Mine.
“You’re lucky, mate. Hope you know how lucky.”
He loosened his hold. He knew. And he wouldn’t be letting her go again. No doubt they’d have their ups and downs, but he wasn’t walking away from this and he wouldn’t let her either. Maybe he’d originally figured he could just work her out of his system, but she’d managed to get deeper under his skin.
And she was there to stay.
He led her out to the bedroom and sat on the bed, pulling her onto his lap. She clung to him.
“I can’t believe it was Mike. I can’t believe I went on a date with him. What would have happened if you hadn’t interrupted our date?”
“It does no good to think of what if’s, sugar. All that matters is we caught the bastard. He went down easy. Confessed to it all as soon as I got my hands on him. Apparently, he decided after that date that you were his. He saw me around the house, hung back. Then when a few days went b
y where I wasn’t there, he decided that I had left and he started with the flowers. Then the notes. He’d come here in the evenings, camp out in that tree and watch you.”
She buried her face into his chest. Shit. Maybe he should have tried to break that to her more gently. But he was so fucked off that he hadn’t protected her better that he wasn’t capable of filtering his mouth. What if he hadn’t returned home for a few more days? What if he hadn’t realized something was wrong and turned around? Would this guy have stepped things up?
Undoubtedly. And despite the fact that he was out-of-shape and unarmed, he was a helluva lot bigger than Daisy.
Fuck. Fuck
She needs you to hold your shit together.
“How did I not know he was out there?” she asked, bewildered.
“He only came when it was growing dark. The tree was good cover. No reason you would know, baby.”
“I should have told you. Told someone.”
She should have. He’d need to talk to her about that again. But not right now. From now on, he was going to make certain she was far better protected.
“Wh-where is he now?”
“Sheriff has him. I know this is a lot to ask of you, but do you think you can talk to the sheriff?”
“The sheriff?” She looked up at him in confusion. He knew she was in shock. He just needed her to keep it together a bit longer.
“He’s downstairs. He needs a statement. I can tell him to come back tomorrow if you can’t do it.”
She seemed to think that over then she shook her head. “No. I want to get it over with. I can do it.”
“That’s my brave girl.” He kissed her lightly. “Come on, let’s do this. Then I can focus on taking care of you.”
* * *
Thirty minutes later, Jed said goodbye to the sheriff. He wrapped his arms tightly around Daisy who was sitting in his lap. He didn’t bother to get up. Bain was seeing the sheriff out. Turned out Lyle was already known to the sheriff. He had two restraining orders against him already for each of his ex-wives.
Fuck. He really had fallen down on the job of protecting her.
“You need us for anything else?” Macca asked him from where he stood in the kitchen entrance.
“Nah, we’re good,” he told Macca then glanced down at Daisy. “Or we will be.”
Macca nodded. “She did really well. Listened to all my instructions. Could tell she was scared, but she didn’t let it get the best of her. Didn’t panic. Guessing now she could use a bit of care, though.”
“I know.” He didn’t need Macca telling him how to take care of his girl.
“Hope you do,” Macca said cheerfully, but there was a slight warning in his voice. “Daisy, baby?”