystal to her spot, but his words were directed at Mark when he snapped, “After all that we told you about her, she’s still around? And from the looks of things, she’s damn comfortable in your home. What’re you planning to do, let both her and her husband live with you after they reconcile?”

His mother and Crystal both gasped simultaneously. “Marcus, that’s enough,” his mother hissed, looking appalled. “This isn’t what we came here for.”

“It’s exactly why we’re here,” his father insisted. “Do you want to see some moneygrubbing tramp take your son to the cleaners, Celine? Because that’s what going to happen unless we intervene. He plainly can’t see the forest for the trees.”

“Get out now,” Mark boomed. He knew by the way that her hand shook against his back that he had startled Crystal with his forceful tone. His parents also appeared to be shocked by his command. Good, maybe he finally had their attention. “You have no right to come to my home and speak to or about Crystal in that manner. Besides the fact that you don’t know what in the hell you’re talking about, it’s just downright rude. I don’t think I’ve ever been more embarrassed to say you’re my parents than right now—and believe me, that’s saying something.”

His father’s chest puffed out as he snapped, “Well, I don’t have to stand here and take this from you.”

Throwing his hands in the air, Mark said, “No, and please don’t. Leave now before this gets even more out of hand.” His father was sputtering insults and in general blustering about everything he could toss out. His mother, for probably the first time in his life, looked disgusted at her husband’s behavior and maybe just a little fed up. Was it possible that the rose-colored glasses were finally off and Celine DeSanto didn’t like what she was seeing?

“I’m leaving now, Marcus, and so are you,” she stated firmly. Turning back to Mark, she added softly, “I’m sorry, son. We shouldn’t have come.” Then her gaze moved beyond him to Crystal. “It was nice to have met you, dear, and I apologize for both my husband and myself.” Crystal murmured something in reply that he couldn’t make out, but it brought a brief smile to his mother’s face before she grabbed her husband’s arm firmly and all but dragged him away from the door and down the driveway.

Mark shut and locked the door behind them, then turned to check on Angel. What he saw there made his gut clench in despair. Her violet eyes looked impossibly large in her pale face. Her body still trembled in reaction to the verbal assault from his asshole of a father. Mark wanted to go after the man who had sired him and kick his ass for upsetting her in this way. He’d gotten far too used to dealing with the drunken tantrums, but obviously, even with her shrewish mother, Angel still wasn’t accustomed to such ugliness from strangers. Fuck, he was angry and embarrassed. “I’m sorry, baby,” he said against the top of her head as he pulled her into his arms. “I had no idea they were still in town.”

“Aren’t I just the popular one this week,” she joked weakly against his chest. “First my mother and now your parents. Maybe we should introduce them; I think they’d have a lot in common.”

He chuckled lightly at her attempt at humor, but his heart wasn’t in it and from the sound of her voice, neither was hers. She’d been the victim of far too many angry words in the last twenty-four hours. None of which she’d deserved. She’d attended marriage counseling with her ex-husband because she was a nice person and he was hurting. Not the best idea, but that was the type of caring person she was. And for that, her mother had ripped into her in public for not being the malleable puppet that she wanted her to be. Now his own parents had joined the fray on the premise that he needed to be protected from a money-grubber. What a joke. The only thing his father was afraid of was that there would be another person with a claim to the DeSanto money or, hell, even more if he had children. “Ah, Angel, I’m sorry that I don’t bring anything better to the table than what you’ve already got. I’ve never given much thought to it beyond the usual misery, but right now I really wish I had better to offer you in that area.”