Her Daddy's Jewel (MC Daddies Book 5) Page 9

  “You have a family.”

  “Nope. Raised in foster care. No family.”

  “Family isn’t always blood. You have Sunny, Reyes, and the others.”

  She guessed. But she always kept part of herself back from them. In case she had to drop everything and leave. That was always in the back of her mind. That she might have to leave them all behind.

  He started gently rubbing her temples. “Stop thinking. You’re safe. I have you.”

  “Wake me in a few hours. Got to go back before he comes looking for me.”

  “He won’t be looking for you. Just relax.”

  “Oh, he will. Fucking psycho. Even worse than he used to be. Think that doctor messed with his brain when he changed his face.”

  9

  He sat, staring down at her for a long time as she slept.

  Think that doctor messed with his brain when he changed his face.

  Mother. Fucker.

  Could Luc Darrins be Kenton Maxwell? That would explain a lot. He’d survived and had some sort of reconstructive surgery. Then come back for what was his.

  The power. The money. The girl.

  Jason worked his jaw. All the more reason for that fucker to pay, as far as he was concerned.

  Standing, he walked over to his phone. The bed called to him, but he couldn’t afford to sleep. Not with so much going on. There were no calls on his phone. Fuck.

  Much as he wanted to be with them, she was his main priority. Sure, he could have taken care of the goons that asshole had sent with them. But that would leave her vulnerable and he couldn’t risk that.

  He was her protector. Her warrior. Her monster.

  He settled into the living room so he wouldn’t disturb her. She needed her sleep. He was of a mind not to let her out of bed until those dark patches under her eyes were gone, but he was aware that might be a bit tricky. At least right now. Once this shit got settled then he was going to ensure that she got all the rest she required.

  He heard some whimpering noises coming from the bedroom. Swiftly, he walked into the room, putting his phone down on the bench at the end of the bed. Her legs were shifting around under the bedding. Was she having another nightmare? Was it normal for her to have two in one night?

  Was she sucking her thumb? No, wait, it looked like she was biting at the nail. A nervous habit?

  “No, please, no!” she cried out.

  Fuck.

  “Please, no! Don’t hurt him!”

  Hurt who?

  She started thrashing around on the bed and he shoved those thoughts aside. Sitting on the bed, he reached for her.

  “Baby, Jewel. It’s me. You’re all right. It’s just a nightmare.” He attempted to touch her.

  “No! Get off me! Don’t touch me! Nooo!” She started to fight him off and even though she had no chance of overpowering him, he was terrified she would hurt herself. So he stood and stepped back, feeling the panic surge.

  He never panicked. He was always cool and calm. Under all circumstances.

  Except when he lost it.

  But that hardly ever happened anymore. He worked hard in order to keep himself under control.

  However, the moment he got hold of the bastard who’d done this to her all bets were off.

  “Jewel, listen to me. You’re all right. You’re safe, baby blue. You’re safe. Please don’t cry. You’re going to kill me.”

  Her eyes opened and she stared straight up at him before curling herself into a ball. Climbing onto the bed, he placed his hand on her shoulder.

  “Jewel.”

  “Please don’t touch me.”

  He was about to snatch his hand back when she kept talking.

  “Don’t look at me. Don’t come near me. Dirty.”

  Oh, fuck no. He wasn’t having that.

  Lying down, he dragged her into his arms. She tried to resist, but he wasn’t letting her get away with that. If she was scared, then he’d stop touching her in an instant.

  But he wasn’t going to let her feel ashamed.

  “Stop resisting.”

  “I don’t want you touching me! Don’t you understand no!” She glared up at him. “Do you just take without caring what I want?”

  Thoughts tumbled through his head, his anger grew like a volcano nearing eruption. But none of it was aimed at her. No, he knew what she was doing. Because he’d seen her do it time and again. She was going on the attack to push him away. Dark thoughts were eating her from the inside out.

  “You can spout all the shit you want at me. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Are you deaf? Dumb?”

  “Nah, I’m just yours.”

  Her face crumpled, and even though no tears made an appearance, a sob broke through. She buried her face in his chest and he held her tight, allowing her a moment. As long as she clung to him, as long as he was her shelter then she could hide all she liked.

  Provided she never hid from him.

  He ran his hand up and down her back, crooning to her softly. Singing an old song his grandmother used to sing to him.

  Eventually, she started to relax against him. “You can sing.”

  “I can hold a note.”

  She snorted. “Why be modest now?”

  “Good point.” He winked at her. Then he cupped her cheek. “Tell me what’s going on, Jewel. Let me protect you.”

  “You can’t go up against him. You don’t know who he truly is.”

  He gripped the back of her head gently. “He’s Kenton Maxwell, isn’t he?”

  Fear flashed through her face, completely gutting him.

  She tried to push him away. But he wasn’t moving anywhere, he held her, waiting.

  Talking wasn’t her strong suit. He got it, it wasn’t his strong suit either.

  But they had to learn how to communicate with each other. She had to learn that her secrets were safe with him.

  “Baby blue, stop. I don’t want you hurting yourself.”

  “If you’d just let me go—”

  “Never,” he said fiercely. “I’ll never let you go.”

  “Jason, he’ll come for me. Christ, I didn’t realize the depth of his obsession for me. It’s almost like he came back from the dead for me. He was supposed to be dead.”

  “That’s fourteen,” he warned. “And I don’t care how fucking obsessed he is with you, he has nothing on how I feel about you.”

  “And how do I know that I’m not swapping one psycho for another?”

  “I’m not a fucking psychopath. I can feel empathy for people. I can feel actual love. I don’t get off on hurting others. I would never fucking harm you. But I will hurt him. For everything he did to you, I’ll do back to him twice over.”

  “You can’t,” she whispered.

  “Getting tired of hearing you say that. I don’t understand can’t or won’t or no. They’re not in my vocab.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I never realized how arrogant you are.”

  He shrugged. “I’m good at hiding it.”

  “That you are.” She closed her eyes, looking like she was in pain. “How’d you know that Luc Darrins is Kenton Maxwell?”

  “You told me.”

  Her eyes shot open. “I did not!”

  “You said something about him being worse than he used to be. How the doctor messed with his brain when he changed his face. I made a guess and you just told me that my guess was right.”

  She groaned. “Fuck it.”

  “It’s okay. You’re not allowed to keep things from me anyway. So there’s no point in trying. Now, what I want to know is how that fucker came back from the dead and what the fuck he has over you?”

  She sucked in a breath then shook her head. “I can’t. You don’t know what he’ll do. Please, please just leave and forget about me.”

  The terror in her face made him feel ill.

  “You won’t want me. When you learn what he did to me. You won’t think that way. He . . . he . . . I’m . . .”

  Rage u
nlike anything he’d felt before flooded him. Even when he’d fully lost his mind all those years ago and hurt those fuckers, practically tearing them apart with his bare hands. That rage had nothing on this feeling flooding him.

  But he needed to hold it together because she was falling apart.

  “You said he didn’t rape or beat you.”

  “This time,” she whispered.

  What she wasn’t saying hit him in the stomach with the force of a steam train.

  “Mother-fucking bastard. He’s a fucking dead man!” He could feel it boiling inside him. As hard as he tried to control it, it nearly overwhelmed him. His vision went dark. Not red like anger. Black. Because that’s what he felt. Darkness.

  Knowing he had to let some of it out in order to find his way back to her, he swung off the bed. His fist found the wall.

  Once. Twice. Three times.

  The drywall caved. He needed to keep going. To beat something. To see it bleed.

  Him. To see him bleed.

  Finally, he managed to gain control of the fury. Then shame flooded him as he stepped back, looking at the mess he’d made of the wall and the blood dripping from his swollen knuckles.

  This was about her. Not him. Not about his pain or anger. He needed to concentrate on her.

  Turning, he braced himself for her fear. Fuck, he’d really messed up. He was supposed to be building her trust in him, not making her fear him.

  But it was his turn to be shocked. Because instead of fear or disgust on her face, she was staring at him intently. There was something almost like understanding in her gaze.

  “You know I think they charge extra for that.”

  “What?”

  “Doing your own renovations.”

  How was she so calm? After what she’d told him?

  “Aren’t you scared of me?”

  “For punching a wall?”

  “Yeah. And for losing my temper.”

  “I know what it’s like to have demons to fight. To have to claw for control every day just to get through. I didn’t see that in you before. I thought you had this Zen thing going on. You were just naturally easygoing and calm, but you aren’t. You’re full of rage, you just bury it deep.”

  “I’ll never turn it on you. Tell me you believe that.” He couldn’t bear for her to fear him.

  “I believe you. But walls everywhere are quivering in fear,” she joked.

  He ran his hand over his face. Then he suddenly felt her touch on him. Her cool hand touched his injured one.

  “We need to clean this.”

  “I don’t care about my hand, baby blue.”

  “I do.”

  Fuck. She slayed him. Those two words maybe wouldn’t mean a lot to other people. But it was her way of saying she cared. About him.

  So he let her tug him to the bathroom. And he sat obediently on the toilet lid as she raided the first aid kit. She slid onto her knees in front of him. That made him feel uncomfortable.

  He stood and she gave him a surprised look as he held out his good hand.

  She took it and he helped her stand. “I don’t like you on your knees, serving me. That’s my place.”

  Shock filled her face as he had her sit on the toilet then he knelt between her legs and placed his hand up for her to doctor. He still wanted her to take care of him.

  “Ja—”

  He shot her a look and she swallowed heavily. “It’s not your place to serve me. You’re my queen. It’s my place to take care of you. Of course, if you want to get on your knees for another reason, I wouldn’t say no.”

  Shit. Fuck. Why had he said that? Last thing he wanted was to terrify her.

  But instead of looking scared, she grinned. “You wish, buddy. This place is really well stocked.”

  “I had the butler put everything I could think of us needing in here.”

  She froze, glanced up at him. “Butler?”

  “Penthouse comes with a butler.”

  “You win the lottery or something?” she asked as she cleaned his knuckles. Her touch was so gentle and he was lapping it up. His cock was pressed against his pants. He hoped like hell she didn’t notice and get the wrong idea. He wasn’t expecting anything from her.

  “Not quite,” he told her.

  She reached for a bandage. He wanted to tell her there was no point, but he didn’t want her to stop touching him. So he sat there and let her fuss.

  “Sometimes he’d hit me. Although he didn’t hit me much. He liked me to look perfect. A doll. Dolls don’t come with bruises. Mostly I was compliant because he kept me drugged up. I didn’t have the will to fight back.”

  Fight the rage. Fight it.

  “How did you find me?” she asked.

  He grunted then sighed. “Cameras.”

  “What?”

  “Brody tracked your phone. Ink sent someone to where it last pinged but they couldn’t find anything. I figured that maybe I needed to take a few steps back. There were security cameras on the parking lot of your apartment building. I bribed the company who put them there. Saw a guy who was there a lot, watching your apartment. He slipped some envelopes under your door. Got photos of him and sent them to some people I knew. Came back he was one of Luc Darrins’ goons.”

  “You know people who would recognize his men?”

  “Yeah. What was in the envelopes? How did he get you to go to him?”

  “How do you know that his guy didn’t take me?”

  “Saw the footage of you leaving, baby.”

  “He found me by accident, can you believe it? Just a chance meeting and my life changed forever. I started receiving these threats. Phone calls. Messages.”

  “That’s why you started hiding in your apartment?”

  “I didn’t want whoever was watching me to see how much you guys meant to me.”

  “Still trying to protect everyone. You should have told us.”

  “And have him hurt you? Use you guys? I couldn’t. I couldn’t even tell Reyes. I couldn’t risk Maxwell discovering that Reyes was the one who hired an assassin to kill him.”

  “Wait, Reyes had him taken out?”

  “Oh shit, you can’t tell anyone. I shouldn’t have said anything—”

  He placed a finger over her mouth. “Hush, I won’t say a word. And of course, you should have told me. But if Reyes hired someone, he could be a loose end . . .”

  She shook her head. “Reyes must have covered his tracks, because Maxwell found the assassin and he didn’t tell him who hired him. Reyes helped me so much. He got rid of Maxwell, or we thought he had. I owe him so much.”

  “You don’t owe him. I do.”

  “What?”

  “Your debt is now mine.”

  “Jason, no.”

  “Fifteen.”

  She sighed. “What time is it?”

  “Nearly four in the morning.”

  She nodded. “I need—”

  “Don’t even start with telling me you need to go back. Not. Fucking. Happening. I’m like a broken record, but I’m going to say it as much as I have to.”

  She wanted to fight his words, but she didn’t have any fight left. So when he stood and held out his good hand, she slipped her hand into his and let him help her stand. She swayed as the room around her spun.

  “Baby. You’re so tired.” He gathered her against his chest then slipped an arm under her legs and lifted her. He carried her into the living area and sat on the sofa with her on his lap. She went to climb off but he held her there.

  “Jason . . .”

  “Sixteen,” he said gruffly.

  “I’m not comfortable sitting on your lap.”

  “Liar.”

  Yeah, she was a fucking liar. She loved sitting here.

  She closed her eyes as he massaged knots out of her neck. She was so tired. All she wanted to do was rest, but he came to her in her nightmares.

  “Do you usually have such frequent nightmares?”

  “Crap. I said that out loud?”
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  “You can rest soon. I promise.”

  “The nightmares started going away. The longer he was supposedly dead, the easier I slept. But since realizing he was back, I’ve barely been able to sleep, and when I do the nightmares haunt me.”

  “So you haven’t been sleeping or eating. You’re exhausted, run-down, and you’ve been terrorized. And you still think you have to do this all on your own.”

  “I . . . I’m tired of being strong all the time. Of doing it all.” Shoot. She hadn’t meant to say that.

  “Then don’t be. Let me be strong for both of us.”

  If only it was that simple. Everything was weighing her down. Like she was walking through molasses. The heaviness in her mind traveled out into her limbs and she slumped against him.

  He turned her so she was straddling his legs, then he gathered her in against him, rubbing his hands up and down her back as she pressed her face to his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Without thinking, she slipped her hand up under his T-shirt to press against his heart.

  She just took a moment to breathe.

  “He gave me an address, told me to come to him. When I got there, he had someone drug me. I woke up alone and ill. He’s a germaphobe so he didn’t come near me while I was puking my guts out. He’s got these girls there, at his compound. They’re young and foreign. I don’t know what they were doing there but we have to help them.”

  He cupped her face. “We will. We’ll help them.”

  Her breath was coming in sharp pants.

  “But right now, I need you to calm down, understand? Your body doesn’t need any more stress. I promise, we’ll help them. I’m also going to kill that fucker.”

  Alarm filled her. Why wouldn’t he listen to her? “No.”

  His face tightened. “You’re defending him?”

  “No!” she cried. “I don’t care about him. But I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  He stared down at her for a long moment. “This is important to you.”

  Of course it was. Could he not see that?

  “Yes, of course it is.”

  “Because you care about me.”

  Shoot. She hadn’t been prepared to lay herself bare. But okay, if this is what was needed to do in order to get him to believe her . . .

  “Yes, because you’re important to me.”