Page 32 of Break Me, Daddy

“So what’s really going on?” he asked the moment the exam room door shut behind them. “I know damn well there’s nothing wrong with my billing information. Why did you need to talk to me alone?”

“You always have been too observant for my own good,” Naomi grumbled, shooting him a glare. “Frankie’s cleared for exercise, as I said, but you’re going to need to keep an eye on her. She signed off on me having access to her files from the rehab center she was in before and from what I’ve been reading she tends to use exercise just as much as the more traditional purging when she feels she’s eaten ‘too much’.”

Fuck. “How do I know if she’s overdoing it?”

“Unfortunately, there’s not a straightforward answer to that. For starters, I’d suggest not letting her do more than thirty minutes of cardio a day for a while. Beyond that, just pay attention to her moods, her attitude toward working out. If she seems desperate to go for a run or something, talk to her about it. Odds are, if she’s wanting to work out to offset something she ate, she’ll try to hide that from you. Don’t let her.”

“I won’t.” Getting Frankie to talk when she was determined not to was a battle, but he was a goddamn Marine. He’d never walked away from a fight in his life and he wasn’t about to start when his babygirl’s life was on the line.

“Good. And make sure she makes that therapy appointment, sooner rather than later.”

“Consider it done.”

Naomi opened her mouth, then paused, clearly weighing her words. “I’m going to ask you something and I don’t want you to get all growly alpha male on me about it.”

His amusement at her wording was tinged with a hint of wariness at the fact she’d felt the need to issue a disclaimer in the first place. “I’ll do my best.”

“Have you called Dr. Jen yet?”

“No. I’ve been busy.” It was an excuse, and a lame one at that. And judging by the withering look Naomi sent him, she knew it just as well as he did.

“You need to get yourself into therapy right alongside her. As I said before, this is going to be hard on you, too. You’re going to watch her struggle and you’re going to wonder if you’re doing more harm than good at times. And when she inevitably backslides, even a little, you’re going to take the weight of that on yourself. You shouldn’t, because it won’t be your fault, but I’ve known you long enough to know that you won’t believe that. Not at first. Find yourself someone to talk to, if for no other reason than to help you help her. If not Dr. Jen, thensomebody.”

It wouldn’t be the first time he’d been in therapy. A man didn’t spend years in the middle of hell, taking lives and risking his own without needing to talk some shit out. And if Naomi was pushing it, then she genuinely believed it was the right choice. “All right. I’ll make the call.”

Relief washed over Naomi’s face. “Good. The nurse should be done with Frankie now if you want to get your girl and take her home.”

“Thanks, Doc.”

Turning, he strode back down the hall to the exam room, where he found Frankie sitting on the table, scowling down at her arm.

“What’s wrong, little siren?”

“If I wasn’t anemic before, I am now. They took like six gallons of blood!”

Swallowing a laugh, he crossed to the table, gently taking her arm in his hands and lowering his head to press a gentle kiss on top of the band-aid at her elbow. “There. All better.”

When he looked up, he couldn’t quite manage to smother the laugh that bubbled up at the look of pure shock on her face. “Did you… did you just kiss it and make it better?”

“I did.”

“That’s… really sweet. Nobody’s ever done that for me before.”

His heart cracked clean in half at her admission. “Nobody? Even your parents?”

“No.” Her shrug was more nonchalant than it should have been as she slid from the table. “My parents weren’t exactly the touchy-feely type and neither were any of the nannies they hired. They were more concerned with finding people who would help me achieve the excellence they demanded than with any kind of nurturing.”

Monsters. He’d never met the Legares, but as far as he was concerned, they were fucking monsters. Who treated a child so coldly, so callously? Especially their own daughter?

Shoving aside those thoughts, and the fury they brought with them, he slid an arm around her waist as he led her to the front door. “You were a good girl for Dr. Williams, little siren. What would you like as a reward?”

Mischief sparkled in her eyes when she grinned up at him. “I don’t suppose skipping that spanking you promised me is an option.”

Little brat. But goddamn it was good to see her feeling more and more like her old self. “It’s not… but I’ll give you a choice.”

“What kind of choice?”

Outside, he paused, pulling her against him, wrapping one hand around her ponytail to tug her head back. “You can either take the spanking I promised at home, or we can go to Club BDE tonight. The catch is, if you choose door number two, your punishment will remain a secret until we get to the club. So, what’s it going to be, little siren?”

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