Page 12 of Her Protector Daddies

5

SELENA

He left me.

I can’t believe he left me.

Those thoughts and more plagued me as I nestled into the pillows of my hospital bed and lightly toyed with the corner of my bedsheet. The last clear thing I remembered was the man with the snake tattoo hitting me hard across the face for spitting on him – something he definitely deserved for all the filthy things he said he was going to do to me if I didn’t tell him where the money was,

That fear hadn’t dissipated. It lingered just beneath my skin, prickling like sharp goosebumps each time my mind darted back to that moment. Being bound to that chair, abandoned and facing down two dangerous men had to be the most terrifying moment of my life. And the saddest.

My father had left me.

He’d taken that bag and the money and left without so much as a care.

How could he do that?

Over and over, those men had yelled at me and hit me, demanding my father and whether the stolen stuff was, and I had denied all of it. Easy to do when I had been deserted and literally had no idea where he or the cash had ended up. Tears smarted behind my eyes if I lingered on that thought for too long, so I forced them away and tried to focus on something else.

Like the handsome officer who had rescued me.

The details were a little fuzzy in my mind, given that I had only caught a glimpse of him but his thick, dark hair and deep brown eyes sent my heart into a little skitter each time I thought of him. Whoever he was, he was the one silver lining out of this whole damn mess, and when I focused on him, things didn’t feel so terribly daunting.

What the hell was I going to do? My dad was gone, and those men definitely wouldn’t give up any time soon.

A soft knock at the door pulled me from my spiraling thoughts. Two men walked into my room and my heart skipped a beat.

The first man I recognized immediately. He was the sexy detective I had spoken to this morning about my car, Detective Grant. If he was here, that surely couldn’t be a good sign. Did that mean the cops knew who my father had stolen from? I swallowed hard and clutched tighter at the corner of the sheet as the second man came into view fully, and my heart fluttered.

He was my rescuer. I’d recognize those eyes anywhere.

“Miss Hartley?” Detective Grant started

“I don’t remember anything,” I said immediately. It was a reflex now to avoid all interactions with cops. Ever since my father had fallen to the other side of the law, I had spent so long protecting him from cops and himself that it was a reflex to deny knowledge of everything and anything.

Both men exchanged a glance, and then the man who rescued me stepped forward.

“Selena? I’m Det—Officer Lamb. I was the one that found you. How are you feeling?”

“I was attacked, tied up, and held at gunpoint. How do you think I’m feeling?” There it was again, the guttural urge to throw up a defense before I could help myself. Luckily, Officer Lamb didn’t seem to mind, and a soft smile broke across his handsome face.

“I’ve had some experience with that,” he chuckled. “I’m sorry, it definitely leaves a mark.”

As if on cue, my wrists throbbed where the belts had cut into my skin, and I gripped tighter onto the blanket.

“Yeah, well…” I bit back a sigh and pressed my lips together. “Thank you for saving me. And for taking me to the hospital.”

“Yeah, of course,” Officer Lamb nodded. When he smiled, the corner of his eyes crinkled and it looked so genuine that my heart melted slightly. The pull I felt toward him had to be because he saved my life, right?

“Miss Hartley—,” Detective Grant began.

“I already told you,” I cut in sharply, glancing back at him. “I wasn’t driving this morning and I have no idea who stole my car.”

To my surprise, Detective Grant chuckled grimly.

“I’m not here about that, not exactly. I’m here about the attack that occurred at 2519 Ocean View Avenue. That’s not your home, is it?”

My reflex was to say yes, but all it would take was one call and they would know I was lying.

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