Page 35 of Dozer

“You can do that without his help.”

“Motherfucker.” I said it low, but with feeling. I’d told him she ismine.

“Okay,” Brain said. “Okay. She’s yours.”

“How do the two of you know each other?” Duke asked.

“Her last name is hyphenated. Chanel-Hearst,” Brain said, as if that was an answer, and I suppose it was, because Duke crossed his arms and gave me a speculative look.

“And how, exactly, did you meet her?” Duke asked.

When I didn’t answer, Brain said, “My guess? She stole his truck, he caught her, and then coerced her into signing her life away.”

Motherfucker was too damned smart for his own good sometimes.

“How old are you, Daisy?” Duke asked her.

“I’m nineteen, Sir.”

Duke looked at Brain, as if asking him to verify, and I said, “Yes, she’s fucking nineteen. I know she looks twelve, but she isn’t.”

“Should be about right,” Brain said. “I was in high school the first time I remember meeting her at one of the White House Christmas parties, and she was a tiny thing, butsofucking smart. She looked three, but she was six, and that would put her in the neighborhood of nineteen now.”

“You got away,” Daisy told Brain, and I thought I might see a little bit of hero worship in the way she looked at him.

“I did,” Brain agreed. “It wasn’t easy, but I’m much happier away from that whole segment of society. If you were stealing vehicles, I’m guessing you didn’t manage your escape as well as I did.”

She shook her head and looked at me, and I told her, “Go downstairs and lock yourself in your room. I’ll finish making dinner, and I’ll bring you back up to eat in a little while.”

“Yes, Master.”

Brain watched her leave and then turned to me, but before he could speak, Duke said, “I need to see the contract she signed.”

“The originals are in my office up here. I unpacked them, but haven’t put them into the safe yet. They’re on my desk in a manila folder.”

Duke left the kitchen, and Brain sat at the table. I got a beer out of the fridge, handed it to him, and went back to work on the meatloaf.

“I know she was raised by everyoneexcepther parents,” I told Brain. “Marco tells me she’s desperate to belong somewhere, to be loved. I’m hoping the club can eventually give her that.”

“You care about her? Or is this just punishment for stealing your truck?”

“Started out the latter, or that’s what I thought, but fuck if I’m not falling for the little thing, and that’s dangerous for me, right now, because I know you’ve figured out that I absolutely kidnapped her so I can turn her into a sex slave, but I didn’t fuck her until she asked me to. I’ve tried to do it…okay, so there’s no way to do this and be right, but you get what I’m saying? It wasn’t rape. I mean, sure,legallyit probably was, but you had to be there to know it wasn’t rape.”

“I believe you, but I have to tell you I’m a little troubled that you read Marco in before your club.”

“He found us. Showed up unannounced. Turns out, he was a big help. I didn’t know her name yet, at that point, but he went into her head and got it, and then told me all kinds of shit I needed to know.”

Brain nodded. “Okay then. I’ve known her since she was a kid, but I only saw her a few times a year. Still, I kinda watched her grow up, and she gravitated to me, felt I was safe? I dunno, but the point is, I feel protective of her. My wolf wants to take her away and shield her from anything and everything, so if Marco’s signed off on it, and she’s good with it, and Duke doesn’ttake issue with the contract, I’m going to have to bow out of the decision-making process because I’m too close.”

Duke stepped back into the kitchen a few seconds later. “It’s a fair contract. How are you going to explain her to the ol’ladies?”

“Not anytime soon, and I’d appreciate it if everyone tells their women to leave us alone until I’m ready to take her to the clubhouse. I’ll make the request at church.” And now that they knew I was in town the whole time I was gone, and not out of town, I’d pay a fine for missing church, but that was okay.

“We got a road trip coming up in five weeks,” Brain said.

“If she’s ready, I’ll take her. If she isn’t, I’ll volunteer to stay home and watch over our businesses.” I looked at him a few seconds, debating, and finally said, “I think she’ll feel better if she hears from you that you aren’t going to say anything to someone from your old life — if you can assure her you aren’t going to get word to her parents that she’s here, or she’s fine, or anything else.”

“You want me to go down, or do you wanna bring her up?” he asked.

---