Page 13 of Her Protector Daddies

“No,” I said. A swell of pain in my skull rose up, overtaking my ability to speak and I closed my eyes with a wince.

“If this is too much,” Officer Lamb said. “We can come back later?”

“No, no, it’s okay,” I said, focusing on calming my breathing until the ache passed. “I want to get this over with. No, it’s not my place. That’s my dad’s apartment.”

“And your dad is Marcus Hartley.”

Slowly, I opened my eyes and locked onto Detective Grant. “We both know that you know that already.”

Officer Lamb unsuccessfully hid a smirk.

“Your father wasn’t home?” Detective Grant asked, unphased by my comment.

“No. I—…” I paused, debating how much of a lie I could get away with. “I haven’t seen him in a few weeks and I was worried, so I dropped by to check on him.”

“And that’s when you were attacked?” Detective Grant scribbled something down in his black notebook.

“Yes.” Just the thought of those two men made my stomach flip. “There…. There was a knock at the door and I thought maybe it was my Dad. He always forgets his keys and stuff so I went to let him in and that’s when they—.” The words caught in my throat and a sudden tremble shot through my limbs.

“When they forced their way inside?” Officer Lamb offered.

I nodded.

“Can you describe them at all?” Detective Grant asked, and his voice was softer this time. “Any details at all will help.”

That was when it got tricky. Facing down these two gorgeous cops, I was working on distracting myself by studying their handsome faces, but that question stopped me in my tracks. I glanced between the two of them and shrugged.

“I… I don’t know. They were just regular guys. Uhm… one had dark hair and it was slicked all the way back. And he had a tattoo.” I raised my left arm and stroked over my own forearm. “It was here. A tattoo of a snake with its mouth open and—and one of the fangs was broken.”

“That’s amazing,” Officer Lamb said with a warm smile.

“The other guy, I didn’t see him as much,” I said quietly, fighting to keep the tremble out of my voice. “He was in the background a lot, so I— I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Detective Grant said quickly. “You’ve given us a lot to go on already. This is good.”

My heart jumped a little and a wave of shyness stole over me, causing me to drop my gaze away. Handsome men and attention didn’t usually make me feel so shy.

“Can you think of any reason why they might have attacked you?” Office Lamb asked.

“No,” I replied immediately, then I caught myself and shook my head. “I mean, it was just a— a random home invasion, right? They happen all the time.”

“Actually, we believe the attack was targeted,” Detective Grant said and he folded his thick arms across his chest. “And we also know that you weren’t the only one in the apartment.”

I froze, squaring my jaw as I locked eyes with the Detective. I wasn’t giving up my father, not until I’d spoken to him first so whatever this guy was going to throw my way, I’d deny it.

“Selena, where is your father?”

“Like I said, I haven’t seen him in weeks,” I replied.

“I understand,” Detective Grant said. “I wouldn’t flip on my father either. But we know you’re lying. The neighbor, the one who called in the disturbance, said she saw Marcus fleeing the property out the back door not long before the commotion started. So, do you want to revise your answer?”

I remained silent, my heart racing so frantically that the machine betraying my nerves almost went into overdrive. No answer sounded good enough in my mind, and giving up my father wasn’t an option.

Fuck. Why did he have to run and leave me?

“The man that your car ran over this morning,” Detective Bailey continued with a glance at Officer Lamb. “It ran over a man who is an associate of the two men we suspect were at your house.”

Of course, they were.

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