Page 196 of Guardian Daddy

The sharp pain shocked her. Tears filled her eyes as her cheek throbbed. Cate reached up to put her hands over her ears. Her breath came in sharp pants.

“Samantha, stop!” Polly cried.

Samantha grabbed Cate’s wrists and tugged her hard.

Pain shot up her arms.

“It’s all your fault!” she yelled.

Cate sobbed. Samantha’s face morphed into her aunt’s. She could hear the older woman yelling at her.

You’re a waste of space!

Look at me when I’m talking to you!

Stupid idiot!

“Get your fucking hands off her!” a deep voice roared.

The noise was too much. She couldn’t cope.

Then Samantha was removed from her eyesight just before Cate was picked up and held against Ethan’s chest. She breathed him in.

“You’re all right. Everything is fine. No one is going to hurt you.”

His words soothed her, pushing back the panic. The rest of the world faded away as he took her into her bedroom.

“Polly, go and tell Rhodes what happened!” Ethan ordered.

“All right,” Polly replied.

“Nooo! This isn’t fair!” Samantha screeched.

Cate shook in Ethan’s arms.

“It’s all right, baby. It’s okay.”

Ethan walked out of the room as he heard a door slam, then Rhodes speaking urgently.

“No,” she said faintly as he moved into her bedroom and toward the closet. “I’m all right.”

“Baby, you’re shaking. I fucking can’t stand it. I knew I shouldn’t have left you.”

It was only a quick trip to the airport, so she should have been fine. But she hadn’t realized that Samantha was home. She was supposed to be out most of the day with the local bodyguard they’d hired.

“She wasn’t supposed to fucking be here or I’d never have left you,” Ethan muttered as though he’d been reading her mind.

“I’m . . . I’m okay.”

He sat with her on the bed, holding her tight as she trembled and tried to bring herself under control.

Maybe she should go into the closet.

There was a knock on her bedroom door.

Ethan got up and walked over with her still in his arms.

“Hey,” a strange voice said as the door opened. “Rhodes is talking to that bitch. He dragged her outside, but she’s lost her mind. The quiet girl told him what happened and he’s livid. Seth is out there with them and that other guy, Kevin, is trying to get them to be quiet, probably because she’s got a screech on her that will reach the neighbors.”

---