Page 34 of My One and Only

“I’m not going to be mean to her, Cam. I’m not going to ignore her or tell her she can’t talk to me. Or be around me.” Jo sat ramrod straight and held his gaze until he looked away.

So he didn’t want her to engage with his daughter.

That was too damn bad. Fiona had to be comfortable with her if Jo was going to protect her.

Leaning toward Cam, she stared at him until he looked at her. “Protecting Fiona is a package deal,” she said. “She’s too young to protect herself, and she’s your daughter. Which means someone could target her in order to get to you. Unless you want her to stay with your parents until your situation is resolved and you don’t need me anymore.”

She held his gaze until he looked away. So he’d actually thought about that. About keeping Fiona out of sight. Hidden away from her.

Anger roared through her, making her speak without thinking. “You think whoever is targeting you doesn’t know about Fiona? If you do, you’re delusional. Assassins make it their business to know everything about their target, including all the details of their families. So either you send her away with your parents, to a location they keep hidden from you, or you keep her close where I can guard her, too.”

Cam pressed his fingers to his head. “Assassins, Jo? Really? Assassins don’t drive blue trucks and run stop signs. I don’t have assassins after me.”

“Maybe that was the wrong word,” she said, trying to shove her anger back below the surface, where it could bubble without showing itself. “I doubt trained assassins are after you. But whoever is targeting you is, essentially, an assassin. Someone hired to kill you. Or someone who wants to kill you for their own reasons. And if they think they can use Fiona against you, they won’t hesitate to take her. If you don’t want your daughter around me, send your mom and dad out of town with Fiona. Have them take her to Disney World, or out of town friends. Someplace hard to discover.

“Or keep her close and let me guard her, too.”

He swallowed and looked down at the floor. Following his gaze, she saw his bare feet. They were long and narrow. Pale white, as if they never saw the sun. Without looking up, he asked, “What would that entail? Guarding her as well?”

“She wouldn’t stay with your mom after school, or at all,” Jo said immediately. “You and I would drop her off at school and pick her up. After we picked her up in the afternoon, we’d hang at your office until you were done working, or we’d all come back here and you’d work from home.”

He opened his mouth to speak, and she held up her hand. “I know that’s inconvenient. You probably have meetings most days. Have to visit work sites. But she’d only be with you from the time school got out until we came back here. You could rearrange your schedule to get most of your meetings and visits to work sites finished by the time we picked her up from school.”

“So we’d leave her unprotected in school all day?”he said, narrowing his eyes at her.

Jo shook her head. “Because of all the school shootings, most schools are fortresses these days. All the doors are locked. Only people with legitimate business are allowed past the doors. As long as you talk to her teacher and the principal and make it clear that Fiona might be a target, she’ll be about as safe as possible when she’s in school.”

He slumped back on the couch and closed his eyes, and Jo saw lines of pain on his forehead. He didn’t need to be having this conversation tonight. He needed to sleep.

“Before you go back to bed, do you want anything to eat?”she asked.

He raised one eyebrow. “You can cook?”

She laughed. “No. I know how to use a telephone, though. I’m really good at ordering food. What would you like to eat?”

He closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. Opened his eyes again. “Pizza. It’s the only thing that appeals to me right now.”

“Great. I love pizza. Tell me who you order from and what kind of pizza you like, and I’ll place an order. Have it delivered.”

“Al’s pizza,” he said immediately. “I want pepperoni and mushrooms. And whatever you want.”

“Pepperoni and mushrooms sounds great. When do you want to eat?”

He shrugged. “An hour or two? I need to get more sleep.”

“I’ll order a pizza and have it delivered two hours from now. And if you’re still asleep, I’ll wake you up.”

“Sounds good,” he said. He stood slowly. Wobbled for a several seconds, then began to shuffle down the hall toward his bedroom.

“You want some help?”she called.

“I can manage,” he shot back. A few moments later she heard him drop onto the mattress. Bedsheets rustled as he pulled the covers over himself, and then there was nothing but silence from his room.

She was right. Cam Pierce was going to be a total PITA as a client.

Jo stood up and walked into the kitchen. Studied the layout of the drawers, trying to figure out which one would have the take-out menus. It took three tries, but she found the stack of menus in the bottom drawer of the kitchen planning desk. She dug through them until she found Al’s Pizza’s menu.

His address book was below the stack of menus, and she opened it to the Ps. Found an entry for his parents. Dialed the number, then stood, looking out the back window.

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