Page 10 of Daddy's Heart

I cut my gaze to Logan. "Get her out of here. Take her home. Make sure she locks the damn door behind her."

He opens his mouth like he’s going to argue, but I shut it with a look.

"Not a request. Don’t let anyone near her."

He nods and takes off after her.

Smart girl. Smarter friend.

I don’t follow. Not yet. Because if I move now, I’m dragging her out of here with my jacket over her ass and my hand around her throat.

And she’s not ready for that.

Not yet.

I head over to my deputy, and the look in his eyes tells me it’s going to be a long night.

Turns out both the asshole who mouthed off and his buddy have priors. Parolees. Outstanding warrants. Real prize winners. Which means I don’t get to storm off into the night and track her down like I want to. I have to haul them in, do the reports, babysit while they’re booked. Red tape and procedure. All of it feels like punishment for letting her walk away.

By the time I’m done, it’s late. Real late.

I drive by her house on the way home. Lights out. Logan did his job. No sign of anyone else. I leave the engine running and get out.

I hoist the case of bottled water on my shoulder, two bags of protein bars and some other mountain safe supplies and walk to her minivan.

Not locked. Fucking girl has no self-preservation skills. Even here in Wildfire, she needs to be safe, but that lecture will come later.

I put the supplies in the back, but I can't walk away. I ease the hatch closed and walk around to the driver’s door and open it as the crickets chirp like they are calling me out.

"Shut up," I growl, just holding her door open, fighting off the insanity that's going on in my head.

Don't do it, Colt Boone.

Too late, under the dead of night, my dick is out, hard as iron nails. I reach over and pop a tissue from the box between her front seats, my heart about to come through my chest wall, but it only takes three strokes before I’m gritting out her name between my teeth, spurting into the thin tissue, cleaning off my dick and putting my crazy ass cock away.

I fold up the tissue as small as possible on a sniff and a growl, set it on her seat, then grab my knife from the sheath on my hip,flip it open, and sorry baby, I jimmy it under the trim on the heating and cooling vent next to the steering wheel.

In thirty seconds, I’ve got it all back in place, the tissue hidden in the vent, turning the little plastic louvers so it will blow right at her face when she gets in tomorrow.

“I’ll be with you whether you know it or not.” I close the door. “Get used to my scent, baby, you’ll be wearing it very soon.”

Then I get back in my truck and pull away.

I wait until I’m halfway up the mountain before I text her.

Me:Daddy says you handled yourself tonight. But next time, you come to me first. No exceptions.

Four

Emery

“Istill can’t believe you survived Sheriff Grumpypants without getting arrested,” Logan says, uncapping a blue pen for morning appointments. Green is for afternoon. Red is reserved for emergencies. The schedule for the next week is a color-coded masterpiece of passive aggression.

“He wasn’t that bad,” I lie, glancing into my medical bag for the third time even though I know it’s fully stocked.

Logan arches an eyebrow like I’ve insulted his intelligence and his skincare routine in one breath. “You’ve been humming Les Mis all afternoon and jumping every time your phone buzzes.”

I sigh. Busted.

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