He turned her so she faced him, her legs straddling his. He had to fight the urge to shake her. “That’s bullshit! You were everything to me. You were beautiful, sweet and kind. You still are. And I won’t stand for you saying bad things about yourself. You weren’t good enough for me? You were everything that was light and sweet and good about my world. You best not talk badly about my girl.”
Tears flooded her eyes. “I try to fight his voice. To tell myself that none of what he said about me was true. Mostly, I’m successful. Sometimes I’m not.” She gestured at her thigh.
His jaw tightened at that reminder of the pain his grandfather still put her through.
Daisy slumped against him. Enough. It was time to take care of his girl. “Baby girl, you need sleep.”
“Don’t think I can manage a bath.”
“Then let’s get you into bed.” He picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, setting her down briefly on the side of the bed so he could pull back the covers. Then she shocked him by asking a question he didn’t expect.
“You really believe me?”
He helped her into bed, then got in her after her, pulling her onto his chest. “Of course, I believe you.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Daisy-girl, you have nothing to be sorry about.”
“I do. He said you wouldn’t believe me. That with all the evidence, if I tried to explain you would side with him. I believed him. I shouldn’t have.”
No. She shouldn’t have. But she was seventeen and she’d learned the hard way that people could be assholes. She’d learned to rely on herself. That she had to be the strong one, who made the decisions, who took care of her family. Too much fucking responsibility was laid on those thin shoulders.
“If anyone should be saying sorry, it’s me. I left you there. Knowing your world wasn’t a great place. My fucking grandfather arranged to have you assaulted then blackmailed you, he kept us apart for ten years. After you left, he told me he thought you were only with me for his money. He warned me that people might come out of my past once I inherited his fortune. That’s why I accused you of searching me out for money. Even in death, it’s like he was trying to keep us apart.”
She reached around and placed her hand over his mouth. “Not your fault, dragon. You didn’t know what happened.”
But that didn’t mean he still didn’t feel guilty.
* * *
He glanced down at the woman lying in bed, wearing his t-shirt. Damn, if he didn’t like that even more than seeing her in those cutesy nighties. She was sucking on the binky he’d bought for her and she looked so young.
Sweet and innocent.
She’d been through hell. He ground his teeth together then grabbing his phone he walked out into the hallway. The whole place needed cameras. A security system. Why hadn’t he seen to that already?
Yet another way he’d fallen short.
He brought up Kent’s phone number
“Hey, man, everything okay?” Kent’s hushed voice sounded through the phone. Then he heard a woman’s voice. Abby. “It’s all right, sweet girl, go back to sleep.”
He winced. There was rustling noises.
“All right, speak,” Kent ordered.
“Sorry to wake her, chief.”
“It’s fine. What’s going on? Daisy all right?”
“No,” he told him honestly. Then without another word, he laid it all out for his boss. The man who’d taken him in, given him a job, a purpose, a home even though he hadn’t really thought of it that way until now. After leaving the Navy, he’d had no idea what he was going to do. He only knew he needed to get out.
Kent had given him all that.
“What do you need?”
And that was the reason he’d given the man his loyalty. Kent always had his back.